Research Associate in Digital Epidemiology

Job reference: BMH-027629

Salary: £36,924 - £45,163 per annum, dependent on relevant experience

Faculty/Organisational Unit: Biology, Medicine Health

Location: Oxford Road

Employment type: Fixed Term

Division/Team: Division of Informatics, Imaging & Data Science

Hours Per Week: Full Time (1 FTE)

Closing date (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/01/2025

Contract Duration: Until the 31st of December 2026

School/Directorate: School of Health Sciences

We are seeking a skilled and proactive research associate in digital epidemiology to support the MRC-funded national network ‘Health Research from Home’ (HRfH), focused on the use of smartphones and wearables for population health research. The post will suit an ambitious researcher with a background in epidemiology, biostatistics or health data science and an interest in conducting novel mobile health research. The postholder will lead literature reviews of current practice in smartphones and wearables for population health research, actively participate in working groups defining future best practice, and contribute to the conduct, analysis and evaluation of two pioneering projects linking digital patient-generated health data with more traditional data sources.  

The HRfH partnership involves academics and public contributors from Manchester (lead site), King’s College London, Imperial College London, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, in collaboration with Health Data Research UK, Google, Verily Life Sciences and GSK.  The network aims to collate, spread and define best practice in smartphone and wearable population health research to the wider community, and to pioneer the successful linkage of smartphone and wearable data to existing health research databanks.

The postholder will be involved in three primary activities. First, conducting an ongoing literature review of studies using smartphones and wearables for population health research. This will lead to peer-reviewed publication(s) as well as an accessible repository of articles for the emerging HRfH community. Second, the post-holder will be responsible for the development and delivery of an evaluation plan examining how digital patient-generated health data can be linked successfully to other data sources. This will be primarily learning lessons from the two driver projects within HRfH (Physical Activity Patterns after Knee Arthroplasty (PAPrKA) and long-term outcomes of COVID), with additional input from other projects within the wider community. The applicant will also actively contribute to the analysis of PAPrKA, an innovative retrospective cohort study linking historical data about knee replacements with historical tracked physical activity data. Third, they will participate in and, where needed, lead work within forthcoming expert Working Groups that will define best practice in areas of key importance for Health Research from Home, such as the representativeness of study populations.

What you will get in return:

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status.  All appointments are made on merit.

Our University is positive about flexible working – you can find out more here

Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.           

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Name: Prof Will Dixon 

Email: Will.Dixon@manchester.ac.uk

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