Research Fellow

Job title:

Research Fellow

Company

University College London

Job description

About us Our mission is to maximise and advocate for the holistic health of all children, young people and the adults they will become, through world-class research, education and public engagement. The UCL GOS ICH, together with its clinical partner Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, forms the largest concentration of children’s health research outside North America. The 2024-29 GOS ICH strategy focuses on its five scientific programmes. GOS ICH’s activities include active engagement with children and families, to ensure that our work is relevant and appropriate to their needs. GOS ICH generates the funding for our research by setting out our proposals in high quality applications to public, charitable and industrial funding bodies and disseminates the results of our research by publication in the medical and scientific literature, to clinicians, policy makers and the wider public. The Institute offers world-class education and training across a wide range of teaching and life learning programmes which address the needs of students and professional groups who are interested in and undertaking work relevant to child health. GOS ICH holds an Athena SWAN Charter Gold Award.About the roleThis role is part of a major NIHR-funded study evaluating the effects of real-world voluntary supermarket policies restricting the use of price promotions to sell unhealthy foods. The findings will provide important evidence for UK policymakers in advance of the wider adoption of the policy.Price promotions or special offers, like two-for-the-price-of-one, are commonly used to sell less healthy food. Their use is particularly common in the UK, and evidence shows they encourage consumers to purchase more of these unhealthy products, which are linked to obesity and other diet-related diseases. Voluntary or mandatory restrictions on the use of price promotions have been proposed to limit their use, and support the marketing and sale of healthier products, in order to improve people’s health.Two UK supermarkets introduced voluntary measures to stop the use of certain types of price promotions in 2016 and 2021. We have observed marked change in the use of price promotions when these policies were introduced. The proposed programme of work will evaluate, from a public health perspective, the impact of these two policies. The overall two-year project is led by Dr Oliver Mytton (PI) from GOS ICH, and includes partners at Universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, Exeter, City & St George’s, Oxford, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. It will take a systems perspective and include consumer purchasing data, economic evidence, consumer interviews, industry perspectives, and health & economic modelling.We are seeking a data scientist with strong quantitative skills to develop the protocol; and lead and undertake data analysis with the support of relevant Co-Investigators on two key projects that contribute to the evaluation:

• Consumer Purchase Analysis: Purchase data for a single supermarket to assess how the changes in price promotions offered to loyalty card holders have changed, and how their food purchasing has changed as a result of the policy using natural experimental methods.

• Health Impact Modelling: Adapting and developing, then applying an established public health model (PRIMEtime) to estimate how changes in food purchasing (from other analyses in the project) translate into population health outcomes (e.g., obesity and diet-related diseases) and healthcare costs.

This role involves preparation of large datasets (around 2 million records), conducting statistical analyses (including Interrupted Time Series Analysis), performing subgroup and sensitivity analyses, and preparing reports and publications for both academic and policymaking audiences.The successful candidate will be part of a small team at GOS ICH (the ‘Public Health Approaches To Obesity Prevention’ team) and part of the wider NIHR research team collaborating with leading researchers from the partner institutions, including specialists in the field of Natural Experiments and one of the developers of the PRIMEtime model. This post is funded initially for 6 months and is then expected to be funded for 2 years in the first instance.About youWe are looking for a motivated and analytical researcher with:

• A PhD (or near completion) in epidemiology, public health, health sciences, or a related quantitative field. Candidates without a PhD will be appointed at Grade 6B, with progression to Grade 7 upon final submission of their PhD thesis without corrections.

• Experience working with large quantitative datasets (cleaning, merging, and analysis). • Strong quantitative and regression analysis skills using statistical software (preferably R, Python or Stata).

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience in presenting complex data to diverse audiences.

• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a research team.

What we offer As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents we also offer some great benefits some of which are below: 41 Days holiday (including 27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days) Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE) Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan On-Site nursery On-site gym Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service Discounted medical insuranceOur commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here : https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/Available documents

Expected salary

Location

North West London

Job date

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 06:15:15 GMT

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