Research Fellow – Care Improvement and Safety

About the Role

Applications are invited for a Research Fellow to work across nationally-leading health and care research programmes funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), as part of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria - 2026 to 2031 - ARC . The fellows will support the ARC in joining national research networks to deliver impactful research and knowledge mobilisation activities with partners across the health and care system. 

The post holder will be aligned to Care Improvement and Safety and establish inclusive communities of practice, leading programmes of research across the Northeast and North Cumbria and nationally, in line with the strategic aims of the theme. 

Our research priorities are to design and evaluate improved models of care that support the shift from hospital to home; using implementation science to improve care quality, safety, and patient outcomes; promote sustainable and value-for-money care models and develop transferable knowledge and practical tools to promote care improvement and safety.

As well as working within the theme, the fellow will develop joint programmes of work across our five themes: 

• Prevention including multiple long-term conditions.
• Addressing inequity in health and care systems
• Supporting children, women, and family health 
• Workforce Inclusion and Innovation for Impact
• Care Improvement and Safety

You will be expected to have existing and well-established networks with a range of health, social care and community-based collaborators, including across other NIHR infrastructures. Fellows will develop their own specialist research leadership while working in a pro-active and collaborative way to deliver work addressing critical national and regional priorities. They will be adaptive and responsive to emerging system needs, benefitting from the outstanding mentoring and support environment to secure additional grant funding over the 4-year period of the role. The role holder will be required to spend 50% of their time working responsively with health and social care partners to design and deliver programmes of work.

For further detail see the role description.

This is a full-time fixed term post available until September 2030.

We welcome part-time applications with a minimum of 50% FTE. Please state your desired working arrangements in your application.

Interviews will be held on 21st April 2026.

About the Team

This Applied Research Collaboration project is being delivered in the School of Healthcare and Nursing Sciences within the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing.

About You

The successful candidate will have a relevant doctoral degree (or be in the writing up period of their doctorate) and hold experience in quantitative and/or qualitative research within the applied health, public health and social care arena (eg: sociology; psychology; criminology; health statistics; health economics; data analytics, data science).

Applicants should have experience of obtaining external funding for research, which can include travel grants and studentships, and publishing in peer-reviewed journals.

Further information about the requirements of the role is available in the person specification. 

If you would like an informal discussion about the role, please contact Tracy Finch or Michael Sykes. 

Your application should include a CV and a covering letter no more than 3 pages long.

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