Research Fellow in the Department of Psychological Medicine

Job id: 082006. Salary: £51,974 – £61,021 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 08 January 2024. Closing date: 22 January 2024.

Business unit: IoPPN. Department: Psychological Medicine.

Contact details:Professor James Rubin. [email protected]

Location: Denmark Hill Campus. Category: Research.

Job description

We are looking to appoint a Research Fellow (Grade 7) to join the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response. This post is available from 1 March 2024 until 31 March 2025. There may be some flexibility on the start date.

Your main role will be to design and test a battery of survey questions to assess public responses to various crises or major incidents. These will then be ready for use in any future crisis. You will be responsible for helping to develop and lead on this stream of work, with support and supervision from the wider team. We will work on this in collaboration with our partners at the UK Health Security Agency. 

You will also be the senior post-doctoral research fellow in a team that includes three PhD students, a post-doctoral research associate, an administrator, two professors, and multiple MSc students working on their dissertations. We are a friendly team, and you will be expected to support on projects across our portfolio of work, all of which relates to how people behave in the context of public health emergencies.  

The post will require leadership skills, self-motivation and ability to plan, conduct and report on research. You will also need excellent communication skills to help you liaise with stakeholders and present our results as peer-reviewed manuscripts, reports to policy makers, and presentations. 

Our team are expected to respond quickly to emerging public health risks and other disasters, providing rapid research to help inform how Government agencies respond. Recent examples have include substantial efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic and mpox outbreak. You should expect to be asked to support, or lead, on response work, which may require working outside of core hours where necessary. You will need to have a pragmatic, flexible approach to your work, working quickly while maintaining methodological rigour.  

This post will be offered on an a full-time, fixed term contract with an end date of 31 March 2025.

Key responsibilities

• Leading on the design of surveys that can be used in a range of public health incidents. This includes sourcing existing questionnaires, appraising questionnaires, designing new survey items.
• Leading the evaluation of survey materials. This is likely to be both qualitative and quantitative.
• Developing and leading the research process for these studies, including writing research protocols, applying for ethical approval as needed, collecting and analyzing data, writing up results as reports, presentations, and peer-reviewed manuscripts.
• Conducting literature reviews to synthesize research investigating adherence to protective behaviours and methodological approaches to answer behavioural science questions.
• Working with stakeholders to conduct applied research to prepare for, respond to, or evaluate the response to emerging incidents.
• Provide support to PhD students and other team members in the Unit.
• Respond to emerging incidents as they occur, under the leadership of the Unit Director (Professor James Rubin).

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 in psychology or closely related discipline, with a focus on a health-related topic. 

2.       Substantial experience in leading quantitative research (ideally survey design and analysis). 

3.       Substantial experience in reviewing the academic literature and synthesizing the results. 

4.       Excellent communication skills, both in terms of writing (report and manuscript) and presentation skills, and interpersonal skills with evidence of being able to communicate with diverse audiences. 

5.       Knowledge of behavioural science theories and frameworks. 

6.       Self-motivated – able to progress work on own initiative without close supervision where appropriate, and insight to know when to ask for help. 

7.       Ability to organize and prioritize work with overlapping timelines. 

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience in conducting qualitative research (interviews or focus groups).  

2.       Experience conducting applied research of relevance to policy makers. 

3.       Experience relevant to emergency preparedness and response, and/or health protection. 

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearence.