Business and Management : Agri-Food Supply Chain Resilience: A Multi-Level Framework and Cross-[...]

Supply chain resilience (SCRes) refers to the capacity of a supply chain to anticipate, respond to, and recover from disruptions while maintaining continuity of operations and performance. It is increasingly conceptualized as a multi-level construct encompassing individual resilience, organizational resilience, and supply chain-level resilience. However, existing research has largely emphasized the supply chain level, focusing on enabling principles, capabilities, and influencing factors, with limited attention to how resilience is developed through interactions across multiple levels.

Individuals and organizations constitute the foundational elements of supply chains, and resilience emerges from the dynamic interplay among these levels. Individual-level attributes such as skills, adaptability, and decision-making capabilities, when aligned with organizational strategies and structures, contribute to the development of firm-level resilience. In turn, organizational resilience capabilities aggregate and extend across inter-organizational networks, shaping resilience at the supply chain level.

In the context of agri-food systems, where supply chains are particularly vulnerable to environmental, economic, and institutional disruptions, achieving SCRes requires coordinated efforts across all three levels. This highlights the importance of cross-level interactions and collaborative mechanisms that integrate individual competencies, organizational capabilities, and network-level coordination. By adopting a multi-level perspective, agri-food supply chains can not only withstand and recover from disruptions but also enhance adaptive capacity, foster innovation, and strengthen long-term competitiveness.

English Language requirements: If applicable – IELTS 6.5 overall (with a score of at least 6.5 in each individual component) or equivalent that is recognised by Swansea University. Details on the Swansea University English Language entry policy can be found here.

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend at UKRI rate (currently £21,805 for 2026/27). Additional research expenses of up to £1,000 per year will also be available.

Eligibility criteria:

• Candidates must have achieved, or be expecting to achieve, a 1st class UK undergraduate degree (or equivalent international qualification), or a 2:1 UK undergraduate degree and a Distinction in a UK master’s degree (or international equivalent).
• Where applicants have multiple master’s degrees, a distinction must be held in the degree that is most relevant to the intended PhD study.
• If you are currently studying for a master’s level qualification with an expected award date that is later than 01/10/2026, you should hold a minimum of an upper-second-class (2:1) honours degree.
• You should be able to demonstrate a pass with a minimum grade average of at least 70% for your part-one master’s degree modules (the taught aspect of your master’s course rather than a research-focused dissertation) and submit your dissertation by no later than 30/09/2026.
• NB: If you hold a non-UK degree, please see the Swansea University degree comparisons to find out if you meet the eligibility criteria.
• Applicants must be able to begin their course of study in October 2026. As a cohort-based programme, deferral to an alternative enrolment window within the academic year or to another academic year is not permissible.

Selection process: Please see our website for more information.