Population, Health & Wellbeing (PHeW)

Location:  Highfield Campus
Salary:   £33,314 to £36,386 per annum
Full Time Fixed Term until 31/01/2025
Closing Date:  Tuesday 21 February 2023
Interview Date:   To be confirmed
Reference:  2152123WR

Be part of the world-renowned WorldPop Group at the University of Southampton, a global top 100 university (QS World Rankings 2021). WorldPop is an award winning, multi-sectoral team of researchers, technicians and project specialists working on producing data on population distributions and characteristics at high spatial resolution. 

We are seeking to recruit a Research Fellow in Social Statistics/Demography to work on a Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) funded project aiming to mapping socio-economic, women and child health-related indicators in a number of low and middle-income countries at high spatial resolution. The goal of the project is to generate estimates at grid level of socio-economic, women and child health-related indicators, compare their trends over time and visualise maps on an online portal, to provide support to the funder’s activities.  

We require an enthusiastic individual to undertake high-quality research culminating in the construction of subnational level socio-economic, women and child health-related indicators based on the assembly of household survey data from different time points (in particular the Demographic and Health Surveys – DHS), to produce over time comparison analysis and display and to collaboratively work with the team at WorldPop.   

As well as joining the vibrant and well-connected WorldPop team based at the School of Geography and Environmental Science, you will have opportunities to lead high-impact publications, deliver workshops aimed at training project stakeholders and present at national and international conferences.  

You will have a PhD* or equivalent professional qualifications and relevant research experience in a social statistics/demography/epidemiology/health geography/statistical/mathematical/or a related quantitative discipline. Strong experience in social statistics and analysis, and in working with household survey data and good understanding of socio-economic and demographic indicators and aspects of survey sampling. Computer programming in STATA, SPSS or R would be essential. GIS skills would be advantageous. The project work will be highly interdisciplinary and as such there is some flexibility to accommodate expertise from a range of related disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. geography, public health, demography, statistics).    

*Applications will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification.  The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon completion of PhD.  Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given. 

The School of Geography and Environmental Science is committed to fostering a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion https://www.southampton.ac.uk/geography/about/equality-diversity-and-inclusion.page. We welcome applications from suitably qualified candidates, and particularly encourage applications from candidates belonging to groups who are under-represented within academic posts at the University, including, but not limited to: people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, people who identify as LGBTQ+; and people with disabilities. 

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Carla Pezzulo (C.Pezzulo@soton.ac.uk) and Professor Andrew Tatem (A.J.Tatem@soton.ac.uk).

For a full list of the role tasks and responsibilities, please see the attached Job Description & Person Specification.

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Application Procedure 

Please include a covering letter, full CV and 2 letters of recommendation in your application. The application deadline is midnight on the closing date stated above. If you need assistance, call Recruitment on  +44 (0) 23 8059 2750, or email recruitment@soton.ac.uk. Quote the advert reference on all correspondence.