Research Assistant

Weekly Working Hours: 9.25

Fixed Term Contract: End Date: 31/08/2025

Welsh Language Standard: Not Applicable

About the Role

The role holder will be part of the research team for the IRC research project, led by Dr Inge Hill, and will report to the principal investigator Dr Hill. The role provides many opportunities for career and skills development, including possibly co-writing a research blog and writing a blog for the OU Rural Economy Research cluster website.

This is an exciting opportunity ideally for either a Master’s student/graduate (or PhD student) with some research experience or an undergraduate student with work experience in research management and administration.

Whilst this role is contractually located to our Milton Keynes office, the role holder will be able to work remotely for the duration of the contract.

Key Responsibilities

The job holder’s key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Supporting the PI in project administration and management, including note taking in some meetings, preparing meetings
• Desk research (using the OU library or other sources)
• Assist with survey management using Qualtrics
• Communication with team members and stakeholders using a variety of online tools
• Establishing and managing databases for the project
• Support for event organisation
• Supporting analysis of anonymised interview transcripts using appropriate software and managing interview transcripts to become analysis-ready

Skills and Experience

Essential Requirements

• Proven ability to write concisely in a professional manner
• Evidence of research skills for desk research
• Excellent communication skills
• An ability to work independently under guidance
• A commitment to excellence in written communication in email and professional documents
• Demonstrable knowledge of and experience in online collaboration tools, in particular Teams and Microsoft Office software
• A record of research or knowledge exchange that is commensurate to the position as research assistant
• Professional manner in interaction with stakeholders
• Reliability in delivering on agreed deadlines
• Diligence in conducting research and analysing information
• Evidence of an ability to produce work to agreed quality and within tight deadlines

The full details for this role can be found in the Job Description can be found here: Job Description

To apply for this role please submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, up to 1,000 words. You should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the above essential and desirable criteria.

Please note that we may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

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