Senior Research Fellow / Designer in Residence

Falmouth University; Penryn; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational institution and healthcare partner is seeking a designer researcher to drive innovative participatory research in NHS mental health settings. The role requires a strong grasp of design skills and participatory methods, focusing on the integration of creativity in healthcare practices. The candidate will facilitate co-design workshops and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams, offering a unique opportunity to impact service delivery. This is a full-time, fixed-term position until July 2026 with competitive benefits including a pension contribution and generous leave entitlement.

Benefits

Employer Pension Contribution up to 12%

35 days + 8 days bank holiday

Annual salary increments

Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Pay

Salary Sacrifice Car Scheme

Salary Sacrifice Cycle Scheme

Salary Sacrifice Home & Tech Scheme

Life Assurance

Qualifications

• Demonstrable portfolio of practice based design and co design facilitation.
• Experience conducting participatory/qualitative research; ability to evidence and reflect on impact.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills; ability to work across NHS and university contexts.
• Excellent communication, documentation and collaboration abilities.

Responsibilities

• Plan and lead co design workshops and creative interventions with multidisciplinary NHS teams.
• Produce design artefacts, prototypes and toolkits to embed creative practices.
• Conduct and document participatory research and analyse findings.
• Build relationships across institutional settings for knowledge exchange.
• Share insights through reports and presentations to develop models for NHS.

Skills

Design skills

Participatory methods

Stakeholder engagement

Excellent communication

Job description

About The Role

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CFT) and Falmouth University are partnering on an innovative participatory research project exploring how embedded creative practice can build organisational capacity for innovation in NHS mental health settings. This role sits at the intersection of design, healthcare innovation, and participatory research, and offers a unique opportunity to generate real world impact while advancing scholarly knowledge.

About the collaboration

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CFT) and Falmouth University are partnering on an innovative participatory research project exploring how embedded creative practice can build organisational capacity for innovation in NHS mental health settings. This role sits at the intersection of design, healthcare innovation, and participatory research, and offers a unique opportunity to generate real world impact while advancing scholarly knowledge.

The opportunity

Working across CFT’s community mental health services and Falmouth University’s research facilities, you will facilitate co design activities with NHS staff and service users while conducting rigorous participatory research into how creative capacity develops in healthcare environments. The post combines hands on design practice (making, prototyping, facilitation) with scholarly inquiry (documentation, analysis, dissemination), contributing to immediate service improvement and longer term evidence for creative approaches to care delivery. The role aligns with CFT’s Clinical Strategy 2025–2030 commitment to integrating creativity and delivering care in non traditional spaces, and with Falmouth University’s mission to deliver experimental, environmental and societal impact through the fusion of creativity and technology.

What you’ll do

• Plan and lead co design workshops and creative interventions with multidisciplinary NHS teams and service users.
• Produce design artefacts, prototypes and toolkits that help teams test, adapt and embed creative practices in clinical and community settings.
• Conduct and document participatory research, capturing process and outcomes; analyse findings to articulate how creative capacity grows within healthcare environments.
• Build relationships across complex institutional settings; support capability building and knowledge exchange between CFT and Falmouth University.
• Share insights through reports, presentations, and public engagement, contributing to a replicable model for embedding creative practice in NHS services.

About You

We are looking for a designer researcher with excellent design and making skills and a strong grasp of participatory methods. You’re motivated by healthcare innovation, comfortable navigating complex organisations, and confident working with diverse stakeholders—clinicians, researchers, managers and service users. You document practice with care and curiosity and communicate findings clearly to academic and non academic audiences.

Essential experience & skills

• Demonstrable portfolio of practice based design and co design facilitation.
• Experience conducting participatory/qualitative research; ability to evidence and reflect on impact.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills; ability to work across NHS and university contexts.
• Excellent communication, documentation and collaboration abilities.

Desirable experience & skills

• Experience in mental health or public sector innovation.
• Familiarity with research ethics and data governance in health settings.

For further details on the skills/experience required for this role, please see the full job description above.

This is a fixed term position to 31 July 2026, full‑time, 35 hours per week. Due to it being a time limited position an immediate start is preferred.

The position will involve working across CFT sites and Falmouth University facilities in Cornwall.

To apply we are looking to receive a CV and supporting statement plus a portfolio or research dossier highlighting relevant co‑design and practice by Sunday 18 January 2026.

About Us

In return for your hard work and commitment, we offer the successful candidate for this role a range of benefits including:

• Employer Pension Contribution up to 12%.
• 35 days + 8 days bank holiday.
• Annual salary increments (Until top of grade reached).
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Pay.
• Salary Sacrifice Car Scheme (Tusker).
• Salary Sacrifice Cycle Scheme.
• Salary Sacrifice Home & Tech Scheme.
• Life Assurance.

Full details on our employee benefits can be found on our careers page www.falmouth.ac.uk/jobs. Alongside these benefits we offer a first class working environment across our campuses with all the facilities you would expect from a leading University. A successful external candidate for this position would be employed by Falmouth Staffing Ltd, a wholly‑owned subsidiary of Falmouth University. Employees of Falmouth Staffing Ltd work alongside Falmouth University colleagues in the delivery of Falmouth’s strategic vision and will adopt Falmouth University’s HR policies and procedures in full.

Falmouth University welcomes and encourages job applications from people of all identities and backgrounds, particularly those under‑represented and/or marginalised, as it is important we have a diverse range of candidates to consider.