Exercise, Nutrition and Health

This Exercise, Nutrition and Health PhD programme from University of Bristol equips students with the skills and experience to apply research methods and the tools to critically examine some of the most pressing contemporary issues and problems being experienced in physical activity and/or nutrition research, practice and/or policy.

The Exercise, Nutrition and Health Exercise, Nutrition and Health PhD programme from University of Bristol University of Bristol students are encouraged to develop a topic of interest that directly relates to their own background or practice experiences, or is of wider interest and relevance to the science underpinning the promotion and maintenance of health of populations, via physical activity and/or nutrition, either in UK nations or overseas.

Students will be supported to develop research questions and design a study that enables them to rigorously research their topic of interest and make an original contribution to the knowledge base of physical activity and/or nutrition in relation to public health. Topics may directly explore policy or practice issues, or contribute more broadly to physical activity and nutrition knowledge, working with specific population groups and communities, addressing systems of inequality and social disadvantage. Where appropriate, students are encouraged to work in collaboration with relevant organisations and/or user and interest groups to ensure their research outputs and key findings can directly inform policy, professional development, practice and service delivery.

Supervisors in Exercise, Nutrition and Health bring diverse interests across epidemiology (for example, associations between physical activity/diet and a range of chronic diseases across population groups); physical activity and dietary assessment (for example, development of indices to assess adherence to dietary patterns); the development and evaluation of physical activity and dietary interventions and/or services (for example, community programmes, school settings); and behaviour change (including the wider determinants of physical activity and diet and the psychological underpinnings of physical activity, nutrition and health).

Supervisors also have diverse expertise in research methods, such as qualitative methods (for example, informing and evaluating the development of interventions or service delivery); secondary data analysis (for example, using nationally representative population surveys and large prospective studies/big data); and scoping and systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the evidence base in physical activity and nutrition.

Career opportunities:

The Exercise, Nutrition and Health programme offered by the University of Bristol establishes a sound research training base and provides practical experience, preparing you for different types of employment, including research, policy and intervention implementation.

Many of our students have continued with academic careers, either as post-doctoral researchers or as research associates in UK and international universities. Other students have been successful in a range of fields, including government policy and health promotion at a local, national and international level.

Courses include

• Staff in the Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences conduct research that focuses on physical activity and nutrition, and their associations with health across the lifespan. 

• The primary areas of focus include biomedical, psychosocial and socio-environmental aspects of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and nutrition.