research assistant St Mary's Bay, England
Job description
This post is funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) as part of the evaluation team of the Geshiyaro project, which aims to break the transmission of soil transmitted helminths (STH) and schistosomiasis (SCH) in Southern Ethiopia. The LCNTDR, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the impact of water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) in conjunction with mass drug administration (MDA), implemented by World Vision Ethiopia and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), respectively. The project is now coming to its final two years and has accumulated close to 1 million people data records on infection and treatment. The project is entitled Geshiyaro.
The overall aim of the project is to develop a scalable and cost-effective model of interventions for the interruption of transmission of STH and SCH leading to the cessation of MDA for disease control in Ethiopia. The primary outcome is to reach a 2% or less prevalence of STH (by species) and SCH in individual communities, as diagnosed by qPCR, 24 months after stopping MDA after five rounds of biannual treatment.
Key objectives of the evaluation team are to evaluate the impact of WaSH and MDA on the interruption of transmission of STH and SCH in a focal geographic area of Ethiopia. This is measured through parasitological (baseline and endline mapping, as well as annual longitudinal sentinel sites), treatment coverage (both through biometric identification and independent validation surveys), WaSH coverage (through cross-sectional WaSH assessments) and qualitative research (focus group discussions).
The post holder will be responsible for management (jointly with the Ethiopian Colleagues at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute) and the analysis of the large database to document the main findings of the transmission interruption study. The data are recorded in the field using hand-held devices and the resulting databased is Cloud based using the Survey CTO software package. The research team at Imperial programme in R, Python and C++
The data manager and epidemiologist will be responsible for data analysis and interpretation in collaboration with epidemiologists at Imperial (a team of four research staff plus the Principal Investigator, Sir Roy Anderson) and in Ethiopia at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI). It is hoped that the person to be appointed will be keen to visit the project site in Ethiopia for short periods and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute in Addis Ababa. The majority of her or his time will be spent at the St Mary’s Campus of Imperial College London in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology (DIDE) and the associated MRC Centre.
An important aspect of the project is the dissemination of the results to global stakeholders, in particular via working closely with WHO, agencies running the programme in Ethiopia (EPHI and the FMoH) and the funder, CIFF, to inform public health decision making for the control of NTDs in Ethiopia.
Duties and responsibilities
Research Duties
- Development of data collection forms in SurveyCTO
- Harmonisation of large data sets
- Analysis of data (operational, epidemiological, behavioural and treatment) relevant for the research project
- To develop operational reporting framework and tools for project activities
- To visualise results and data to generate insight
- To contribute to writing clear and effective manuscripts
- To attend conferences and present results
- To identify and develop suitable techniques, and apparatus, for the collection and analysis of data
- To assist with the analysis of data
- To always ensure the validity and reliability of data
- To maintain accurate and complete records of all findings
- To assist with the writing of reports to research sponsors
- To present findings to colleagues
- To provide advice to other staff and students
- To assist with the publication of findings
- To attend relevant workshops and conferences as necessary
Essential requirements
- Candidates must have an interest in infectious disease epidemiology and a strong background in one or more of the following areas: Epidemiology, Statistics, Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, Computer Science, Population Biology, Molecular Microbiology, Bioinformatics or Population Genetics.
- Research experience in statistical analysis, computer programming, mathematical modelling, or GIS would be an advantage.
- Applicants should be able to work independently, but as part of an interdisciplinary research team.
- Good communication skills are also essential.
Further information
This post is full time, fixed term for 2 years and you will be based at St Mary’s Campus.
For additional information, please contact Professor Sir Roy Anderson FRS, Imperial College London, St Mary’s Campus ([email protected] ).
Applications should include a CV, an outline of research interests, and the names of three academic referees.
The College is currently trialling a Work Location Framework until early 2023. Hybrid working may be considered for this role and the role holder may be expected to work 60% or more of their time onsite, with 40% the minimum time spent onsite. The opportunity for hybrid working will be discussed at interview.
The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/
The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/
Imperial College is committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment. We are an Athena SWAN Silver award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident Employer and work in partnership with GIRES to promote respect for trans people.
Documents
- JD - Research Assistant (Epidemiological Data).pdf
