Senior Research Associate (0.5FTE)

Salary on appointment will be £37,099 per annum (pro rata), with an annual increment up to £44,263 per annum (pro rata). 

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Senior Research Associate to join the School of Pharmacy to conduct studies on an Innovate UK project to develop novel food packaging solutions. 

Fresh seafood, such as salmon, is highly nutritious and rich in protein and essential nutrients such as Omega-3. Each year Scottish fishing industry lands over 430,000 tonnes of seafood with a gross value of £560 million making up to 5% of Scotland GDP and continues to grow. However, fresh seafood has short shelf-life and averagely over 4% is spoiled during transportation. The short shelf-life and expensive cold-chain transportation led to high supermarket prices, making it unaffordable to many, particularly those on lower incomes. 

The single type of carrier of all catches that are currently used by 99% of fishery industry is expanded polystyrene boxes (EPS) with fresh ice. EPS is often mislabelled as biodegradable. Although theoretically, this may be true, in real terms, it takes hundreds of years for EPS to be naturally degraded which results in high volumes of pollution from this supply chain. 

The vision of this Innovate UK funded project is to create a new packaging solution that significantly increases the shelf life of seafood while reducing the use of EPS with a more sustainable solution which meets the needs of the end-to-end supply chain. The candidate will be involved in the development and scale up production of formulations that will be used to preserve the freshness of the seafood and to coat for the new packaging containers to minimise contamination. 

We are looking for a highly motivated individual who has a postgraduate degree or equivalent experience in chemistry, chemical engineering or biomedical engineering. Research and/or working experience in liquid formulations development is desirable, but not essential. The successful candidate will be based at the University of East Anglia and working closely with the industrial partners throughout the project. 

This part-time (0.5 FTE) post is available from 1 November 2024 on a fixed term basis for 3.5 months until 14 February 2025 to cover for the absence of the postholder on maternity leave.

UEA offers a variety of flexible working options, we encourage applications from individuals who would prefer a flexible working pattern including annualised hours, compressed working hours, part time, job share, term-time only and/or hybrid working. Details of preferred hours should be stated in the personal statement and will be discussed further at interview. 

Further information on our great benefits package, including 44 days annual leave inclusive of Bank Holidays and additional University Customary days can be found on our benefits page.

Closing date: 5 September 2024

The University holds an Athena Swan Silver Institutional Award in recognition of our advancement towards gender equality.

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