Research Fellow in Statistics/Epidemiology

Job Description

Research Fellow in Statistics/Epidemiology Vacancy ref: B02-11377: Grade: 7 Salary (including London Allowance): £46,261 – £54,019 per annum

Department: UCL GOS Institute of Child Health: Location: 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH / Hybrid

Reports to

Dr Ruth Blackburn

The UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child

Health (GOS ICH)

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 five scientific programmes: Developmental Biology and Cancer (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/child-health/research/developmentalbiology-cancer)

Developmental Neurosciences (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/child-health/research/developmentalneurosciences) Genetics and Genomic Medicine (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/child-health/research/genetics-genomicmedicine) Infection, Immunity and Inflammation (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/child/research/infection-immunityinflammation) Population, Policy and Practice (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/child-health/research/population-policypractice)

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 in recognition of its commitment to advancing women’s careers in science, technology, engineering, maths, and medicine (STEMM) employment in academia.

The Institute Director is Professor Helen Cross. Further information on GOS ICH can be found at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/child-health The UCL GOS ICH is part of the Faculty of Population Health Sciences and the School of Life and Medical Sciences. For more information please visit the following websites for the School (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/school-life-medical-sciences), and the Faculty (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/population-health-sciences).

Context

The successful candidate will join the ECHILD team and Child Health Informatics Group (CHIG) at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and contribute to an ambitious programme of research using linked population-level health, education and social care data. ECHILD comprises linked records for approximately 20 million children and young people in England, bringing together information from healthcare, education and social care systems and providing a unique platform for life-course population health research. The resource also includes mother-child linkages, facilitating research into intergenerational influences on health and development.

Main purpose of the job

The postholder will be strategically linked to the HDR UK Research Driver Programmes on Social and Environmental Determinants of Health and Molecules to Health Records. The role offers opportunities to work across multiple nationally important linked datasets, including primary and secondary care electronic health records, and other relevant health and administrative data resources. A central feature of the role will be the use of large-scale administrative data and electronic health records to address important questions relating to child health, healthcare utilisation, developmental trajectories, health inequalities, population genomics and precision medicine. The successful candidate will work closely with multidisciplinary colleagues across UCL and partner organisations while contributing intellectually to the development of new research questions, analytical approaches and collaborative projects.

We are seeking an outstanding epidemiologist, biostatistician, health data scientist or population health researcher with expertise in the analysis of large-scale routinely collected data, including primary care electronic health records, hospital administrative data. Working within the ECHILD team and alongside leading researchers in child health, epidemiology, statistics and data science, they will contribute to the design, delivery and dissemination of high-quality research studies that address important questions in child health, health services, population health, health inequalities and precision medicine. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to develop their research portfolio within the broader priorities of the ECHILD team, UCL and HDR UK. There is scope for the successful candidate to shape the scientific direction of their work, develop new collaborations and research ideas, and contribute to emerging research at the interface of population health, health data science and precision medicine.

Duties and Responsibilities

The postholder will

• Contribute to the development and delivery of a programme of research using linked administrative, healthcare and electronic health record data.
• Design and conduct epidemiological, statistical and data science studies using primary care, secondary care, education and social care datasets.
• Manage, prepare and analyse large-scale longitudinal datasets.
• Apply and develop quantitative methods for the analysis of routinely collected data, including longitudinal modelling, causal inference, prediction modelling and related approaches.
• Work collaboratively with researchers, clinicians, policy-makers and public contributors.
• Publish high-quality research in peer-reviewed journals and present findings at national and international conferences.
• Contribute to the preparation of research funding applications and fellowship opportunities, where appropriate
• Support the supervision of postgraduate students and early-career researchers where appropriate.
• Support the strategic development of child health data science and population health research within the Institute.

General

The staff member has a responsibility to carry out their duties in a way that embodies UCL's environmental and social sustainability values, actively supporting UCL's Sustainability Strategy, policies and objectives within the remit of their role. They will; Follow and actively promote the UCL Ways of Working.

Takes responsibility to carry out duties in a way that embodies UCL's environmental and social sustainability values, actively supporting UCL's Sustainability Strategy, policies and objectives within the remit of their role.

Carry out any other duties within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job as requested by the line manager.

This job description may be reviewed and be subject to amendment in consultation with the post holder.

If applicable: UCL offers hybrid working where appropriate and the successful applicant may normally work remotely for up to 60% of the week if they wish.

Person Specification

Essential Criteria: Assessment method (Application form/ Interview / Practical Test)

Qualifications, experience and knowledge

PhD in epidemiology, biostatistics, health data science, public health, population health, or equivalent experience: Application Experience of conducting quantitative research using large-scale healthcare, administrative and/or electronic health record datasets, including the management and analysis of complex linked data: Application Strong understanding of epidemiological study design and statistical methods for longitudinal population health research: Application/ Interview Knowledge of data governance, confidentiality and information security requirements for sensitive data: Interview

Skills and abilities

Excellent statistical programming skills (e.g. R, Python or Stata) and commitment to open science practices such as code sharing: Application Ability to contribute to the development of research questions and deliver high-quality research collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams: Application/ interview Ability to apply advanced analytical approaches, such as causal inference methods, prediction modelling, machine learning or artificial intelligence: Interview Ability to work independently and manage competing priorities: Interview Ability to conduct high-quality research and produce publications: Application /Interview

UCL Ways of Working

Highly self-motivated, hardworking, committed to the UCL Ways of Working.: Interview

Desirable Criteria: Assessment method (Application form/ Interview / Practical Test)

Qualifications, experience and knowledge

Experience of working with linked healthcare and administrative data resources such as CPRD, Hospital Episode Statistics, ECHILD, the National Pupil Database, or equivalent datasets.: Application/ Interview Research experience in child health, developmental disorders, rare diseases, health inequalities, genomics, or related areas of population health: Application/ Interview Knowledge of molecular epidemiology, genetic epidemiology or genomic medicine, including an interest in how genomic and molecular data can best be integrated with routine healthcare and administrative records to support clinical care, precision medicine and precision public health: Application/ Interview