Research Associate/Senior Research Associate

The Digital Mental Health Group is one of the UK’s largest and most influential research teams investigating the impact of digital technologies on youth mental health, with the aim of improving outcomes for children and young people worldwide. We are known for our innovative and rigorous scientific outputs, as well as our direct provision of scientific advice to senior policymakers and politicians.

Overview:

We are seeking a post-doctoral research associate with experience in successfully designing, delivering and analysing micro-randomised trials (MRT) to join our team full-time for four years. You will join a philanthropically funded collaboration with King’s College London (Dr Petr Slovak), the Smart Data Donation Service (Dr David Zendle), UK PSHE Association and industry partner One Sec. You will primarily be responsible for this project, with a specific focus on MRT/intervention design, data analysis, dissemination and communication. 

This work is highly ambitious and innovative. There has been slow progress in understanding the impact of social media designs on youth. Co-created MRTs with young people will allow us to rapidly test the impact of different social media design interventions, positioning this research at the forefront of scientific innovation.

You will be supported in working alongside design experts to develop a MRT protocol where adolescents receive different social media design interventions while tracking outcomes of interest. You will lead a large-scale study across UK schools to implement this protocol (with support from the PSHE Association). Your analyses and dissemination will generate robust and policy relevant evidence about how specific social media design choices influence young people’s mental health. The findings will inform future academic research, school lesson plans and recommendations for policymakers and regulators.

You will gain valuable leadership experience alongside this work, supervising junior team members and being involved in exciting research and impact opportunities across our team. Additionally, you will be supported in complementing your core research in ways that interest you and benefit the group, as well as the wider academic community. We welcome applications from those seeking part-time work.

The post holder should be available to start before summer 2026 for a duration of 4 years.

Note: We will interview for the role on the 4^th of March 2026. There will likely be a longlist stage before interview. We can sponsor visas. We expect you to work in Cambridge a minimum 3 days a week.

We encourage applicants from backgrounds traditionally marginalised and/or under-represented in the field. Further, please do not be discouraged from applying if your current CV is not a ‘perfect fit’.

For the complete essential and desirable criteria please see the further particulars below

To ensure fairness we will not schedule individual meetings for candidates before an offer is made. If you have any questions about this role please send these to our Centre Manager (tania.smith@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk) by 23^rd of January 2025, we will post each anonymised question submitted by this deadline and our answer to the following document by the 30^th of January 2025: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yoJTO8KMKQlkqIQ5vkBTUyCjv9nh1GCLIZHGKJ6Z4ng/edit?usp=sharing 

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please click 'Apply' above.

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