Research Assistant

Salary: £33,002.00 - £34,610.00  per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 17 December 2025

The Role

We are looking for one Research Assistant working across two exciting studies. The role will be 0.5 based with the RELMED project and 0.5 based with the home-based transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) study.

RELMED is a Wellcome-Trust funded research project which aims to understand which computational (reinforcement learning) mechanisms are engaged by different antidepressant treatments. It is a unique opportunity to contribute to and shape a major research undertaking in the field of computational psychiatry. It will bring together rigorous clinical-trial, computational psychiatry and neuroimaging methods. It will involve two large-scale clinical trials in primary care, and as such is to-date the largest-scale attempt at establishing a causal evidence-based regarding computational mechanisms of clinical treatments. The Research Assistant will assist with EEG data acquisition and preprocessing.

RELMED consists of two randomized clinical trials to be run in sequence. The first trial will start 2025 to 2026. This will be followed by a second trial to be run from mid 2027 to mid 2029. Each of the two RCTs will involve randomization of 516 participants to one of four treatment arms, and repeat behavioural neurocognitive and EEG testing.

The tDCS study is a NIHR-funded clinical trial investigating home-based transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a treatment for depression in the NHS. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness, safety, and feasibility of home-based tDCS for individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). As a Research Assistant, you will be responsible for participant recruitment, data collection, and study administration. You will have a key role in the day-to-day running of the study. You will be interviewing participants, seeing participants in follow up, coordinating their tDCS sessions, and maintaining accurate research records. This post will provide hands-on experience in clinical trials, brain stimulation technologies, and mental health treatments.

The full-time Research Assistant position is funded for 2 years. The Research Assistant must be able to work onsite between the Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE46BE and St Nicholas Hospital, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE33XT.

This post is suitable for a candidate with substantial participant- facing research experience, participant recruitment, knowledge about EEG data acquisition and processing, and reinforcement learning, who wishes to contribute to top quality research. The ideal candidate will also have a keen interest in mental health and novel treatment approaches.

This post is fixed term for a period of 2 years initially, then subject to renewal.

For informal enquiries contact: [Dr Apoorva Peddada- apoorva.peddada@ncl.ac.uk]

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/  

Find out more about our Research Institutes here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/research/institutes/ 

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of research role profiles.  These profiles set out firstly the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and secondly the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level.

Key Accountabilities

• Contribution to the research programme of the School/Institute under the clear guidance of a member of an academic staff or Principal Investigator
• Use initiative and creativity to analyse and interpret research data and draw conclusions on the outcomes
• Co-ordinate own work with that of others, deal with problems which may affect the achievement of research objectives and contribute to the planning of the project(s)
• Present information on research progress and outcomes to a Principal Investigator or groups overseeing the research project
• Write up results from own research activity and provide input into the research project’s dissemination, in whatever form (report, papers, chapters, book
• Work to deadlines and manage, with support, competing priorities
• Ensure that personal knowledge in relevant fields of study is kept up to date
• Use research resources (including, where required, laboratories, workshops and specialist equipment) as appropriate
• Maintain academic standards and freedom, and work in accordance with university policies (e.g. equal opportunities, health and safety policies)
• Possible supervision and demonstration duties within undergraduate laboratories and example classes or in teaching small seminar classes
• Undertake relevant training and development activities to develop capacity for taking on wider responsibilities
• Develop, with advice, an awareness of own professional development needs and a personal development strategy
• Work closely with members of the RELMED and tDCS team, GP practices, secondary care centres, Talking Therapy and research clinics. Other key relationships include study co-applicants, Trial Management Team, Trial Sponsor, lived experience researchers and LEAP Group. Provide regular updates on the progress of the studies/ assessments in meetings.
• Participant recruitment and screening: assist in identifying and recruiting participants; conduct eligibility screening and informed consent procedures in line with ethical and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines.
• Participant follow up and support: schedule and coordinate tDCS treatment sessions; provide real-time video conference supervision during sessions; maintain follow up visits with participants, administer study measures and provide support to participants with the completion of these if needed.
• Data collection and quality assurance: accurately record and maintain research data in compliance with data protection regulations; assist in managing and organising electronic and paper-based records. Ensure all study activities comply with GCP, ethical guidelines, and institutional policies; maintain confidentiality and participant safety throughout the study; assist in preparing documentation for ethics committee and monitoring review; assist in ordering and managing equipment.
• EEG: To set up and calibrate EEG equipment to ensure all systems are functioning correctly before each experiment. Ensure high-quality behavioural and EEG data is acquired. To monitor EEG recordings, perform quality control, and address any technical issues promptly to minimise data loss. To prepare datasets for sharing / open science

The Person (Essential)

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Some subject knowledge in the relevant area
• Good level of analytical skills and the ability to communicate complex nformation clearly, both orally and through the written word
• The ability to work collaboratively with colleagues
• The ability to use personal initiative and creativity to solve research Problems
• Familiarity with UK healthcare system
• Experience of running EEG experiments and performing quality check of data
• Experience of conducting research in neuroscience
• Experience in participant-facing clinical research, including recruitment, interviewing individuals with mental health disorders, informed consent procedures, with an understanding of trial protocols and regulatory requirements.
• Excellent organisational and multitasking skills to manage study visits, maintaining (both electronic and paper- based) research documentation, equipment logistics, and videoconferencing platforms.
• Experience of experiment programming (e.g., PsychoPy) (Desirable)
• Knowledge of decision neuroscience and reinforcement learning literature (Desirable)
• Knowledge of psychopathology and associated treatments (Desirable)
• Knowledge and understanding of dopamine and serotonin neurobiology (Desirable)

Attributes and Behaviour

• Ability and willingness to work from an office base and travel to study sites as required
• A high level of consideration and care for research subjects
• Interest in working with people with mental health disorders

Qualifications

• Good honours degree (or equivalent) with some subject knowledge in the relevant area. Post holder should have a Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, computational neuroscience, or a related area (the degree must have been obtained by the agreed start date in post)
• May possess (or be working towards) a higher research degree

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 28752