Research Fellow – Wellcome UK Social Media Restrictions

Job reference: HUM-032680
Salary: £47,389 - £51,753 per annum depending on experience
Faculty/Organisational Unit: Humanities
Location: Oxford Road
Employment type: Fixed Term
Division/Team: Education
Hours Per Week: Full time (1 FTE)
Closing date (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/11/2026
Contract Duration: Fixed term for 36 months
School/Directorate: School of Environment, Education & Development

We are seeking a motivated and collaborative individual to join our team as a Research Fellow – Wellcome UK Social Media Restrictions. You will have the opportunity to work as a Research Fellow on a Wellcome-funded project to evaluate the impact of the upcoming UK social media restrictions on young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

You will be responsible for:

• Coordinating participant recruitment and data collection for the ecological momentary assessment and interviews, with the support of other team members;
• Performing qualitative and/or quantitative analyses along with other team members;
• Coordinating and preparing outputs relating to analyses along with other team members (including evidence briefings, peer-reviewed academic articles, blogs, infographics, etc.);
• Coordinating liaison with stakeholders and the steering committee to support the smooth running of the study;
• Managing junior staff;

We welcome candidates who bring diverse perspectives, experiences, and approaches to their work.

About You

We encourage applications from individuals with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. You should demonstrate:

Essential Criteria:

• Holds a PhD in a relevant field (e.g. psychology, epidemiology, public health, economics, social sciences);
• Demonstrable skills in advanced quantitative analysis (e.g. causal inference, longitudinal, EMA data) and/or qualitative data analysis (e.g. thematic analysis);
• Demonstrable skills in the use of statistical software/programming language (e.g., R, Stata, MPlus) and/or qualitative software (e.g., NVivo);
• Demonstrable experience with managing research projects or substantial project workstreams/strands;
• Demonstrable experience with managing/supervising and supporting staff;

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working within, or in close partnership with, policy-making bodies, government departments, and/or non-governmental organizations;
• Experience of natural-experiment and/or quasi-experimental research, including causal inference approaches such as difference-in-differences, interrupted time-series or related designs.

We value transferable skills and real-world experience as much as formal qualifications.

Our benefits include:

• Generous employer contribution pension
• 29 days annual leave plus bank holidays, along with Christmas closure
• Ride to work and EV car scheme available

For more information, please see University of Manchester Benefits. You can also find information on our Flexible and Hybrid working here.

We are an open place of enquiry and challenge. We embrace and celebrate difference, diversity and debate, and we pride ourselves on being a place of education, learning and community where we are able, within the law, to question and test received wisdom, express new ideas and explore controversial or unpopular topics and opinions. Find out more from our Freedom of Speech Policy.

Enquiries about the role, shortlisting and interviews

Name: Margarita Panayiotou

Email Address: margarita.panayiotou@manchester.ac.uk 

General enquiries and administrative support

recruitmentservices.people@manchester.ac.uk

Technical and job portal support

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

Applications close at midnight on the closing date.

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