MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow

Career Development Fellow

Fixed term: 3 years

Starting salary £26,022 to £31,758 pa

We are offering a highly-regarded post-doctoral Career Development Fellowship for someone with strong qualitative skills. The successful candidate will work on the Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health (DASH) study to assess the cultural appropriateness of psychosocial measures and the usefulness of feeding back results to respondents. This is an excellent opportunity for someone to receive post-doctoral experience in a leading multi-disciplinary research establishment with a view to developing a research career in the field of social public health research. This post offers opportunities to undertake research in topics generally under-researched whilst gaining further research and transferable skills training.

This post will be involved in two substantial pieces of work in the feasibility study: the assessment of the cultural appropriateness of mental health/cognitive measures and evaluation of feedback of results to respondents. The Career Development Fellow will be expected to lead the research process - conduct the fieldwork, analyse and write up the findings.

Applicants must have a good (1^st class or 2:1) honours degree in medical sociology, psychology, social science, public health or social/public policy or a related discipline and a PhD (awarded) in medical sociology, psychology, social science, public health or social/public policy or a related discipline. You should also be familiar with psychosocial measures and lay model explanations of health and have an excellent understanding of qualitative methods, including the use of appropriate software to conduct analysis (eg NVivo).

The successful candidate will be supervised by Professor Seeromanie Harding, Programme Leader. Further details of this programme of research can be found on our website http://www.sphsu.mrc.ac.uk/research-programmes/eh/.

The MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit is well resourced and has an impressive track record in studying the impact of social factors on health behaviours and illness. For further information about the unit visit www.sphsu.mrc.ac.uk. Informal enquiries may be directed to Professor Seeromanie Harding at s.harding@sphsu.mrc.ac.uk or call 0141 357 3949.

Applications are handled by the RCUK Shared Services Centre; to apply please visit our job board at https://ext.ssc.rcuk.ac.uk to view the full job description and person requirements and complete an online application quoting reference IRC44124. If you are unable to apply online please contact us on 01793 867003. Closing date for applications: 19^th March 2012. The planned date for interviews is 27^th April 2012. When applying online please upload a cover letter and CV clearly stating in your letter why you would like to be considered for this position and how you meet each of the criteria listed in the Person Requirements. Please also supply the details of two referees.

Please note that appointment will be made subject to pre-employment health and security screening and satisfactory references.

The Medical Research Council is an Equal Opportunities Employer.