PhD in food choice, consumer behaviour and neuroimaging
KU Leuven is offering a fully funded, four-year PhD position in food choice, consumer behaviour and neuroimaging within an interdisciplinary research environment at one of Europe’s leading biomedical universities.
The project combines nutrition, neuroscience, consumer research, and data analysis to investigate how food labelling cues influence decision-making at both behavioural and neurological levels. The work is embedded in the HSFood4ALL (Healthy and Sustainable Food for All) consortium, which integrates consumer-level data such as behaviour, health and socio-demographics with product-level food data including nutritional quality, environmental impact, and certifications.
The PhD candidate will join the Nutrition & Metabolism Associated Diseases research group (NMAD, led by Prof. Christophe Matthys) and work closely with the Laboratory for Gut-Brain Axis Studies (LaBGAS, led by Prof. Lukas Van Oudenhove). The LaBGAS team brings advanced neuroimaging expertise, including PET and fMRI, to the study of gut-brain communication and food-related reward processes. Together, these groups offer a strong setting for clinically informed behavioural science and neuroimaging research.
Research topics will include consumer profiling for healthy food engagement, nutrition and health metrics for product differentiation and consumer engagement, and neurobehavioural mechanisms behind improved food labelling. The broader project addresses healthy food choices, environmental sustainability, and voluntary sustainability standards, with collaboration across KU Leuven, ILVO, and Artevelde University College of Applied Sciences.
The PhD researcher will help design experimental sub-studies, prepare ethics and study documentation, recruit and support participants, manage data collection and storage, analyse multimodal behavioural, clinical and neuroimaging data, report findings, contribute to publications and conference presentations, and assist with supervision and mentoring of junior researchers. The role also includes applying for additional funding and contributing to research-related activities within the division.
Applicants should hold a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences, Medicine, Psychology, Neurosciences, Behavioral Sciences, Bio-engineering, Pharmacy, or a related field. Strong interest in data analytics is encouraged. Excellent English communication skills are required. Dutch is strongly preferred because the project involves substantial interaction with Dutch-speaking participants; if Dutch is not the applicant’s native language, ERK level C1 is required. French is considered an asset, and additional experience in nutrition, statistics, phlebotomy, or clinical/neuroimaging data collection and analysis is beneficial.
The position is full-time and includes competitive doctoral salary conditions in line with KU Leuven guidelines. The application deadline is 2026-08-13 at 23:59 (Europe/Brussels). Applicants should submit a CV, motivation letter, academic transcripts, and two referees through the online application tool. Interviews are scheduled for 25–27 August 2026, and the provisional start date is October 2026.
