Research Assistant

We are a world class research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.

The Role
We are looking for one Research Assistant working across two exciting studies. The role will be 0.5 based with the RELMED project and 0.5 based with the home-based transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) study.

RELMED is a Wellcome-Trust funded research project which aims to understand which computational (reinforcement learning) mechanisms are engaged by different antidepressant treatments. It is a unique opportunity to contribute to and shape a major research undertaking in the field of computational psychiatry. It will bring together rigorous clinical-trial, computational psychiatry and neuroimaging methods. It will involve two large-scale clinical trials in primary care, and as such is to-date the largest-scale attempt at establishing a causal evidence-based regarding computational mechanisms of clinical treatments. The Research Assistant will assist with EEG data acquisition and preprocessing.

RELMED consists of two randomized clinical trials to be run in sequence. The first trial will start 2025 to 2026. This will be followed by a second trial to be run from mid-2027 to mid-2029. Each of the two RCTs will involve randomization of 516 participants to one of four treatment arms, and repeat behavioural neurocognitive and EEG testing.

The tDCS study is a NIHR-funded clinical trial investigating home-based transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a treatment for depression in the NHS. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness, safety, and feasibility of home-based tDCS for individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). As a Research Assistant, you will be responsible for participant recruitment, data collection, and study administration. You will have a key role in the day-to-day running of the study. You will be interviewing participants, seeing participants in follow up, coordinating their tDCS sessions, and maintaining accurate research records. This post will provide hands-on experience in clinical trials, brain stimulation technologies, and mental health treatments.

The full-time Research Assistant position is funded for 2 years. The Research Assistant must be able to work onsite between the Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle upon Tyne NE46BE and St Nicholas Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne NE33XT.

This post is suitable for a candidate with substantial participant- facing research experience, participant recruitment, knowledge about EEG data acquisition and processing, and reinforcement learning, who wishes to contribute to top-quality research. The ideal candidate will also have a keen interest in mental health and novel treatment approaches.

This post is fixed-term for a period of 2 years initially, then subject to renewal.

For informal enquiries contact: Dr Apoorva Peddada - apoorva.peddada@ncl.ac.uk.

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/.

Find out more about our Research Institutes here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/research/institutes/.

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.

Advert information