Research Fellow

Part Time Fixed Term until 30/09/2024

Interview Date: To be confirmed

NIHR ARC Wessex Mental Health Research Hub: Healthy Communities

Based in Faculty of Health Sciences, Highfield Campus, Southampton

We wish to appoint a Research Fellow to support research into healthy communities. Research will focus on mental health, particularly mental health of children and young people. Projects will focus on developing, implementing and evaluating strategies to identify young people at risk of mental health conditions (including addictions like alcohol & gambling), promoting early intervention and developing programmes to support young people, and on successful care transitions (including for neurodevelopmental disorders like Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD). The focus will be on supporting young people and bolstering resilience. Some of the work will focus on the ROVER project, which investigates resilience in adolescents with a physical condition, such as cancer, and sets out to co-design an intervention that works for children and young people and families.

NIHR ARC Wessex conducts applied health research with the aims of improving outcomes for patients and public; improving quality, delivery and efficiency of health and care services; increasing the sustainability of health and care systems locally and nationally, through collaborative partnership. It has four thematic programmes of work:

• Healthy Communities
• Ageing and Dementia
• Long Term Conditions
• Workforce & Health systems

NIHR ARC Wessex has been awarded additional funding to establish a Mental Health Research Hub, which aims to facilitate inter-disciplinary mental health research across the region. This will be achieved through investing in infrastructure to enable leadership of this field of research across Wessex, support growth and development amongst early career applied health researchers, facilitate expansion in patient and public involvement and create better connections between the academic community, the NHS, social care and the third sector. This will help to ensure that the right research questions are asked and that findings can be rapidly translated into treatment and care. The funding will also support a number of research projects which the Fellow will be expected to play a significant role in (e.g. ethics submissions, data collection, analysis and dissemination). As well as contributing to these projects there will be an expectation that the person appointed will work towards an advanced fellowship application suitable for submission for external funding to funders like the NIHR, MRC or Wellcome.

You will have a relevant research-related qualifications and experience in a relevant area and a keen interest in the field of healthy communities and related areas of mental health. Excellent organisational and communication skills are also essential for this role, and the ability to travel to selected locations. 

Informal enquiries are very welcome. Professor Anne-Sophie Darlington (A.Darlington@soton.ac.uk) for further information.

Applications will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification.

The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon completion of PhD.

Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given. 

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