Research Associate in Climate Change and Mental Health St Mary's Bay, England
Job description
The Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) is one of the seven global challenge institutes at Imperial College. Housed within the Faculty of Medicine, the Institute is well placed to leverage the College’s wealth of multidisciplinary talent to innovate across science, technology, design and policy. The Institute attracts a strong cohort of students and scholars across its educational and academic programmes and continues to advance a broadening research agenda, through its interdisciplinary centres of excellence. Its newest Centre is to be the Climate Cares Centre, advancing research, education, policy and intervention design on the deep interconnections between climate change and mental health.
Climate Cares, led by Dr Emma Lawrance, is seeking to appoint a Research Associate to conduct and support research projects on topics of relevance for the Centre. This will include mixed methods research on understanding and developing interventions to support the mental health impacts of a changing climate on young people in different global contexts.
Duties and responsibilities
As a core member of the Centre, you will aim to make a real-world impact on the dual and intertwined challenges of climate change and mental health. Your responsibilities will include supporting the development and evaluation of research and intervention design projects in climate change and mental health, with a focus on at-risk groups including young people, engaging in global collaborations and identifying funding opportunities. In particular, you will support a project to understand and respond to the mental health impacts of a changing climate on young people in Australia and the Philippines. You will provide expertise in mixed-methods research. You will assist with data analysis, writing of reports and academic projects, and presenting findings to colleagues and stakeholders. The post holder will contribute towards the Institute’s education portfolio.
You will join a growing and interdisciplinary team of researchers, educators, designers and policy experts with a strong global network who are passionate about climate change and mental health. Climate Cares has a proven track record of excellence in research, intervention design and impactful engagement and awareness raising with policymakers and practitioners.
Essential requirements
You will hold a PhD in a relevant discipline to conduct mixed methods research in climate change and mental health, which may include psychology, neuroscience, mental health research, planetary health, behavioural science, geography or related disciplines.
You will have advanced knowledge of research methods, particularly in mixed-methods research including the application of statistics and quantitative analysis, survey development and scale validation, conducting interviews, focus groups and thematic analysis. Big data analysis including natural language processing skills, and/or development and evaluation of mental health or behavioural interventions would be desirable.
You will possess excellent communication skills and be confident in developing good working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including those working in different cultures and contexts, and with vulnerable young people. You will be confident in appropriate co-production methods, involving young people and other relevant stakeholders as equal partners in research.
You will be motivated to understand and respond to the interconnections between climate change and mental health, and to translate research findings into real world change in policy and practice. You will be capable of identifying, developing, implementing and programme managing impactful research programmes that respond to the needs of those with lived experience of mental health challenges in the context of climate change.
In addition, you will be a motivated team player, working together with the Climate Cares team and global colleagues and collaborators, with the goal to achieve the Centre’s objectives for a future better a safer climate and people’s mental health and wellbeing.
Further information
This post is offered on a full time and fixed-term basis for one year and based at the St. Mary’s Campus (Paddington).
Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range £38,194 - £41,388 per annum.
Should you require any further details on the role please contact: Dr Emma Lawrance, Mental Health Lead at the Institute of Global Health Innovation and Lead of Climate Cares, [email protected].
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/
Documents
- JD - Research Associate in Climate Change and Mental Health.pdf
