Research Fellow/ Senior Research Fellow

University of Southampton

NIHR ARC Wessex Mental Health Research Hub: Healthy Communities

Based in Faculty of Medicine (Clinical and Experimental Sciences), College Keep, Southampton

We wish to appoint a Research Fellow or Senior Research Fellow to support research into healthy communities. Research will focus on mental health, particularly mental health of children and young people. Projects will focus on developing, implementing and evaluating strategies to identify young people at risk of mental health conditions (including addictions like alcohol & gambling), promoting early intervention and developing programmes to support young people, and on successful care transitions (including for neurodevelopmental disorders like Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD). The focus will be on supporting young people and bolstering resilience. Some of the work will focus on the ROVER project, which investigates resilience in adolescents with a physical condition, such as cancer, and sets out to co-design an intervention that works for children and young people and families.

NIHR ARC Wessex conducts applied health research with the aims of improving outcomes for patients and public; improving quality, delivery and efficiency of health and care services; increasing the sustainability of health and care systems locally and nationally, through collaborative partnership. It has four thematic programmes of work:

• Healthy Communities
• Ageing and Dementia
• Long Term Conditions
• Workforce & Health systems

NIHR ARC Wessex has recently been awarded additional funding to establish a Mental Health Research Hub, which aims to facilitate inter-disciplinary mental health research across the region. This will be achieved through investing in infrastructure to enable leadership of this field of research across Wessex, support growth and development amongst early career applied health researchers, facilitate expansion in patient and public involvement and create better connections between the academic community, the NHS, social care and the third sector. This will help to ensure that the right research questions are asked and that findings can be rapidly translated into treatment and care. The funding will also support a number of research projects which the Fellow will be expected to play a significant role in (e.g. ethics submissions, data collection, analysis and dissemination). As well as contributing to these projects there will be an expectation that the person appointed will work towards an advanced fellowship application suitable for submission for external funding to funders like the NIHR, MRC or Wellcome.

You will have a relevant PhD or equivalent research-related qualifications and experience in a relevant area and a keen interest in the field of healthy communities and related areas of mental health. Excellent organisational and communication skills are also essential for this role, and the ability to travel to selected locations. This post is full time (1.0 FTE), funded by NIHR ARC Wessex, until 30/09/2024. Flexible working, part-time/ job share will be considered.

The post will be at the level of Research Fellow or Senior Research Fellow, depending on qualifications and previous experience.

Informal enquiries are very welcome. Please contact Professor Samuele Cortese (Samuele.Cortese@soton.ac.uk) and Professor Anne-Sophie Darlington (A.Darlington@soton.ac.uk) for further information.

The application deadline is midnight on the closing date stated above. If you need assistance, call Recruitment on +44 (0) 23 8059 2750, or email recruitment@soton.ac.uk. Quote the advert reference on all correspondence.

Further details:

• Job Description and Person Specification
• Job Description and Person Specification

We believe equality, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to making the University of Southampton a welcoming, vibrant and successful organisation. Having a diverse workforce, inclusive of people of all ages and beliefs, from different racial backgrounds, educational and social backgrounds opens up a wealth of possibilities, makes us more creative and accelerates our impact on society. We welcome applicants that value diversity of our community and are willing to play their part in supporting the mission of inclusivity.

Please note that applications from agencies will not be accepted unless indicated on the job.