About the Doctoral Programme
The global food system is failing both people and planet. Hunger and malnutrition are rising, while many food system workers endure poor conditions and stagnant wages, leaving them amongst those least able to afford a healthy diet. At the same time, food production is a major driver of biodiversity loss, a major source of nitrogen pollution in groundwater, accounts for ~30% of global carbon emissions, and is responsible for transgressing six planetary boundaries.
Our food system needs to undergo change so that it works for all people, both today and for future generations, but it also needs to support rather than undermine nature. Achieving such a food system requires interdisciplinary engagement, utilising expertise from a diversity of research areas and industry sectors and applying that knowledge to a broad range of geographic and geopolitical contexts.
The Leverhulme Doctoral Programme on Food for Nature and Society aims to equip our cohorts with the skills and learning to traverse these disciplinary boundaries, allowing them to navigate silos in food systems research and grapple with the deep, underlying issues that intersect food, nature, and society to bring new insights. Food for Nature and Society aims to serve as a knowledge base necessary for a resilient, regenerative, and reparative food future that enables nature to thrive and equitable societies to flourish, today and into the future.
