Research Associate in Healthcare Design

Job id: 085785. Salary: £43,205 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 05 March 2024. Closing date: 02 April 2024.

Business unit: Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sci. Department: Engineering.

Contact details:Professor Wei Liu. [email protected]

Location: Strand Campus. Category: Research.

Job description

This post holder will join an exciting project team which brings experts from Social Gerontology, Psychology, Design, Smart Composite Material, and Artificial Intelligence to shape a world class consortium of universities, industries, NGOs and policy makers. The successful candidate for this role will join an interdisciplinary research group and be supervised by Professor Wei Liu.

Jointly funded by EPSRC and NIHR, this £1.5m ‘DELONELINESS’ project aims to design a smart monitoring and communication system with multifunctional electronics built into textiles used as wearables and home furniture to measure loneliness levels in older people. Refining methods of identifying loneliness in those who are isolated will allow timely and effective intervention. This project is led by King’s College London in collaboration with University of Leeds and University of Sussex.

The post-holder will be responsible for design and development of the wearable healthcare devices, such as conducting systematic literature review, user research and co-design workshops, establishing design specifications and guidance, generating design concepts and prototypes, deploying test and validation, and producing and disseminating research outcomes. The post-holder will be expected to work closely with the whole project team to ensure the design of the system and devices reflecting human-centred principles.

This post will be offered initially on a fixed-term contract until the 1st May 2025 with the potential for an extension.

This is a full-time post – 100% full time equivalent

Key responsibilities

• Develop research protocol and lead on gaining ethical approval; Drive and encourage research participation in the project activities.
• Assisting data collection and analysis; Be involved in the writing of high-quality reports and academic papers.
• Liaise with users and stakeholders for research activities. 
• Develop and test design concepts and prototypes.
• Conduct a validation study of the designs
• Contribute, as required, to other activities or studies and occasionally perform other general tasks as they arise, such as administration, data entry or data management tasks.
• Communicate widely within the immediate team and across the wider research group.
• Establish and maintain good working relationships with stakeholders.
• Collaborate with others in writing for publication.
• Present on project progress at seminars, conferences, meetings, when required.
• Organise regular project meetings and seminars.
• Contribute to the planning of reports and papers for publication.
• Contribute to collaborative decision making with colleagues
• Prioritise and manage own workload
• Actively participate as a member of the department, undertaking general tasks to support team activities.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria  

1.       A PhD (or close to completion) in Design, Engineering or relevance 

2.       Experience conducting user research and analysing qualitative and quantitative data  

3.       Experience using 2D and 3D design software 

4.       Good skills of developing design concepts and physical prototypes 

5.       Excellent communication and interpersonal skills 

6.       Good presentation skills 

7.       Good writing skills 

8.       Experience producing high quality written reports/publications for conferences or peer reviewed journals. 

9.       Experience presenting results to non-scientific audiences 

10.     Willingness to update skills and participate in appropriate training programmes 

Desirable criteria

1.   Experience using NVIVO or other qualitative analysis software 

2.   Experience working in interdisciplinary research projects