Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing

The Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing (IPHW) is leading impactful research in public health and wellbeing for the University of Essex. The IPHW advances the University’s mission of excellence in education and research, for the benefit of individuals, communities, and society.

The IPHW is an international centre of excellence, bringing together research strengths across all University faculties, driving forward health- and wellbeing-focused research collaborations and developing strategic partnerships with regional, national, and international organisations. The establishment of the IPHW aligns the University’s research capability, expertise and strengths across a broad spectrum of research and innovations in public health and wellbeing, including a wide range of health related training programmes, clinics, facilities and services, leveraging the assets of our expertise and skills to enable us to scale our impact.

In addition to this our focus on inequality, its impact on health and wellbeing, our strength in methodological rigour, artificial intelligence, and our contributions to methodological developments are also part of our research strategy.

Duties of the Role

We wish to appoint a Research Fellow (part-time) two highly motivated and enthusiastic, on a pathway to permanency, to undertake world class research and development work to support the NIHR-funded programme of work on tackling loneliness and social isolation among young adults in coastal communities ensuring young LGBT and ethnic minority needs are addressed equally.

The ideal candidate will have a critical role in supporting the quantitative research components of the programme of applied mental health research as well as developing applied solutions, implementation and evaluation. During Years 1-2, this will involve working with Understanding Society data to examine the association between mental health and loneliness among young adults living in coastal areas. In Years 3-5 the role will involve working with the team to design applied solutions, designing and evaluating interventions. We invite applicants with strengths in quantitative analysis and working with large datasets.

The new Research Fellow will work alongside a team of applied mental health researchers including the programme leader (Professor in Mental Health Research), a qualitative research fellow, a PPIE co-ordinator, 3 PhD students and 6 DClinPsych trainees. In addition, the team will work alongside a team of other health researchers working at the IPHW to enhance research through collaboration and partnership.

A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found within the job pack.

This is a fixed-term, part-time post (0.5FTE) working 18 hours per week.

Please note that the successful candidate will be appointed to the post of Senior Research Officer.

Skills and qualifications required

Applicants are required to have a relevant doctoral level degree or equivalent professional experience or be close to completion of PhD in a field relevant to mental health. Postdoctoral research experience ideally in areas of applied mental health or quantitative public health, along with Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy or the ability to gain professional recognition at this or a higher level if appropriate are desirable.

The successful candidate will have a publication record appropriate for their experience and will be able to demonstrate evidence of potential to develop an internationally leading profile in the field.

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