Research Fellow

**Position Details**

School of Psychology

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £35,880 to £45,163 with potential progression once in post to £47,874

Grade: 7

Part Time (30 working hours per week)

Fixed Term contract up to January 2026

Closing date: 1st January 2025

This role is also open as an internal secondment opportunity which would need to be agreed by your current line manager.

**Background**

People with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have a 15-20 year shortened life-expectancy, mostly due to preventable physical causes like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. The causes behind the comorbidity between mental and physical illness are complex and not fully understood, but involve lifestyle factors, healthcare inequalities, medication adverse effects, and common genetic and/or biological underpinnings. Nevertheless, the ‘mortality gap’ experienced by people with severe mental illness continues to grow, and is recognised as one of the NHS’s five key health inequalities requiring action.

This post will involve the use of cutting-edge data science and epidemiological methods applied to large-scale, real-world anonymised electronic health record data from several regions of the UK, with opportunities to:
**Discover**

Be supported to lead complementary impactful research projects exploring early trajectories of cardiometabolic changes (e.g., weight, cholesterol levels) after a first-episode of severe mental illness in young adults, and how they may be markers of adverse future mental and physical health outcomes.

**Predict**

**And more..**

The post-holder will have the flexibility to work on existing approved projects, and/or supported to work with interdisciplinary experts straddling clinical psychiatry, data science, risk prediction and biostatistics, to develop and realise their own project ideas on the topic of mental-physical comorbidity.

**Support and Career Developmen**t

**Role Summary**
- Work on cutting-edge data-driven epidemiological research projects leveraging large-scale anonymised electronic health record data from several UK regions to explore the interplay between mental and physical illness in young adults with severe mental illness.
- Work on the PsyMetRiC project, from contributing to data-driven research improving the underlying predictive algorithm, to helping develop the clinician-facing web app
- Be supported by experts in risk prediction, biostatistics, data science, and clinical psychiatry
- Be supported to develop own ideas and explore them using large-scale data resources
- Contribute and be named on all academic outputs (publications, conference presentations)
- Co-supervise research trainees and PhD students working in the group

**Main Duties**
- Be supported to conduct epidemiological data-driven analysis exploring the comorbidity between mental and physical illness, either through:

- Contributing to existing approved projects
- Developing and realising own project ideas, with support
- Work on the PsyMetRiC cardiometabolic risk prediction algorithm project, from:

- Data-driven refinements to the underlying predictive algorithm
- Developing and expanding the clinician-facing web app
- Work on academic outputs (e.g., co-authoring manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication; submitting abstracts for national and international conferences)
- Develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research, with assistance of a mentor if required
- Contribute to writing bids for research funding
- Analyse and interpret data
- Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc
- Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline
- Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods
- Undertake management/administration arising from research
- Contribute to Departmental/School research-related activities and research-related administration
- Contribute to enterprise, business development and/or public engagement activities of manifest benefit to the College and the University, often under supervision of a project leader
- Collect research data; this may be through a variety of research methods, such as scientific experimentation, literature reviews, and research interviews *
- Present research outputs, including drafting academic publications or parts thereof, for example at seminars and as posters *
- Provide guidance, as required, to support staff and any students who may be assisting with the research *
- Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines*
- Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
- These indicative responsibilities may also be included in a research role at grade 6.

**Person Specification**

**Necessary**:

- Research outputs in a rele