Research Assistant at UCL (B03-03270)

National Technician Development Centre; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 34,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

University College London (UCL) invites applications for a Research Assistant in the Department of Economics to work on the Leverhulme Trust project strengthening understanding of nutritional inequality in the UK.

The position is full‑time from October 2026 to June 2028, on‑site at least three days per week, with a starting salary of £39,807 per annum inclusive of London Allowance, and a 36.5‑hour working week; 27 days annual leave plus closure days.

Qualifications

• A degree in economics or a closely related field.
• Experience with large household scanner datasets.
• Ability to replicate and summarize literature findings.

Responsibilities

• Clean, organize and document large, complex household‑level scanner data ready for analysis.
• Replicating existing analyses and developing new ones.
• Implementing and debugging estimation code for structural demand and supply models.

Skills

Data handling

Descriptive analysis

Econometrics

Education

Economics degree

Job description

University College London (UCL) is the largest of the colleges in the federation that makes up the University of London. It is consistently rated as one of the top multi‑faculty universities in the UK and has an annual turnover in excess of £400m. UCL is one of the UK’s premier research institutions encompassing immense research strength across all areas. It is also developing numerous interdisciplinary research centres. UCL has an excellent library and the library resources available in London, such as the British Library, are unrivalled in the UK.

The department has an outstanding international reputation in key areas of current research including applied theory, econometrics, game theory, labour economics, development economics, and macroeconomics. The Department of Economics has placed #1 for research environment and outputs in the 2021 REF results and ranked #3 overall.

About the role

Individuals make vastly different nutritional choices across the UK, but existing economic models fall short of providing a comprehensive explanation of these patterns. We develop a new model of food supply and demand to study the causes of nutritional inequality. To estimate our model, we construct a first‑of‑its‑kind database containing purchase and nutritional data from various food sources. We use our model to disentangle the importance of preferences, prices and incomes in shaping nutritional choices across the UK. We then study the effect of ‘uniform pricing’ – the practice of grocery chains charging identical prices for a given product nationwide – on nutritional inequality.

Applications are invited for a Research Assistant in the Department of Economics at University College London to work on the Leverhulme Trust funded research project, "Nutritional Inequality in the UK – disentangling the role of demand and supply".

Prof. Áureo de Paula, the Principal Investigator (PI), is seeking to appoint a researcher with a relevant economics degree to work on the project. The details of these duties will be assigned by the PI. These will involve work on processing and cleaning large household scanner datasets, producing descriptive analyses on household food purchases, summarising and replicating existing literature and assisting in the estimation of structural econometric models of demand and supply.

About you

The post‑holder will participate in projects relating to:

Duties and responsibilities

The Research Assistant will be responsible for:

Cleaning, organising and documenting large, complex household‑level scanner data ready for analysis, and building databases from raw transaction data;

Replicating existing analyses and developing new ones;

Implementing and debugging estimation code for structural demand and supply models, with guidance from the study leads.

In addition

As duties and responsibilities change, the job description will be reviewed and amended in consultation with the postholder.

The postholder will carry out any other duties as are within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job as requested by the line manager or Head of Department/Division.

The postholder will actively follow UCL policies including Equal Opportunities and Race Equality policies.

The postholder will maintain an awareness and observation of Fire and Health & Safety Regulations.

What we offer

Prof. Áureo de Paula, the Principal Investigator (PI), is seeking to appoint a Research Assistant. The post is available from October 2026 and will run until June 2028.

The starting salary for this position will be Grade 6B, Point 26 of UCL Salary Scales (£39,807) per annum inclusive of London Allowance.

This will be a full‑time position. The UCL full‑time working week is 36.5 hours. Exact working arrangements are determined by Professor Áureo de Paula. Annual leave will be 27 days per annum pro rata and in addition, staff benefit from six College closure days per year.

The person appointed will work at the offices of the Department of Economics, Drayton House, 30 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AX. They will also work at the offices of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), 2 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 4DF. The expectation will be to work on‑site at least three days per week.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion