Research Associate

About the Role:

Want your research skills to directly improve how pain medicines are prescribed for millions of people? This is your chance to turn big data into safer care. We are seeking a talented Research Associate to join a major national initiative focused on making pain management for musculoskeletal conditions safer, smarter, and more personalised.

About the Arthritis UK Research Consortium: Musculoskeletal Epidemiology

This is a new and exciting opportunity to join the Arthritis UK Research Consortium: Musculoskeletal Epidemiology, a major UK-wide research initiative funded by Arthritis UK (formerly known as Versus Arthritis).

Launched in July 2025, the consortium work spans five dynamic research themes, each using existing data to address critical gaps in musculoskeletal epidemiology. Each workstream is co-led by academic and patient partners and designed to address priority areas identified by people living with arthritis (PlwA). Together, they aim to generate evidence that improves care, reduces inequalities, and informs policy.

As a Post-Doctoral Research Associate, you’ll be part of a collaborative, supportive, and forward-thinking team based at the University of Manchester. This post will be based at the University of Manchester working closely with researchers from the University of Oxford. You’ll also work alongside other researchers, clinicians, patient partners, and knowledge mobilisation specialists across the UK to help shape the future of musculoskeletal research.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and outstanding research associate with a background in one of the following disciplines, or related, epidemiology, data science, public health, or statistics. You will be performing quantitative research using data from electronic health records. You will have an excellent understanding of applying various statistical analysis and of real-world data and in interrogating observational large datasets. It is desirable for the research associate to experience of pharmacoepidemiology study designs and working with real-world EHR data such as the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and prospective studies such as UK Biobank. The role requires the ability to communicate research to members of the consortium, Arthritis UK and the wider community.

What you will get in return:

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers, and more

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Name: Dr Meghna Jani
Email: meghna.jani@manchester.ac.uk

General enquiries:

Email: recruitmentservices.people@manchester.ac.uk

Technical support: jobseekersupport.jobtrain.co.uk/support/home

This vacancy will close for applications at midnight on the closing date.

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