Research Assistant

Fixed term until 30/09/2027

Full time – 37 hours per week

Closing date 27/08/2025 at 23:30 

The role

Sheffield Hallam University have an exciting and growing area in the evaluation of local initiatives to tackle societal issues such as physical inactivity and health inequalities. 

We are pleased to advertise an opportunity to join our research team to contribute to a range of activities across the team including:

• Developing research and evaluation tools.
• Liaising with a range of stakeholders including consortium members working virtually, those in practice and members of the public with lived experience.
• Gathering and analysing rich qualitative data (from interviews, meetings and documentation).
• Undertaking analyses, under direction, utilising a range of complexity sensitive methods including comparative configurational analysis.
• Exploring, under direction, the ethics and use of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models in the analysis of text and other potential applications.
• Supporting the development of research outputs ranging from short public facing summaries and webinars to academic journal publications.
• Supporting the communication of research findings to a broad range of audiences.
• Providing research administrative support, as necessary, and in conjunction with the project manager, communications officer and project administrators and wider research team.

The role will contribute to two high profile and innovative research contracts held by the university.

• National Evaluation and Learning Partnership for Sport England’s investment into place-based systemic working (0.8 FTE).
• Process evaluation of Health Determinants Research Collaboration, South Tees (0.2 FTE).

About the projects:

National Evaluation and Learning Partnership Sport England have made investments into multiple places across England to tackle physical activity inequalities by taking a ‘whole-systems’ and ‘place-based’ approach (WSA / PBA). Simply put, this approach addresses barriers and opportunities to physical activity at a range of difference levels – from individual to infrastructural and rooted in the distinctive mix of local characteristics. Sport England’s ten-year strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ commits to deepening the approach in places with established WSAs and PBAs and expanding the place-based approach with further investment into new places. 

The role will contribute to establishing appropriate evaluation and learning support. Within this, evaluation that helps to identify the impact made by the WSAs and PBAs and illustrate which conditions lead to which impacts, in which circumstances. 

To be successful you must be comfortable working with various data sources, qualitative interviewing experience and have employed systematic approaches to data analysis and reporting. You must also have excellent planning and organisation skills.

Health Determinants Research Collaboration, South Tees: The HDRC South Tees is a collaborative initiative between Middlesbrough Council, Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, and Teesside University, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Its mission is to tackle health inequalities by embedding a strong, inclusive research culture within local authorities. The collaboration focuses on understanding and addressing the wider determinants of health—such as housing, education, income, and environment—through evidence-based decision-making and community-driven research.

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