Research Associate in Public and Planetary Health

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The Role
This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and highly motivated Post-Doctoral Research Associate in population health sciences or a related discipline, with strong public engagement skills, to contribute to an NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) funded project on health and sustainability associated local government sponsorship activities.

You will join an interdisciplinary team, including local government partners, focused on improving lives through world-class research in human and planetary health. The project that you will be working on is part of the NIHR SPHR Healthy places, healthy planet research programme. The programme aims to generate robust evidence to support policy, practice and community activities aimed at improving population health, health and environmental equity, and environmental sustainability. You will be based in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University, supervised by Dr Frances Hillier-Brown, Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition, and you will report into a core project team co-led by Dr Hillier-Brown and Emma Gibson, Public Health programme lead at Gateshead Council.

Your role will entail conducting interviews and focus groups with Local Authority Officers; conducting surveys and focus groups with public participants; public engagement and involvement co-development activities with a diverse set of public partners with lived-experience; the organisation of stakeholder workshops; and systematic searches of existing information on local government sponsorship arrangements and activities. The role will also involve disseminating research findings to academic and public audiences via papers, conference presentations and public engagement events.

The project consists of a number of work packages and you will have opportunities to collaborate closely with academics and practice partners from NIHR SPHR member institutions and NIHR Health Determinants Research Centres (HDRCs). You will benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration and development opportunities both within the project team and the wider NIHR SPHR.

This part-time (0.8 FTE) post is fixed-term until 31 January 2027.

For informal enquiries please contact Dr Frances Hillier-Brown at frances.hillier-brown@newcastle.ac.uk.

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences here.

Find out more about the Population Health Sciences Institutes here.

Find out more about the NIHR SPHR here.

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of research role profiles. These profiles set out firstly the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and secondly the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level.

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