Research Associate

Salary: £35,116 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: 04 June 2025

The Role 

To assist with completing the aims and work programmes of a major multi-national and multi-institutional ESRC GCRF-funded project on ‘Language development in the early years: tackling the roots of academic and social inequalities’ as it goes into its final stages. In doing so, the post holder will undertake research, impact and engagement activities in line with the school and university’s strategy. They will collaborate remotely with researchers based at all of the project’s sites in Plymouth, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and the West Bank. They will comply with the University’s policies, including Health & Safety, Equality and Diversity, Ethics, and Data Protection. 

The post holder will produce trilingual digital resources for parents and Early Years practitioners on supporting early oral language development in young Arabic-speaking children. These include training materials on the importance of early oral language development, guides for using language assessments in Arabic, French and English, and guides for professionals on interpreting language outcomes and advising families on the next steps. The post holder will also aid in tidying and analysing multilingual data obtained from parental questionnaires on their children’s language development. They will help the team with communicating outcomes to Arabic-speaking stakeholders through social medial, planned workshops and our dedicated websites.  

We are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment. For this role we can be flexible in relation to the number of hours that can be considered. 

We are able to consider from 50% FTE which equates to 18.5hrs per week up to 37hrs per week (100% FTE).  

Informal enquiries are welcome. Please contact Prof Ghada Khattab at ghada.khattab@ncl.ac.uk to discuss the role.  

To apply, please upload an up-to-date CV and letter of application outlining specific examples around how you meet the requirements set out in ‘The Person’ section below. If you wish to be considered for less than 37hrs per week, please indicate in your covering statement how many hours you could dedicate to this role should you be successful. 

Key Accountabilities 

•  Creating a user-friendly multilingual digital platform for resources on language assessment and language development that have been developed for parents and professionals in the Levant

• Assisting with translating raw multilingual data obtained from the project’s Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) - a parental questionnaire about their children’s early language abilities, carrying out quantitative data analysis and disseminating results

• Supporting planned public health and social media campaigns in Lebanon and Jordan, and running workshops geared towards different audiences including parents and Early Years professionals (nursery teachers and managers, speech and language therapists, paediatricians)

• Maintaining the projects’s mutlilingual social media platforms 

• Conducting research-related administration e.g. workshop organisation, liaising with English-, French- and Arabic-speaking stakeholders, venues etc

• Providing expert advice in own subject area to other team members

• Supporting team members in preparing high quality publication materials for referred journals, presenting results at conferences (including national and international), or exhibiting work at other appropriate events

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience  

• Knowledge of Arabic and English (French desirable) 

• Digital skills for web and app design 

• Familiarity with the cultural context of our data collection sites, and ability to pitch web materials to intended audiences

• Data analysis skills, including the use of quantitative methodology and statistical techniques

• Experience in the interpretation of research data and results

• Track record of presenting research findings at meetings and conferences

• Track record of contributing to and/or developing collaborative research networks

• Developing track record of successful engagement with key research stakeholders, both internally and externally

• Ability to use social media and other platforms to give the project presence and disseminate findings

Attributes and Behaviour 

Drives innovation and action: 

• Use initiative and creativity to analyse and interpret research data and draw conclusions on the outcomes

• Intellectual agility for the solving of problems

Demonstrates the ability to balance personal needs with the University’s strategic objectives: 

• Self-awareness with the ability to accept different views and self-regulate approach appropriately

• Work to deadlines and manage, with support, competing priorities

Builds and secures value from relationships: 

• Working effectively and collegiately as a part of an interdisciplinary team

• Fostering and developing good relationships between own School and the wider University, and with external partners

Creates and contributes to a shared vision, inspiring others: 

• Strong written, verbal and presentation skills

• Ability to communicate new and complex information effectively, both verbal and written, engaging the interest and enthusiasm of the target audience

Qualifications 

• PhD or equivalent qualification in relevant discipline (e.g. Linguistics, Speech and Language Therapy, or Health Sciences)

• Good level of analytical skills and the ability to communicate complex information clearly, both orally and through the written word

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: 28177