Postdoctoral Research Assistant at University of Dundee

Any candidates yet to achieve their PhD or who have not completed a PhD may be consider for the post and awarded Training Grade 7 £31,502 – £34,314

We are recruiting for an exceptional individual to join us as a Postdoctoral (or equivalent) Research Assistant within our Chronic Pain Research Group in the Division of Population Health and Genomics to deliver the Chronic Pain Identification Through Using Electronic Records (C-PICTURE) project. This centres on the development and validation of an algorithm to identify people with chronic pain through primary care-based records. You will use a range of methods (quantitative and qualitative) to collect data from patients and relevant stakeholders. This project is based in Dundee and is an exciting collaboration between the Univ! ersities of Dundee, Aberdeen, and St Andrews, working with the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) as part of Public Health Scotland (PHS) and the NHS Research Scotland Primary Care Research Network (NRS PCRN).

You will be part of the Chronic Pain Research Group at the University of Dundee, (https://www.dundee.ac.uk/cprg) which is part of the Division of Population Health and Genomics – University of Dundee. We support Early Career Researchers, with active mentoring, and a range of relevant training options for scientific and academic development.

You will be based at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, one of Europe’s largest teaching hospitals where the School of Medicine provides outstanding opportunities in medical education and training supported by world class research facilities.

Your priorities will include:

• Ensuring all regulatory approvals are in place prior to the start of study activity
• Ensuring that all collected data are recorded and held in a secure manner, following all regulatory requirements
• Working with the collaborating GP practices (across 4 NHS Health Boards), and the wider study team, including patient partners, SPIRE and NRS PCRN to:
• Develop a test dataset from pilot SPIRE algorithm
• Develop two reference datasets
• Use qualitative approaches to improve chronic pain case identification
• Refine and validate case identification algorithm
• Contributing to analysis of qualitative and quantitative data
• Leading and contributing to reports, scientific papers and presentations arising from this work

We’re looking for someone with:

• PhD or equivalent higher degree in a relevant subject
• Experience in mixed methods research
• Excellent organisational skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to interact constructively in a diverse team including patients, clinicians and scientists
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
• Ability to work independently, and as part of a team

The calibre of research at Dundee is high, with 95 per cent of staff working in areas of national or international excellence. Dundee benefits from a developed network of inter-disciplinary researchers collaborating across various Schools across our community. The diversity of our staff and students helps to make the University of Dundee a UK university of choice for undergraduate, postgraduate and distance learning. Family friendly policies, staff support networks for BME and LGBT staff, membership of Athena SWAN and Stonewall as well a full range of di! sability services, create an enjoyable and inclusive place to work.

For further information about this position please Professor Lesley Colvin; l.a.colvin@dundee.ac.uk or Professor Blair Smith; b.h.smith@dundee.ac.uk