Research Fellow, Level 2

NEX Project: Developing technological solutions to support older adults to live independently at home

Centre for eIntegrated Care (CeIC)

School of Nursing, Psychotherapy & Community Health

Dublin City University

• Fixed Term Contract, 8 months

Dublin City University www.dcu.ie is a research-intensive, globally-engaged, dynamic institution that is distinguished both by the quality and impact of its graduates and by its focus on the translation of knowledge into societal and economic benefit. Through its mission to transform lives and societies through education, research and innovation, DCU acts as an agent of social, cultural and economic progress. DCU is Ireland’s fastest growing university, and now hosts more than 17,000 students across its three academic campuses: DCU Glasnevin Campus, DCU St Patrick’s Campus and DCU All Hallows campus.

Centre for eIntegrated Care (CeIC)

The Centre for eIntegrated Care (CeIC) at the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health in DCU aims to improve health and social care for citizens by advancing access to integrated care records. The centre brings together academic research expertise from within DCU as well as industry partners, health and social care practitioners, patients and citizens.

NEX Project

The CeIC team are working in partnership with academic partners in DCU Insight and School of Psychology as well as industry partners Davra and Danalto. The overall project, NEX, will be executed over a 36 month period and the approach and methodology of the project will follow a cyclical approach. In the initial phase, a user needs and requirements study will be carried out with patients/citizens and health and social care professionals. This phase will ensure the development of systems that blend user needs with technology advancement. The findings will inform the design and development of the monitoring system which will be validated in a lab environment and tested in a friendly trial. Ethics approval will be obtained for conduct of action research cycles at scale with opportunities to feed back into design and development activities. This exciting project has the capacity to disrupt how health and social care services are provided to older adults in their homes.

Role Profile

A vacancy has arisen fora Research Fellowfor a period of 8 months. The role will be based in the CeIC at the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health and will report directly to the Principal Investigator (PI),Dr Catriona Murphy. Fieldwork will be undertaken at participating health and social care locations and in participants’ homes.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Coordinate the NEX project with the support and supervision of the PI and project team in theCeIC. Undertake day to day management of the project
• Prepare ethical approval documentation for the various phases of the project
• Coordinate and lead the user needs and requirements study in concert with stakeholders, including but not limited to older adults and their families/carers, health and social care practitioners and technical partners
• Coordinate and develop detailed protocols for participant recruitment and ensure risk minimisation during the trial periods
• Development and coordination of survey and measurement instrument design, implementing the friendly and action research trials, data collection and analysis
• Coordinate project documentation including minutes of meetings, financial accounts and defined project plans
• Prepare reports of the user needs and requirements study and the friendly trial for dissemination to the stakeholder community and funders
• Supervise research assistants working on the NEX project
• Coordinate relationships and communications between research participants, CeIC, Insight and industry partners
• Produce high quality publications and conference presentations in concert with the PIs. Deliver presentations at conferences and seminars and promote other social media activities for NEX project dissemination

Candidate Requirements

Essential:

• PhD in a relevant area such as psychology, nursing, social science, health services research, allied health disciplines or related disciplines relevant to the research topic.
• Applicants should have a minimum of 4 years’ postdoctoral research or equivalent at Level 1of the Research Career Framework.  Such experience should include that conducted in the fields of health or social care, including recruiting patients/citizens and liaising with health and social care personnel
• Well-developed qualitative and quantitative research skills with a publication track record
• Excellent written and oral proficiency in English
• Proven ability to manage an interdisciplinary team
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Proven ability to prioritise workload and work to strict deadlines
• Proven ability to work in a diverse team
• Strong organisational and problem solving abilities

Desirable:

• Experience of information and communication technology research in health and social care

Mandatory Training

The post holder will be required to undertake the following mandatory compliance training: GDPR, Orientation, and Compliance.  Other training may need to be undertaken when required.