Research Fellow (Snacktivity)

Salary: As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade 7, salary £37,999.

Hours: Part Time (15 hours per week)

Contract Type: Fixed Term contract up to November 2025

Background

We require a post-doctoral Research Fellow to work with Prof Colin Greaves, Professor of Psychology Applied to Health (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/sport-exercise/staff/profile.aspx?ReferenceId=146199&Name=professor-colin-greaves) and colleagues in the Universities of Birmingham and Loughborough to help deliver a NIHR-funded research project in the field of behavioural medicine, working with NHS healthcare professionals and researchers involved in promoting physical activity to inactive members of the general population (the Snacktivity randomised controlled trial). The Snacktivity trial aims to evaluate an app and self-monitoring (smart-watch) intervention to promote physical activity in small bouts of 2-5 minutes at a time. The aim of the current post is to conduct intervention fidelity-checking work as part of the trial’s process evaluation. 

To achieve this aim, the successful applicant will work with Prof Greaves, the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit and other Snacktivity trial researchers to apply an existing delivery-quality checklist to audio-recordings of NHS and other staff introducing the Snacktivity app and smart-watch to study participants. The Research Fellow will rate the quality of intervention delivery for a purposive sample of 90 intervention-delivery recordings and extract examples of good practice and sub-optimal practice. They will then collate the scores into summary tables and draft a report that will form part of a peer-reviewed publication. Participants will be recruited and the audio data will be collected by staff at the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit.

The School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences is a world-leading institution for research and teaching in Sport and Exercise Science (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/sport-exercise), located within one of the UK’s top universities. Our performance in the Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF 2014) was outstanding with 90 percent of research classified as world leading or internationally excellent. Key areas in our Exercise for Health research theme include: Healthy ageing, nutrition, disability, prevention and management of chronic illness and theoretically driven development of interventions for behaviour change.

Person Specification

• First degree in area of specialism (ideally) and a higher degree (PhD or near to completion) relevant to research area or equivalent qualifications (e.g. Health Psychology, Behavioural Science)
• High level analytical capability
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly
• Fluency in relevant models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones (particularly in relation to behaviour change interventions)
• Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively 
• Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes
• Contribute to the planning and organising of the research programme and/or specific research project
• Co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly

Informal enquiries can be made to Professor Colin Greaves, email: c.j.greaves@bham.ac.uk 

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

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