Research Fellow

We are seeking a Research Fellow to work on the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) awarded program for the Tolerability and acceptability of subcutaneous EEG monitoring in people with epilepsy and intellectual disability based at the University of Plymouth.

We are looking to appoint a Research Fellow who will work 100% on this research role for 12 months and have regular contact with, and support of, the Co-Investigator Professor Rohit Shankar, University of Plymouth.

Many people with intellectual disabilities (PwID) and autism have seizures. Electroencephalography (EEG), which measures the brain's electrical activity, is a crucial method of diagnosing and assessing seizures. This is generally conducted in a hospital, meaning patients can only be observed for a limited time and hospital stays can also be challenging and uncomfortable for PwID and autism.

UNEEG Medical has developed a very small device ('SubQ'), that can be put under the skin on a person's head to track their brain activity without staying in the hospital. It has been medically validated, CE-marked and successfully implanted for up to 15 months in people with seizures, but not in PwID and autism.

This project will build on co-production work conducted with people with PwID and autism, their family members, and their carers, to understand how this technology could be used to improve our understanding of epilepsy and seizures for PwID and autism, which patients it might be helpful for, and how to explain the technology to enable its uptake and use. This project aims to use our learnings from our Phase 1 project's co-production work to test the device's tolerability, acceptability and planned implementation in this population and gather initial evidence of how well it can detect seizures in people with moderate to profound ID and autism.

You will be a dynamic person who has experience of recruiting and consenting people to take part in research. You will work with the clinical teams and the potential participants and therefore will require a good understanding of the technology and an understanding of the processes involved in this study.  You will be committed to co-production, engaging with non-academic partners and to using research with impact. Working as part of a multidisciplinary team and with stakeholders are key requirements, as is the ability to communicate research effectively through a variety of media, including in high quality peer-reviewed publications. We are committed to the development of early career researchers and will ensure that time is provided to support you in building your own research career.

You will have opportunities for contributing to the international profile of our research and scholarship as well as developing their own research trajectory.

This role will require an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Check.

For an informal discussion please contact Rohit Shankar (rohit.shankar@plymouth.ac.uk).

This is full-time position working 37 hours per week on a fixed-term basis for 12 months commencing once funding contracts have been signed.

The Faculty of Health holds two Silver and two Bronze Athena Swan Awards, which recognises commitment to supporting gender equality within higher education.

Staff appointed within the Faculty of Health may be able to join the NHS pension scheme subject to eligibility criteria.

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