Recruitment: PhD in Food Safety Intervention Research

The Hanoi University of Public Health (HUPH, www.huph.edu.vn) was formally established in 2001 as the sole university in Vietnam for developing modern public health as an agent of change for protecting human health through training and research. During the past decade, HUPH has made remarkable progress in offering degree programs in public health (BSc, MSc, and PhD) and hospital management (MSc), as well as in translating research findings to inform policy. The Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER, http://cenpher.huph.edu.vn) is a research center at HUPH. The mission of CENPHER is to study the health and well- being impacts of environmental, ecological, cultural, socio-economic, and demographic factors using the integrative approaches of Ecohealth/One Health with special focus on South East Asia, with links to common issues in Africa. We focus on the links between health and agriculture, infectious and zoonotic diseases, chemical pollution, and food safety and nutrition, from the lab to the field.

The project “Market-based approaches to improving the safety of pork in Vietnam” (SafePORK) aims to reduce the burden of food-borne disease in informal, emerging and niche markets, SafePORK will develop and evaluate light-touch market-based approaches to improving food safety, while safeguarding livelihoods in the pork sector. This project is coordinated by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collaboration with HUPH, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, National Institute of Animal Science and University of Sydney with participation from private sectors. The team uses an inter-disciplinary approach and brings together expertise in smallholder pig systems, risk analysis, socio-economics, value chain assessment, veterinary epidemiology and public health. SafePORK is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

3.Job description

The PhD candidate will take part in project activities with a main focus on the following objectives: i) to generate actionable evidence on the efficacy, feasibility and reach of current approaches for improving pork safety in Vietnam; ii) to develop, pilot and test light-touch, incentive-based approaches to food safety, in close partnership with the private sector; iii) to build capacity in understanding food safety risk, its management and effective communication among stakeholders including key government partners, the private sector, academia, donors and media. The field work will be in the project sites of Hanoi, Hoa Binh, Bac Ninh, Hung Yen and Nghe An provinces. Activities will be done in close collaboration with experts in food safety from ILRI, research partners, and different actors of the pork value chain; pig producers, slaughterhouse, traders, consumers, private sectors, policy and decision makers.