ACADEMIC - Postdoctoral Research Associate

Durham University

Durham University is one of the world's top universities with strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences. The Department of Psychology is consistently ranked as one of the very best in the UK with an outstanding reputation for excellence in teaching, research, and student employability.

The Role

A fixed-term part time Postdoctoral Research Associate position is available at the Department of Psychology at Durham University. The successful candidate will join the research project 'Increasing Physical Activity in a Medium Secure Service: The Development and Feasibility of a Physical ACTivity Intervention (IMPACT)' led by Professor Tammi Walker and funded by the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme. The IMPACT project aims to co-produce, the content and delivery of an intervention to increase physical activity. The two medium secure service sites involved in the project are in Wakefield, West Yorkshire and Leicester, East Midlands and there will be travelling involved in this role.

The project will work with service users and professionals in two NHS medium secure units to design and evaluate a way of improving the levels of physical activity for service users. Phases 1-2 will gather the information via qualitative and quantitative methods to develop an evidence-based physical intervention in Phase 3. The feasibility of evaluating and testing the intervention for a future pilot study of this intervention will be assessed in Phase 4.

The PDRA will work as part of a multidisciplinary team of Psychologists, Sports and Exercise Specialists, Psychiatrists, Statisticians and Mental Health and Public Health Professionals based across the universities of Durham, York, British Columbia, Edinburgh Napier, Huddersfield, and Gloucestershire.

The candidate will work on all four phases of the project, including patient recruitment to time and on target, collection, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. The successful candidate will have a strong academic track-record, including experience in designing, carrying out, analysing, and interpreting high quality mixed methods research studies.

The successful applicant will be expected to co-design and support the delivery of all four phases of the project, with input and assistance from the PI, co-Is, service users and academic and practitioner collaborators as appropriate.

This post is fixed term until 31 May 2023. This is fixed according to the project end date agreed with the funder, NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme. The post-holder is employed to work on research/a research project.

Successful applicants will, ideally, be in post in October 2021.

All applicants are asked to submit:

A CV and covering letter which details your experience, strengths and potential in the requirements set out above; Please include copies of any relevant journal publications you would like to highlight that cannot be found online (e.g., submitted / under revision / accepted).

The assessment for shortlisted candidates will be an interview, including a short presentation on candidates' previous research. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview and assessment on a date tbc. Interviews are expected to take place remotely.