Research Assistant/Associate

Salary: Research Assistant: £33,951 - £35,608 per annum

            Research Associate: £36,636

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: 28 May 2026

The Role

We are excited to launch this opportunity for a Research Assistant/Research Associate in Delirium and Parkinson’s Disease Research to join us in the Translational and Clinical Research Institute at Newcastle University.

You will be based in the Biomedical Research Building at Newcastle University within the Faculty of Medical Sciences and join the  Delirium and Translational Research in Neurodegeneration (DELTA) Team. led by  Dr Rachael Lawson. DELTA is a multidisciplinary research group focused on improving the identification, characterisation, and longitudinal tracking of cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson’s disease and older adult populations. The group combines clinical research, epidemiology, digital health, and data science approaches to better understand symptom progression and outcomes in real-world clinical settings.

This post forms part of an established programme of research investigating delirium in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and older adult populations. Delirium is common in people with Parkinson’s and is associated with significant adverse outcomes, including increased mortality, dementia risk, and loss of independence. However, it remains under-recognised, partly due to its heterogeneous presentation and overlap with underlying neurological conditions. Recent work from the DELTA Team has demonstrated that delirium in Parkinson’s disease has distinct symptom profiles and subtypes, but how these evolve over time remains poorly understood.

You will contribute to longitudinal analyses examining heterogeneity and trajectories of delirium symptoms in people with Parkinson’s disease and in older adults, using data from large, prospectively collected cohort studies including DELIRIUM-PD and DECIDE. The role will involve working with complex clinical datasets, harmonising data across studies to enable integrated analyses, and applying advanced statistical approaches to understand symptom progression and outcomes over time.

You will work closely with clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience to ensure that research questions, analyses, and outputs are clinically meaningful and impactful. The role will also involve contributing to patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) activities, including co-design of dissemination materials and research outputs.

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to high-impact translational research with clear potential to improve the recognition, monitoring, and management of delirium in clinical practice.

The post is available full time, on a fixed-term basis for 24 months.

As part of our commitment to researcher development, we follow the Researcher Development Concordat and support all colleagues to fulfil their research potential regardless of career stage. This includes mentoring, annual research planning discussions, access to training, and support for developing funding applications and independent research.  

You will report to Dr Rachael Lawson. We want you to feel confident when applying for a position with Newcastle University. If you would like an informal discussion to clarify any points, please contact rachael.lawson@newcastle.ac.uk. We are committed to making the process accessible to everyone and can provide adjustments to support your application.

How to apply

Please submit:

• A CV
• A cover letter outlining:
• Your experience working with complex clinical or epidemiological data
• Your experience with statistical or data science tools
• Your interest in Parkinson’s disease or related research
• Examples of collaborative working
• How you meet the essential criteria

What happens next

Interviews will be held in June

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences here: Faculty of Medical Sciences

Find out more about our Research Institutes here: Research Institutes

Contact for the post is: rachael.lawson@newcastle.ac.uk

Key Accountabilities

Research Assistant

Work with complex, multi-source clinical datasets from established cohort studies

• Harmonise data across longitudinal cohort studies to enable integrated analyses
• Lead and contribute to analyses of longitudinal delirium data
• Apply appropriate statistical approaches to understand symptom heterogeneity and change over time
• Examine relationships between delirium profiles and clinical outcomes (e.g. mortality, cognitive decline, institutionalisation)
• Contribute to and support patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) activities, including co-design of research outputs
• Produce high-quality outputs including publications and conference presentations
• Work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team including clinicians, statisticians, and people with lived experience
• Support the supervision and development of postgraduate students and junior researchers, as appropriate
• Collect, analyse and interpret research data and draw conclusions on the outcomes.
• Co-ordinate own work with that of others, use problem solving to 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, books).
• Use research resources (including, where required, laboratories, workshops and specialist equipment) as appropriate.

Research Associate

• Contribute to methodological development relating to longitudinal and symptom-based modelling approaches
• Support the integration and harmonisation of data across cohort studies
• Contribute to the development of collaborative outputs and future funding applications
• Provide support and mentorship to junior researchers and students, where appropriate
• Contribute ideas, including enhancements to the technical or methodological aspects of the project.
• Determine appropriate methodologies for research.
• Assess research findings for the need/scope for further investigations.
• Contribute to the writing up of the research and its 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.
• Contribute to grant applications submitted by others and develop own research objectives and proposals for funding.

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

Research Assistant

• Knowledge of Parkinson’s disease and/or delirium
• Experience working with clinical or cohort datasets
• Experience in quantitative analysis of longitudinal clinical or epidemiological data
• Experience in advanced statistical analysis approaches (e.g. latent variable or mixture modelling approaches)
• Demonstrable experience using MPlus
• Proficiency in statistical software (e.g. R, SPSS or similar)
• Ability to interpret complex statistical outputs and translate findings into clinically meaningful insights
• Track record of academic publications, including first-author peer-reviewed publications
• Commitment to involving patients and the public in research and ensuring outputs are meaningful and impactful
• Ability to document methods clearly and produce reproducible analytical workflows
• Attention to detail and ability to work at high levels of accuracy
• Ability to present complex information effectively to a range of audiences
• Proven ability to analyse data and write-up results
• Experience of working collaboratively with colleagues
• Excellent IT skills in all major office applications
• The ability to use personal initiative and creativity to solve research problems.

In addition for Research Associate

• Experience applying advanced modelling approaches to neuropsychiatric or symptom-based data
• Comfortable working with complex, heterogeneous real-world datasets
• Strong interest in Parkinson’s disease, neurodegeneration, delirium, or longitudinal clinical research
• Experience working with hospital-based or ageing cohorts
• Experience contributing to collaborative research projects
•  Experience of patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE), including co-design approaches
• Awareness of the research environment
• High level of analytical and problem solving capacity
• Ability to communicate complex information with clarity
• Experience of presentations at conferences and/or in high quality publications

Attributes and Behaviour

• Proactive and able to take initiative while working within a structured project
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to explain complex concepts clearly
• Collegial and collaborative, with the ability to work effectively across disciplines and institutions
• Commitment to involving patients and the public in research and ensuring outputs are meaningful and impactful
• Commitment to working positively as a member of a multi-skilled research team
• Ability to negotiate and prioritise multiple, competing responsibilities and to work to deadlines
• Commitment to continued professional development
• Understanding of good practice in equality, inclusion and diversity
• Highly organised with strong attention to detail

Qualifications

Research Assistant

• Honours degree or Masters in neuroscience, epidemiology, biostatistics, health data science, clinical psychology, public health or closely related discipline

In addition for Research Associate

• PhD in neuroscience, epidemiology, biostatistics, health data science, clinical psychology, public health or closely related discipline

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: 29387