As a Research Assistant at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), you will support an exciting new project focused on a public health intervention for young women who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) living in coastal areas in the UK. The project aims to explore the feasibility, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of a hope-focused intervention including a mixed-methods process evaluation. The intervention is based on the principles of hope theory (strengths-spotting, goal-setting and creative arts elements), designed to be supported using a novel youth-initiated mentor approach.
What you'll do
You will support day-to-day trial co-ordination, including supporting local/unitary authorities and charities to identify and refer young women to the trial. You will engage young women, invite consent, perform screening assessments and support baseline and follow-up assessments via phone, videoconferencing, and in-person meetings. You will collect and enter data, and report accurate recruitment and assessment figures. You will be supervised by the Trial Manager, who reports to the overall project lead, Dr Clio Berry and will be supported with professional development and opportunities for training.
The role would be contracted until 31/08/2025 in the first instance (project feasibility phase). Assuming feasibility, the role would be extended for another 2.5 to 3.5 years.
About you
The successful candidate should have a relevant degree and/or equivalent experience, for example gained in working on large and/or complex health or education research projects. The successful candidate will require good communication and presentation skills, together with the ability to organise themselves and work to targets. The successful candidate will have some understanding of the randomised controlled trial approach. The candidate should have personal experience of supporting vulnerable young people and/or professional experience of working with this group in a research, clinical, or support capacity.
About our division/school
We are a diverse, collaborative research community with expertise in a wide variety of research areas, from laboratory research through to social science and clinical studies. Our close integration collaborations with local NHS organizations allows our researchers to work directly with the local population, improving their health while developing research work that can be applied nationally and globally.
Here, at our School, our medical research has and continues to develop a strong reputation for making a real impact locally, nationally and internationally. Ultimately, our research aims to:
- Improve medical diagnosis and treatment
- Answer fundamental biomedical and clinical questions
- Deliver more personalised healthcare to patients.
We are passionate about training and supporting our researchers at all levels, to deliver research that is relevant to our stakeholders, accelerate its recognition and foster adoption of our findings to catalyse new research impact.
Brighton and Sussex Medical School is proud to hold a Gold Athena Swann Award.
Why work here
Our university is situated off the A27, next to the beautiful South Downs where you will enjoy everything that our 150-acre campus has to offer. We are accessible by public transport; Falmer train station is a five-minute walk to campus and several bus stops are located within campus. We also have dedicated cycling paths and encourage our staff to use these with our offering of a cycle to work scheme.
Sussex is a renowned, multi-accredited, research-led International University and this is only possible because of the people that work here. Whether you are a member of Faculty, part of a Professional Services team or a Student, it’s our people that make us great and we want you to be part of that.
