Application closing date: 07/12/2020
Salary: £33,797 - £38,017 per annum
Job category/type: Research

We are recruiting for a Research Fellow in Dementia and Delirium to support the follow-up of an existing research cohort. The cohort of 315 participants was recruited in 2012-2014 to investigate post-operative delirium following primary arthroplasty surgery.

Evidence is accumulating that postoperative delirium is a marker of brain vulnerability. Cognitive prognosis following delirium remains unclear. This project aims to test the hypothesis that participants who developed postoperative delirium will have worse cognition eight years later compared to those who did not develop postoperative delirium and the effect of delirium will be independent of preoperative cognition and biomarkers. This project will follow up participants previously recruited between 2012 and 2014 to an observational cohort study investigating postoperative delirium following elective orthopaedic surgery which sampled DNA, plasma and cerebrospinal fluid. Participants will be invited for a telephone interview followed by a one-off follow-up study visit where updated medical history, repeat cognitive assessments, collateral history taking and blood sampling will be completed. It is anticipated that the results of this study will inform individualised prognosis following postoperative delirium. This in turn will strengthen the case for national and international guidelines regarding postoperative patient counselling, follow-up care planning and intervention to improve brain health and potentially modify Alzheimer’s disease processes after postoperative delirium. If delirium is shown to independently predict subsequent cognitive decline, even when baseline vulnerability is comprehensively corrected for, this will have further implications for the prevention of dementia on a global scale. Given available effective multicomponent interventions to reduce risk, it could also provide a modifiable risk factor for dementia.

The successful candidate will also be supported by the Faculty Postdoctoral Development Centre as part of a wider Queen’s offering which provides outstanding support to researchers.

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’ relevant research experience and skills relevant to this project.
• Experience of using statistical packages such as SPSS or STATA.
• Experience handling raw clinical data.

This post is available until 2 April 2022.

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 one of three research Centres in the School and is based within three buildings on the Royal Victoria Hospital site.  CPH 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 holds an Athena SWAN silver award and the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences holds an Athena SWAN Gold 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 and 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 via email on resourcing@qub.ac.uk.

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.

The University is committed to equality of opportunity and welcomes applications from all. However, our employment monitoring data tells us that individuals from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, people with a disability and those who identify as LGBT+ are currently under-represented at the University. Also protestants are currently under-represented in this category of work. As such, we particularly welcome applications from these individuals.

As you may be aware, Queen’s is recognised as one of the most diverse organisations in Northern Ireland. We are committed to ensuring our workplace is a safe, welcoming and inclusive place to work, which is why we subscribe to Equality Charter Marks such as Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, Diversity Charter Mark NI and Athena SWAN.

It is also why we have established award winning Staff Networks such as PRISM and iRise. These networks provide an opportunity for staff to meet in a friendly, informal way to support each other. More details on all our networks can be found at

https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/StaffGateway/StaffNetworks/.

Informal enquiries may be directed to Dr Bernadette McGuinness via email to B.McGuinness@qub.ac.uk.

Candidate Information
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