| Location: | Leicester, Hybrid |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £39,906 per annum, pro-rata if part-time: Grade 7 |
| Hours: | Full Time, Part Time |
| Contract Type: | Fixed-Term/Contract |
| Placed On: | 13th February 2026 |
|---|---|
| Closes: | 26th February 2026 |
| Job Ref: | 12585 |
About the role
Are you passionate about improving research culture across the Higher Education sector? The Wellcome Trust has funded a team of researchers to find new ways to innovate, influence policy, and make a difference to staff and student participation in how we work together and empathise with each other.
As research associate, you will pro-actively help to shape research culture at the University of Leicester through the evaluation of the I-REACCH project (Inclusive Research Culture Achieved through Culture Change).
We are seeking someone to conduct formative and summative evaluation sessions and contribute to the formation of novel evaluation mechanisms and outputs that demonstrate I-REACCH’s impact. You will work with diverse stakeholders, mobilising mixed methods with qualitative and quantitative metrics, including usability testing.
I-REACCH has five objectives:
1. Trial active inclusive recruitment practices for increased diversity
2. Develop bespoke inclusive tools for career progression
3. Boost citizenship engagement and advocacy to enhance an inclusive culture
4. Engage with research leaders to create empathic models of inclusive leadership for sustained change.
5. Robustly evaluate each of the pilot projects
About you
Joining us with a PhD and/or relevant research experience, you will play a vital role in the co-delivery of workstream 5, which focuses on designing, conducting and analysing formative and summative evaluation sessions for prototype interventions and conduct research on UX evaluation across diverse contexts and stakeholders, exploring risks and sustainability of enhanced technology acceptance. You will liaise with colleagues to design and execute robust and high-quality evaluations to measure multiple UX and performance metrics, review literature and undertake appropriate mixed-methods data collection sessions. You should be highly pro-active and energized to develop your research skills to deliver our vision for a more inclusive research culture.
You will work closely with Dr. Genovefa Kefalidou (WS5 Leader and I-REACCH Co-I) and five other staff employed on the project.
You will also closely work with our innovative ‘Mirror Leadership Team’ comprising staff and postgraduate students with lived experience of research culture challenges.
Additional information
We welcome informal enquiries, so please contact Dr. Genovefa Kefalidou (gk169@leicester.ac.uk) should you have any queries.
The University of Leicester has been changing the world, and changing people’s lives, for 100 years. When you join us, you’ll become part of a community of Citizens of Change, which includes not only our staff and our current students but also thousands of Leicester graduates around the world.
As a diverse and forward-thinking employer, we embed the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion into everything we do. That includes not just our core missions of teaching and research, but also our support for staff, students and our local community through our values of Inspiring, Impactful and Inclusive.
We’re committed to the wellbeing of all our staff and to the sustainability of our environment, on our campus and beyond. We offer a competitive salary package, excellent pension scheme and a generous annual leave allowance, along with opportunities to develop your career in a supportive and collaborative environment.
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