Senior Research Officer

Independent; Colchester; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 43,000; Full time

Job summary

The post is based within the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences (SRES) at the University of Essex, Colchester Campus. The role supports a participatory action research project with Basildon citizens on local government health and well-being service design and related ethics processes.

Key duties include setting up experiments, developing questionnaires, fieldwork, data recording and trend identification, with outputs prepared for publication and scholarly dissemination.

Qualifications

• PhD-level expertise in health, psychology and/or sport and exercise science or near completion.
• Experience with qualitative and/or quantitative research methods and analysis.
• Commitment to high standards of research ethics and data integrity.

Responsibilities

• Support participatory action research (PAR) project co-production with Basildon citizens for health and well-being.
• Assist preparation of ethics documentation and participant materials.
• Set up and conduct experiments, develop questionnaires and conduct fieldwork, record data and identify trends.
• Disseminate research outputs through publications and Knowledge Exchange activities at conferences and journals.

Skills

Research methods

Ethical conduct

Education

Doctoral degree in health, psychology and/or sport and exercise science

Job description

The post is based within the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences (SRES) at the University of Essex, Colchester Campus. The University of Essex has significantly expanded SRES state-of-the-art facilities for research and education since the opening of our new facility in January 2018 with further renovation in Summer 2021. We are a dynamic, research-active school, consisting of emerging and world-leading researchers with an international reputation for cutting-edge research.

Our four research clusters explore basic science questions alongside projects with strong societal impact. The groups have received funding from a range of prestigious organisations such as the Economic and Social Research Council, Academy of Medical Sciences, Leverhulme Trust, National Institute for Health Research, International Olympic Committee, World Anti-Doping Agency, Union of European Football Associations, Sport England, England Cricket Board, Royal Ballet, Rugby Football Union, British Heart Foundation and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Charitable Trust.

Duties of the Role

Key duties include:

• To support the successful co-production and delivery of a participatory action research (PAR) project with Basildon citizens about when and how they might like to be involved in local government reorganisation and service design relating to health and well-being.
• To support preparation of ethics documentation and participant materials.
• To undertake or manage practical elements of research such as setting up and conducting experiments, developing questionnaires and conducting fieldwork, recording data and identifying trends or patterns.
• To produce research outputs for publication at acceptable levels and academic excellence and disseminate the result of research and scholarship through appropriate Knowledge Exchange activities (such as at relevant national and international conferences and scholarly publications not intended for the REF).

A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found within the job pack.

Qualifications and Skills required

The successful candidate should possess a relevant doctoral level degree in health, psychology and/or sport and exercise science or equivalent professional experience or practice or be close to completion of PhD.

You should have experience and/or knowledge of different qualitative and/or quantitative research methods and analytical procedures, ideally including participatory action research approaches, and of producing and disseminating research outputs. In addition, you should have experience and skills to work with people from different backgrounds and with long-term health conditions.

You will possess the ability to communicate effectively with research participants and multidisciplinary research teams, to work independently while contributing effectively within a research team, and a commitment to maintaining high standards of research ethics and data integrity.

This is a fixed-term post. Details of the contract can be found within the job pack.

We particularly welcome applications from those who identify as female or non-binary and those from an ethnic minority as they are under-represented in the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences.

Our website http://www.essex.ac.uk contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability and would like information in a different format, please email [e-mail].

£38,784 per annum, pro-rata - in line with grant funding