Application deadline: January 15, 2026
One of the global challenges raised by climate change and pollution in relation to human society is to ensure access to a food that is sufficient, safe, nutritious and of quality. While climate change and pollution of the environment are partially caused by food production systems themselves, the same factors also have a direct negative impact on food security and food safety.
The aim of the Graduate Seminar is to create a learning environment that allows young researchers to develop an interdisciplinary method and an international outlook on the theme of sustainable food. In order to be able to propose valid scientific answers to issues related to the right to food, it is necessary to train researchers able to interact at the international level, but also with a trans-disciplinary approach. In order to identify solutions to sustainable food systems, scholars and researchers need to learn how to share and communicate knowledge from different fields, such as law, economics, social sciences, medicine, nutrition, agro-ecology and biology.
This Graduate Seminar will underline in particular how scientific and technological transformation impact diets, food regimes and food access in a global context and how related policies should be revised in order to tackle the common goals set in the 2030 SDGs and reaffirmed in the recent ‘2024 Pact for the Future’, under Action 3, to end hunger, eliminate food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition.
Who is it for: Master, PhD students and junior researchers in Legal, Social, Economic and Political Sciences including International Relations; Biotechnology and Biosciences; Medical Health Sciences and Nutrition; Agricultural and Food Sciences; Agro-ecology; Food Psychology. Open to candidates from all the VIU Member Institutions; applications from excellent candidates from non-member institutions will be also considered and evaluated.