Application closing date: 21/10/2020
Salary: £33,797 - £39,152 per annum
Job category/type: Research

Job description

We are recruiting for a Research Fellow in Harmonised Cognitive Aging Protocol (HCAP) Study who will support the development of the Natitional Institute of Health funded Harmonizing Cognitive Assessments in Irish, English, and American Longitudinal Studies: Supporting Cross-National Research on the Epidemiology of Dementia. The primary aim of the project is to carry out the Harmonised Cognitive Aging Protocol (HCAP) Study within the Northern Ireland Cohort of Longitudinal Aging (NICOLA) study in the Centre for Public Health.

The Research Fellow will conduct the HCAP, harmonise scoring and establish research diagnoses of probable presence or absence of dementia and cognitive impairment in a  subsample of NICOLA participants age >65 years using algorithms developed in collaboration with the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in USA  and the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA) based on harmonised  measures. A similar study will be run in parallel in The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA). The successful candidate lead a team of research nurses/assistants and will construct estimates of dementia prevalence for national populations and develop population weights to account for non-random participation and institutionalization (care homes), analyse the relationships between the harmonised HCAP data and the more limited cognitive and functioning measures in the core Irish studies. The Research Fellow will conduct preliminary analyses to investigate potential causal pathways from cardiovascular instability, cerebral microvascular disease and sensory impairment to dementia, use cross-country analyses to investigate how stress and long-term exposure to conflict in a unique cohort of older adults affects cognitive aging and physiological ageing and methylation/epigenetic patterns in known risk loci related to traumatic stress and establish potentially modifiable risk factors for primary and secondary prevention of dementia

The Research Fellow will be supported by the Faculty Postdoctoral Development Centre as part of a wider Queen’s offering which provides outstanding support to researchers to help move into an independent research or academic post. 

The successful candidate must have:

• Honours Degree minimum of a 2:1 (or equivalent) in a health, social sciences, public health, or statistics related subject.
• Have or be about to obtain a relevant PhD in epidemiology, social sciences, applied statistics, informatics, or public health related area including pharmacy and  economics
• At least 3 years’ recent relevant research experience and skills relevant to this project.
• Experience of using statistical packages such as SPSS or STATA.

This post is available until 30 June 2023

The School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences is part of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences. The School has the perfect balance of world-class teaching resources and internationally recognised research infrastructure and comprises of three education and three research centres.

The Centre for Public (CPH) Health is committed to identifying the epidemiological and genetic risk factors that are important for the health of the individual and of the population and developing screening and interventions to reduce the burden of chronic diseases in the future, thus advancing the health of the public at a regional, national and international level, by increasing knowledge and influencing clinical and public health practice and policy.

Queen’s University Belfast is a driver of innovation and talent based on excellence. Throughout the University, our academics collaborate across disciplines and with outside agencies and institutions on projects of world significance. We are connected and networked with strategic partnerships across the world, helping us to expand our impact on wider society locally, nationally and globally. The University is committed to attracting, retaining and developing the best global talent within an environment that enables them to realise their full potential.

We are a leader in gender equality and diversity, and are one of the UK’s most successful universities in the Athena SWAN initiative, which promotes gender equality and career progression. The University and the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences hold an Athena SWAN Silver award in recognition of our commitment and success in addressing gender equality, representation, progression and success for all our staff.

We are ranked 1st in the UK for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (Innovate UK), 9th in the UK for University facilities (Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2018) and 14th in the UK for research quality (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019).

Based in Belfast, a modern capital city, our beautiful campus is surrounded by abundant acres of parkland and is renowned as one of the safest and most affordable cities in the UK. There is an excellent range of local Schools from pre-nursery upwards, we are immensely proud of what our city, and our University will offer you.

For full job details and essential/desirable criteria please refer to the candidate information link on our website by clicking apply. You must clearly demonstrate how you meet the criteria when you submit your application. For further information or assistance, contact Resourcing Team, Queen's University Belfast, BT7 1NN. Email on resourcing@qub.ac.uk

The University is committed to equality of opportunity and to selection on merit. We welcome applications from all sections of society and particularly from people with a disability.

Fixed term contract posts are available for the stated period in the first instance but, in particular circumstances, may be renewed or made permanent, subject to availability of funding.

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