Research Assistant/Associate Health Data

Salary:

Research Assistant: £32,546 to £34,132  per annum (pro rata)

Research Associate: £35,116 to £38,249 per annum(pro rata)

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: 12 March 2025

The Role

Do you want to improve the use of healthcare data for patient benefit? Are you highly skilled in clinical data assembly and keen to develop and use your expertise, working in an interdisciplinary team with ophthalmological data?   If yes, we want someone like you for the role of research assistant/associate on EYESAVE: AI-enabled triage for Glaucoma, a new project led by Newcastle University, funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust. 

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, and the damage it causes at first goes unnoticed in many people.  Your role is to help extract and curate ophthalmological data that currently exists in local NHS Trusts in Northeast England. The dataset that you will help create will include historic longitudinal data from thousands of glaucoma patients, including optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal images, objective measurements, and interventions.  

You will work as a research assistant/associate within a highly collaborative team including computer scientists, bioengineers, informaticians, neuroscientists, ophthalmologists, and epidemiologists, working across Newcastle University, Durham University, and local NHS hospitals.   The dataset will be used by the computer scientists in the team to develop new software that forecasts disease progression for patients with suspected glaucoma. 

Your contributions will include working with the team to define the desired data fields, identify and help generate methods to extract these from existing clinical records, and perform the extraction, using both manual and automated processes. You will take part in regular project meetings, present and discuss progress in dataset assembly, and contribute to the overall research plans. You will contribute to publications and conference presentations, as well as, where appropriate, help supervise students working on related projects with the team.

This project builds on the OCTAHEDRON and OCTage projects (OCTAHEDRON | OCTAHEDRON | Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk)), and interacts with other projects underway within our active and successful  AI in the Eye research group, linking clinicians, academics, patients, and practitioners, across levels from trainee to senior investigator. We are proud to promote career development and specialist training for all members of the team. 

In this full/part-time role, you will be based at our Newcastle upon Tyne campus that has excellent transport links and state of the art facilities. Some of your work will take place within the Royal Victoria Infirmary on the Newcastle campus, and also within the Sunderland Eye Infirmary.  You will also have working space and resources in the Biosciences Institute in the Faculty of Medical Sciences. We are happy to discuss flexible working needs with you.   

To apply for the position, please send us a CV together with a covering letter outlining why you are interested in the role and giving examples to illustrate how you meet the essential criteria in the job description. Below are some of the key criteria to focus on: 

• Ability to work well as part of a team and rapidly acquire new skills
• Understanding and facility with use of ophthalmological disease terminology and assessment data
• Previous direct experience of healthcare data assembly or curation
• High level of practical problem-solving capability 
• Ability to communicate with both clinicians and basic scientists
• Experience of research in clinical settings
• Understanding and previous experience of data protection and privacy regulations and concerns

Applications will be considered for full-time employment (FTE) ranging from 1.0 to 0.75.

Please contact Professor Anya Hurlbert (anya.hurlbert@ncl.ac.uk) or Professor David Steel (david.steel@ncl.ac.uk) for informal enquiries. 

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/

Please note that if you are successful to this role, you will require medical clearance before you can commence in the role

Key Accountabilities

• Although working under the general guidance of an academic or Principal Investigator, the postholder will contribute ideas, including enhancements to the technical or methodological aspects of their studies, thus providing substantial 'added value' 
• Develop and carry out the specified project using appropriate techniques and equipment as outlined in the personal requirements 
• Determine appropriate methodologies for research, with advice and support where required
• Contribute to grant applications submitted by others and in time develop own research objectives and proposals for funding 
• Begin to write, with appropriate support, proposals for individual research funding or, where funders do not permit this, contribute to the writing of collective bids
• Assess research findings for the need/scope for further investigations
• Contribute to the writing up of their research for publication and dissemination, either through seminar and conference presentations or through publications
• Present research findings, either at conferences or through publications in reputable outlets appropriate to the discipline
• May be involved in the supervision, with guidance, of final year undergraduate research projects and in providing support to postgraduate research students or Research Assistants 
• Will need to work with the support staff and, on occasions, with undergraduate and postgraduate students, and interact intellectually with other academic members of the Institute.
• May contribute to events celebrating the public engagement of science/social sciences/humanities
• Develop an awareness of University structures, policies and procedures and relevant issues in the higher education, research, social and political environment

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Ability to work well as part of a team and rapidly acquire new skills
• Detailed knowledge of ophthalmological disease terminology and assessment data
• Previous direct experience of healthcare data assembly or curation
• High level of problem-solving capability 
• Ability to communicate complex information, with both clinicians and basic scientists
• Experience of research, particularly in clinical settings, with clear transferable skills and some experience or awareness of the research environment 
• Presentations at conferences and/or high-quality publications

Desirable

• Experience with retinal OCT image formats and terminology
• Strong organizational skills

Attributes and Behaviour

• Ability to work collaboratively within an interdisciplinary team
• Keenness to discuss and debate alternative solutions to complex problems
• Strong work ethic
• Ability to work to deadlines, while staying clam
• Willingness to help and educate others in your area of expertise 
• Aware of ethical issues involved in clinical data extraction and assembly

Desirable

• Willingness to engage with NHS R&D protocols

Qualifications

• A PhD (or close to finishing a PhD). Those nearing completion of a PhD will be offered the role as Research Assistant and those with a PhD will be offered the role as Research Associate

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 silver 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: 27923