Research Associate - The Pan Africa Mining Study (PAMS)

Job reference: HUM-029580
Salary: £37,694 per annum
Faculty/Organisational Unit: Humanities
Location: Oxford Road
Employment type: Fixed Term
Division/Team: Geography
Hours Per Week: Full Time (1 FTE)
Closing date (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/09/2025
Contract Duration: Fixed term until the 31st of July 2026
School/Directorate: School of Environment, Education & Development

The Department of Geography at the University of Manchester is seeking a talented and enthusiastic Research Associate (PDRA) to play a key role in delivering an exciting new investment project that will improve our understanding of the risks to human health from mining activities across Africa.

Mining is a major industry across Africa providing national economic benefits and jobs and investment with local communities. However, unlike activities in higher income countries that are subject to higher safety and environmental standards, mining in Africa not only has the potential to expose workers to hazardous pollutants, such as toxic metals, but could lead to significant negative impacts on local communities and the environment (e.g. water and soil pollution), the extent of which is currently poorly known.

The Pan Africa Mining Study (PAMS) has been funded to pump-prime interdisciplinary research across the University of Manchester to build an evidence base on institutional and organisation policies towards mining and health across Africa, work with teams at the International Agency for the Research on Cancer (IARC) and Guinea Infectious Disease Research and Training Centre (CERFIG) to create new sampling protocols to monitor environmental pollution and human exposure, and to develop a consortium of project partners for future funding bids.

PAMS provides a unique opportunity to bring together a range of disciplinary knowledge and know-how from across all three Faculties, including public health and epidemiology, development studies, pollution and environmental sciences, exposure science and health risk modelling, and geography. This is supported by professional expertise from a UN agency (IARC) and a national disease and research centre (CERFIG) who bring on-the-ground experience and local knowledge.

The PDRA will conduct a desk-based study to identify key stakeholders across Africa (including health agencies, environmental NGOs, and mining companies) and analyze their institutional policies related to mining, pollution and health impacts. Through systematic policy analysis of public-facing literature and expert interviews, the PDRA will establish a baseline knowledge framework. Building on this research, they will actively develop and maintain a network of new and existing partners focused on mining and health issues, with opportunities for international fieldwork (currently planned for Kenya) to directly engage with organizations working at the intersection of extractive industries, health impacts and environmental challenges. The PDRA will also contribute to grant development activities and participate in workshops designed to secure follow-on funding

The PDRA will work closely with the Principal Investigator (PI) Prof Gareth Clay (Department of Geography) and Dr Tomas Frederiksen (Global Development Institute), other academic investigators on the project across the University, as well as non-academic partners in the UK and in Africa.

This project is funded by the University of Manchester Research Institute. Due to the nature of the funding, this post is available for a fixed term of 9 months up to 31 July 2026.

Interviews will likely take place in late September/early October.

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Name: Prof Gareth Clay

Email: gareth.clay@manchester.ac.uk

Name: Dr Tomas Frederiksen

Email: tomas.frederiksen@manchester.ac.uk

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