University of Reading

The Fulbright University of Reading Award in Food Security offers funding for a Master's or PhD in Food and Nutritional Sciences.

The Fulbright University of Reading Award in Food Security offers funding for the following Master’s and PhD programmes in Food and Nutritional Sciences: 

This award is possible through generous legacy gifts by Harry and Jean Nursten to the University of Reading and to the US-UK Fulbright Commission. Harry Nursten was a Fulbrighter and a leading food scientist who chaired the University of Reading’s Food Science Department for 16 years. His experiences as a Fulbright Scholar were transformative both to his career and to food science in the UK. Jean Nursten was a noted sociologist who was also affiliated with the University of Reading. Both were committed to advancing knowledge, promoting civic engagement and developing students to be compassionate leaders, which align with the values of both the Department and the Commission. 

An added attraction about this award is that it is paired with the Fulbright Nursten Award in Food Security for a British postgraduate student (also made possible thanks to the legacy gift from Harry and Jean Nursten). As part of their award both students will be required to collaborate on an initiative to share information and research on food security with the wider public on both sides of the Atlantic. The form this initiative takes will be up to the two students to develop with support from the US-UK Fulbright Commission. 

Reading is a Top 30 UK University (QS World University Rankings, 2022) based in the South East of England, 25 minutes from central London by train. 

Founded in 1892 as a University of Oxford extension college, Reading gained its Royal Charter in 1926. Every year the University of Reading welcomes in excess of 4,500 international students form around 160 countries to study. Reading is a campus university offering on-site student accommodation, and its beautiful parkland campus, Whiteknights, won the Green Flag Award for the top university green space in the UK for the 12th time in 2023. 
 
The Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences is a global player in food and health research. Students benefit from access to the largest range of dedicated food laboratories in a UK university, extensive links with industry, and expert academics who work on cutting-edge research. The University of Reading is in the top 10 universities for food science in the UK (5th in The Times Good University Guide for Food Science, 2023). 
 
Students also have the opportunity to use an extensive range of facilities, which are primarily used for supporting teaching and learning. These include: 

  • a large pilot plant, containing almost 1100m2 of floor space devoted to approximately £4m worth of food development equipment 
  • advanced taste panel facilities 
  • and specialist research laboratories for assessing human gut microflora. 

The University of Reading is a research intensive university and the research environment within Food Sciences, has been judged to be conducive to produce world leading and internationally excellent research (REF, 2021 – Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science). Its academics strive to produce impactful world leading research that will improve the quality and nutrition of food that will deliver real benefits for society. 

Grant amount

Full tuition waiver

£19,027 living stipend

$1500 travel stipend

The living stipend is intended as a contribution towards general maintenance costs towards the first year in the UK.

In the UK, master's degrees are typically one-year programmes (full-time) and PhDs are three-year programmes (full-time).

Visit our page on Postgraduate Scholarships to the UK

for information on how to apply and more.

See other Postgraduate Awards to the UK: