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Our Early Life and Prevention theme at the University of York are looking for an organised, motivated and enthusiastic epidemiologist to contribute to the understanding and evaluation of a programme of population health work led by the University of York and the Bradford Institute of Health Sciences. This will include analysis of routine and research data to support programmes that aim to promote a healthier, fairer future for children living in deprived areas, including Born in Bradford, the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) ActEarly City Collaboratory and the Better Start Bradford programme. Such programmes support the identification, co-production, implementation and evaluation of upstream interventions in areas with high levels of child poverty; providing a new whole system environment where the public, scientists, policymakers and practitioners work with each other. 

This post will be appointed by the University of York, but the successful applicant will join multidisciplinary teams and have the opportunity to build networks and collaborations across multiple sectors. They will work under the supervision of Professors Maria Bryant and Kate Pickett in the Public Health & Society research group. 

The post holder will play a pivotal role, where they will help to identify policy relevant research questions, investigate associations and trends in exposures and outcomes, analyse data and produce papers/outputs to enable decision making for policies that have the best chances of improving the wellbeing of families, children and young adults. 

We are looking for someone who shares our exciting vision to join us in contributing to a ground-breaking research programme that will shape the lives of future generations.

Click on the link for more information and how to apply: https://jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/research-associate-research-fellow-epidemiologists-499596.html 

Closing date: Sunday 30th October

Do you want to address the critical gap between evidence and practice? Do you want to do cutting-edge research with interdisciplinary supervisors and develop a career as a research methodologist? If so, this studentship opportunity will appeal to you.

Full description

Global population projections indicate that older people (aged 65 years or older) are the fastest growing sector of the population, with the proportion set to almost double by 2050 (and trebling within the ‘oldest old’ age group aged 85 years or older).  Multimorbidity, defined as living with two or more long term conditions, is almost universal in older adults and is associated with increased demand for care.  Our ageing population has profound implications for service planning and delivery of evidence-based care.

There is a growing body of research evidence describing and evaluating interventions to improve the health and well-being of older people living in the community. These often involve interdisciplinary teams from health and social care sectors delivering various combinations of support, rehabilitation and health promotion, with the aim of enabling older people to live and function more independently.  The most robust evidence for these interventions generally comes from randomised controlled trials, whereby older people are randomly allocated to an intervention or comparison arm and followed up to examine any differences in outcomes. However, there are challenges in designing trials of such interventions and in translating evidence from trials into routine service delivery.

First, these interventions are typically ‘complex’. They involve several interacting parts and may target several groups of people and behaviours to bring about a range of outcomes.  It can be difficult to tell why complex interventions appear to work in some trials but not in others. One way forward is to learn more from process evaluations. These are quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods studies which help explain trial results.  The success of complex interventions depends on how the intervention actually works (mechanism of action), whether the intervention is implemented as intended (fidelity), and the circumstances within which the intervention is delivered (context). Process evaluations of trials generally aim to explain whether intervention success or failure is related to one or more of these influences.

Process evaluations from recent, selected systematic reviews of complex interventions targeting older people (e.g. models of rehabilitation, intermediate care, or discharge planning) may offer valuable insights into why such interventions work or not – and therefore inform the future design and implementation of complex interventions.

Second, trial findings may be difficult to translate into routine service delivery. For example, there is a long history of excluding older adults (and particularly the oldest old) from clinical trials of interventions, despite the need for such interventions falling disproportionately in the oldest populations.  Thus, there may be difficulties in applying findings from randomised trials if study participants and resources are not typical of those in routine service settings, or previous research fails to adapt interventions developed in younger populations to suit the needs of older people. There are approaches to examine the applicability of trials to ‘real world’ conditions, which can be used to assess their relevance and feasibility to routine service settings.

Third, designing and evaluating new complex interventions is costly and time-consuming. Ideally, interventions of demonstrated effectiveness for a given patient population, service setting and targeted problem should be adapted for use in one or more of a different population, problem or setting. Adaptation may offer a more efficient route to translating evidence into practice than investing in developing new interventions.

This thesis will address these three challenges in a programme of work focused around complex interventions for older people. The programme is likely to include:

A systematic review of process evaluations of randomised trials of complex interventions for older people to explore the degrees to which mechanisms of action, fidelity and context appear to account for intervention effectiveness;

A systematic review of protocols and trial reports of trials of complex interventions for older people to assess applicability to routine service settings;

An interview study with health and social care service leads for older people to consider whether and how a selection of evaluated complex interventions can be adapted to their populations, problems, and service settings.

It is expected that the candidate will develop expertise in mixed-method research skills (qualitative and quantitative methods) with wider transferability to applied health services research.

Environment

The student will be based at the University of Leeds in the Leeds Unit for Complex Intervention Development (LUCID), a methodological research group based across LIHS and the Leeds Institute for Clinical Trials Research, focused on developing and optimising complex healthcare interventions to improve patient and public outcomes. Training will be provided in the relevant technical areas. The student will join doctoral students based in LIHS and also be linked to doctoral students funded by the Yorkshire and Humber ARC. An annual training budget of £750 will also be available to the successful candidate for this studentship.

For further information and to apply, click here: https://phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1336-translating-complex-interventions-for-older-people-into-routine-service-delivery

Application deadline: Wednesday 28th September 2022

Would you like to take a leading role in a major centre for Ageing research? Do you have an excellent research track record with the vision and drive to tackle new challenges? Are you passionate about delivering world leading research and an exceptional student experience?

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the development and leadership of a very successful multi-disciplinary research programme and foster collaborative relationships within the University and with external academic, NHS, local authority, care home, voluntary sector and industry partners.  You should have a significant record of successful research and publication, and you will have demonstrated the potential to contribute publications in high impact factor journals and attract grant income in ageing research.  You will be able to draw on extensive academic excellence to underpin and carry out research, teaching, leadership and management in the field of ageing research within the ASR and within the wider Institute, School and Faculty.

Click on the link for more information and how to apply: https://jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=MHIHS1322 

Closing date: Thursday 20th September 2022

This is an exciting opportunity to join an internationally recognised centre for stroke research which is undertaking world leading research. We are seeking an Associate Professor with expertise and particular interest in stroke care to take a leading role in the existing team of applied health researchers and increase grant income from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and other funding bodies. It is anticipated that the successful candidate is likely to have expertise in a particular aspect of methodology, for example, qualitative / quantitative approaches, behaviour change or intervention development.

For further information and to apply, click here: https://jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=MHIHS1321

Closing date: Thursday 20th September 2022

The Department of Health Sciences, University of York, and the Bradford Institute for Health Research invite applications for a fully-funded full-time PhD studentship to start in January 2023. The project is on childhood mental health and early life experience funded by the Yorkshire and Humber Applied Research Collaboration (YHARC). 

This PhD project will explore the role of adversity, social context and economic position on child and adolescent mental health, in The Born in Bradford (BiB) study, the world’s largest multi-ethnic birth cohort. We are particularly interested in how maternal mental health and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) impact subsequent psychological, cognitive and educational outcomes.

For further information and to apply, click here: https://bit.ly/3zkdkao 

Application deadline: Friday 9th September 2022

Born in Bradford (BiB) is an internationally acclaimed applied research programme which aims to improve health and wellbeing through the development and evaluation of interventions to promote health, and the application of research into practice. We have a vision to promote a healthier, fairer future for children living in deprived areas through a focus on improving environments that can influence health and life chances.

 We are looking for an organised, motivated and enthusiastic senior research fellow with strong mixed methods or quantitative research skills to manage our new indoor quality project within our BiB ‘Healthy Places’ research portfolio. Funded by NERC, our Ingenious project (UnderstandING the sourcEs, traNsformations and fates of IndOor air pollUtantS) will monitor indoor air quality in the homes of our Born in Bradford cohort families to investigate how indoor air pollutants can adversely affect the health of people, and explore whether interventions to improve indoor air quality are effective. The post holder will take the lead role in planning, co-ordinating and completing the project, including developing the research protocol and obtaining approvals.

 This is a unique opportunity to be part of a new and exciting initiative which will have real impact on improving the life chances of some of the poorest children growing up in the UK by making lasting changes to the environments in which they live.

This is a full time post however, Part time working considered, minimum 26 hours a week (3.5 days). 

From 1 April 2022 all healthcare workers in settings providing regulated activity must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of employment unless they are exempt under the regulations. This will apply to everyone working in clinical roles and/or working in clinical areas

We can offer staff gymnasiums on both hospital sites, excellent pension scheme and advice on childcare.

For further information and to apply, click here: https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/vacancy/917012952

Application deadline: 17th March 2022

The School of Health related Research, at the University of Sheffield is pleased to advertise a funded PhD opportunity.  The studentship is part of a research programme for the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (NIHR ARCs). The Health Economics, Evaluation and Equality (HEEE) cross-cutting theme aims to work collaboratively with the four core themes and in partnership with local NHS, public health and social care collaborators. This research will focus on improving efficiency and equity in the use of public resources using methods for conducting cross-sector evaluations including mathematical modelling, statistical and econometric methods. The HEEE theme are offering a PhD opportunity and strongly encourage candidates to propose topics in the following areas:

• Older Peoples Theme

Develop a system level approach to model the economic arguments of implementing interventions to prevent/improve frailty and delayed transfers of care (DTOC) for older people with complex and heterogeneous needs. The theme will look to simulate the reality of supply side availability and constraints as well as using conventional economic theory to understand the economic incentives and outcomes for patients and stakeholders such as the NHS and Social Services.   

• Urgent and Emergency Care Theme

Develop a systems modelling approach to identify and evaluate options for preventing excessive Emergency Departments waiting times. We are particularly interested in developing simulation approaches to examine system level interventions to reduce ED attendances and manage flows through a Department. For example, work may focus on the analysis of options to avoid unnecessary attendances or to avoid delays in transferring patients out of hospital, the design of performance metrics that avoid perverse incentives, or combinations of interventions. The successful applicant will have access to a large routine data set of the ED including arrivals, investigations and treatments in hospitals within the region to help inform the model.

For further information and to apply, click here: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/systems-level-modelling-in-older-people-urgent-and-emergency-care-with-the-health-economics-evaluation-and-equality-theme-heee-of-the-arc-yh/?p134121

Application deadline: Friday 28th January 2022

Our Mental and Physical Multimorbidity theme are looking for an enthusiastic Research Associate with experience of quantitative research and cohort studies to join the Mental Health and Addiction Research Group led by Professor Simon Gilbody at the Department of Health Sciences, University of York.

This programme, is being led by the HEY Smile Foundation and the Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership and aims to develop a ‘test and learn’ site for Green Social Prescribing across the six places of East Yorkshire, Hull, North Yorkshire, Vale of York, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.

 For further information and to apply, click here: https://bit.ly/3nMf6eD   

 Application closing date: Friday 3rd December 2021.

Our Older People with Frailty theme are looking for an enthusiastic, highly organised and motivated individual to join our exciting new research programme in the role of a Research Fellow.

The programme aims to explore current evidence and service provision, and then working closely with PPI colleagues and other stakeholders to develop service model(s) to support older people living with frailty to manage their pain and reduce its impact on their lives.

 For further information and to apply, click here:  https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/vacancy/916828691 

 Application closing date: Sunday 14th November 2021.

A fantastic opportunity has arisen in our Older People with Frailty theme within the Academic Unit for Ageing and Stroke Research (ASR) for a Senior Research Fellow to implement high quality health research addressing the needs of an ageing population.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, organised and motivated researcher with qualitative experience to take on the role of Senior Research Fellow. 

 For further information and to apply, click here: https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/vacancy/916833191 

 Application closing date: Monday 15th November 2021.

The overarching aim of Yorkshire and Humber ARC's Older people with frailty theme is to improve physical and mental health of older people living with frailty, including care home residents, and generate major health and care efficiency savings.

This PhD provides the successful candidate with scope to explore varying directions within the objectives set out to achieve the stated aim based on their interests and skills.  They will have the opportunity to work closely with other Yorkshire and Humber ARC researchers to ensure this PhD complements ongoing research in this area.

For further information and to apply, click here: https://phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/947-core-outcome-measures-for-the-evaluation-of-complex-interventions-targeted-at-sustaining-independence-in-older-people-with-frailty

Application closing date: Friday 13th August 2021.

This is an exciting opportunity to undertake a PhD within Yorkshire and Humber ARC's Improvement Science theme.

People with severe mental illness (SMI) die on average 15-20 years younger than people without SMI (Brown et al., 2010).  The main cause is preventable physical diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes (Thornicroft, 2011). Health risk behaviours contribute to the increased risk of such diseases in people with SMI, with smoking being one of the most important modifiable risk factors (Firth et al., 2019). 

This PhD studentship will address this research gap, applying the positive deviance approach, which is a bottom up approach to quality improvement, to identify recommendations for how better to support people with SMI to reduce or stop smoking. The PhD will also compare these recommendations with those developed using a more traditional 'top down' approach of an evidence review. As such the PhD will compare a bottom up with a top down approach to developing improvement recommendations.

For further information and to apply, click here: https://phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1074-improving-support-for-people-with-severe-mental-illness-to-quit-smoking-comparing-a-bottom-up-with-a-top-down-quality-improvement-approach

Application closing date: Monday 30th August 2021.

The NHS 111 telephone advice and triage service is a vital part of the management of urgent and emergency care (UEC) services in England. Demand for NHS 111 advice has increased since its introduction in 2013, and the service is of particular importance in light of the current pandemic and resulting increased demand for emergency care. Currently, little is known about the effectiveness of NHS 111 in terms of the appropriateness of the advice given, or about the compliance of patients with that advice. Our Urgent and Emergency Care theme aimed to address this issue by analysing a large linked routine dataset of all NHS 111 calls (n = 3,631,069) and subsequent emergency department (ED) attendances made in the Yorkshire & Humber region from March 2013-March 2017. 

Read the full publication here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33970946/

This is an exciting opportunity to undertake a PhD within Yorkshire and Humber ARC's Urgent and Emergency Care theme.

Epilepsy care is suboptimal and the role of primary care poorly defined. Mobilisation of primary care could lead to improved outcomes. The PhD candidate will work with leaders in the field to develop expertise in research methods, synthesise the published evidence, create a conceptual framework, based on the theory of expert medical generalism, and make policy and training recommendations. 

 For further information and to apply, click here.

 Application closing date: Sunday 11th July 2021.

This is an exciting opportunity to undertake a PhD within the Yorkshire and Humber Applied Research Collaboration funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). 

This is one of two scholarships currently available within our Improvement Science Theme. The scholarships will be hosted within the School of Psychology within the University of Leeds. You will also be part of a stimulating and supportive network of students working across the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber ARC and the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.

 For further information and to apply, click here.

 Application closing date: Tuesday 27th April 2021.

This is an exciting opportunity to undertake a PhD within the Yorkshire and Humber Applied Research Collaboration funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). 

This is one of two scholarships currently available within our Improvement Science Theme. The scholarships will be hosted within the School of Psychology within the University of Leeds. You will also be part of a stimulating and supportive network of students working across the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber ARC and the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.

 For further information and to apply, click here.

 Application closing date: Tuesday 27th April 2021.

The Academic Unit for Ageing and Stroke Research is pleased to announce an excellent PhD scholarship opportunity - Addressing the needs of older people with frailty.

 The scholarship is part of the Older People with Frailty theme in the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Applied Research Collaboration.

 For further information and to apply, click here.

 Application closing date: Wednesday 7th October 2020.

Based at the University of Sheffield, this PhD opportunity is part of the ARC YH Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Theme, led by Professor Suzanne Mason. Aims include: to deliver improvements to demand and flow through the UEC system using a learning health systems approach, prioritising outcomes important to patients and providers and building on a track record of delivery and impact in this area of national NHS priority.

 For further information and to apply, click here.

 Application closing date: Saturday 31st October 2020.