Research Assistant in Beat The Heat project

Loughborough University; Loughborough; On-site; GBP 27,000 - 33,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Real Living Wage Employer

Real Living Wage Supplement

Flexible working options

Job summary

Loughborough University invites applications for a Research Assistant to join the Beat The Heat project. The role focuses on supporting researchers, data collection, and analysis to understand how indoor temperatures affect well-being in low-income settings.

The project is led by Dr Ben Roberts with colleagues from Ghana and Sweden and is funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund. The successful candidate will contribute to research design, data handling, and dissemination of findings.

Responsibilities

• Join the Beat The Heat project team to support research activities.

Job description

The University is dedicated to supporting an equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment - to create better futures, together. The diverse backgrounds, characteristics and opinions within our community are our great strength and are key to our pursuit of delivering educational excellence, enterprise, research and professional services. We welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds and minoritized groups as they are currently under-represented within our community.

We recognise the value of a fulfilling and balanced work and personal life which promotes wellbeing. We seek to support colleagues in achieving this balance and have family-friendly policies, flexible working arrangements and many roles can be suitable for dynamic working arrangement. This includes considering applications to work on a part-time, flexible and job share basis wherever possible.

We are proud to be a Real Living Wage Employer - so much so that we go beyond the standard, providing additional supplementary payments at specific pay points to further support our employees' financial wellbeing. Further information about the Loughborough Real Living Wage Supplement can be found on our HR webpage .

Loughborough University is a UKVI Sponsor. Some individuals may require sponsorship to enable them to apply for a visa to provide them with the right to work in the UK. Please note certain roles are not eligible for sponsorship. For further information and eligibility please visit the UKVI website .

Job details

Job title Research Assistant in Beat The Heat project Job reference REQ260817 Date posted 05/11/2026 Application closing date 12/11/2026 Location Loughborough Package Specialist and Supporting Academic Research grade 5 from £29588 Job description

Research Assistant in Beat the Heat project

The researcher will join the Beat The Heat project, led by Dr Ben Roberts with Dr Efi Spentzou, Prof. Rob Wilby and colleagues from Ghana and Sweden. The project is funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

Excessive heat is increasingly being experienced in Ghana, with devastating impacts on human lives and well-being (Codjoe et al. 2020). The main aim of this project is to demonstrate to low-income urban residents how they can reduce indoor temperatures in their homes, workplaces and community spaces.

This work leverages findings from the British Academy funded project REFIT (Reducing the impact of extreme heat to improve well-being in cities), which in turn built on a previous British Academy funded project VEWEC (Vulnerability to extreme weather events in cities). Since 2017, the VEWEC/REFIT teams have been examining the extreme heat that residents of low-income urban settlements in Accra and Tamale, Ghana experience in their homes and workplaces.

For more information on the role please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification.