Job description and person specification

Summary details
Unit name: / Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
Division/Section: / Social Patterning of Health over the Life course
Job title / Career Development Fellowship
*Salary range: / £26,022 - £31,758
*Band (Grade): / 4
*Contract type (e.g. Open/Fixed term): / 3 years
*Hours (e.g. full or part time): / Full time
Detailed job description
Overall purpose:
This three year Career Development Fellowship (CDF) will investigate the role of key social transitions as people move from adolescence to adulthood for subsequent health. This is an excellent opportunity for someone to receive post-doctoral experience in a leading research establishment with a view to developing a research career in the field of social public health research.
There are a number of key periods and transitions through people’s lifecourse that may have direct and indirect effects on future health. These include birth and childhood, the transition from adolescence to adulthood (work, partnership and home formation for example) and the transition from work to retirement. Exploring the effect of these social transitions on health is a key theme within the Social Patterning of Health over the Lifecourse Programme within which this post will be based. (http://www.sphsu.mrc.ac.uk/research-programmes/sp/ ). There has been extensive research focused on the connection between early life experiences and health in later life but relatively less on the transition to adulthood from adolescence and its longer term consequences for health. This is the area of research that the Fellowship will explore. The CDF, together with the Programme Leader, will develop a research agenda which will both aim to address specific research questions within this important research area and to enhance their skills and expertise across different methodologies. For example, the Fellowship might include:
·  a systematic review of literature,
·  lifecourse analysis of the Twenty-07 Study (particularly the youngest cohort who have been followed from age 15 (1987) to age 35 (2007)),
·  analysis of other complementary datasets eg BHPS/Understanding Society, British and other birth cohorts to address complementary questions, for example, comparing cohorts transitioning to adulthood in different periods and / or different contexts by comparison with non-UK cohorts. There will be an emphasis on causal effects and mechanisms.
The CDF will be expected to develop research questions relevant to the topic and the programme, undertake literature reviews and longitudinal data analysis, write papers and present findings at conferences. It is expected the postholder will be lead author on at least 3-5 peer reviewed papers in high impact journals as well as a co-author in collaborative projects.
The CDF scheme is designed to help post-doctoral researchers to establish themselves as independent researchers in their chosen field. The experience gained from this fellowship will enhance their research and transferable skills through formal and on-the-job training, catered to the needs of the individual Fellow. This will include enhancing the Fellow’s knowledge of lifecourse epidemiology and social inequalities in health; links with a range of local, national and international researchers; transferable skills such as team working, writing academic papers, and communicating findings with a range of audiences; and, formal training in appropriate statistical techniques and systematic review methodologies.
Main duties / key responsibilities:
The responsibilities of the post-holder will include:
·  Developing a programme of work and development plan for the Fellowship
·  Generating relevant research questions and plans
·  Leading on longitudinal statistical analysis
·  Conducting, reviewing and synthesising summaries on relevant literatures
·  Leading on peer-reviewed journals articles
·  Presenting findings to international and national audiences.
·  Undertaking training in scientific, technical and transferable skills as appropriate.
·  Contributing to the development of the Social Patterning of Health over the Lifecourse Programme
·  Contributing to the Unit through active engagement in team and wider Unit activities.
·  Undertaking other reasonable duties that may be required within the programme.
Working relationships:
The postholder will be line managed by Michaela Benzeval (Programme Leader) and will work with colleagues in the Programme and elsewhere as appropriate to address their research questions. Currently, the Social Patterning of Health over the Lifecourse programme has six researchers, two data scientists and five PhD students.
There are currently seven CDFs in the Unit, who form the core of an ‘early career group’ and meet formally and informally to provide peer support and opportunities to undertake a range of development opportunities. We are currently developing a mentoring scheme for CDFs.
Additional information:
The aim of the Social Patterning of Health over the Lifecourse (SPHL) Programme (http://www.sphsu.mrc.ac.uk/research-programmes/sp/) is to investigate the creation and maintenance of social inequalities in health over the life course and across time in order to identify tractable entry points and mechanisms for reducing social inequalities in health. We have four broad objectives.
·  To track social circumstances and health over the life course (within cohorts) and across time (between cohorts).
·  To investigate specific pathways between social position and health.
·  To explore the transmission between generations of health inequalities.
·  To examine the role of macro influences on health inequalities at different points in history within a country and at different stages of development across countries.
In particular, we plan to examine how social circumstances change over time to promote or prevent various risk behaviours and complex psychological and biological changes that, with different time lags, lead to ill health, disease and mortality. Often these pathways are not direct, but operate through chains of events and processes in people’s lives, interacting with their belief systems and perceptions, and their genetic heritage. Social and health inequalities are also passed on through generations in a multitude of social, behavioural, attitudinal and psychological ways. Our previous research shows that these pathways are highly differentiated by the health outcome of interest, and the social group, place, time period, gender and age considered. We will therefore explore how they vary between genders and age groups, and across different historical, regional and national contexts.
Analysis of the Twenty-07 Study (http://www.sphsu.mrc.ac.uk/research-programmes/sp/20-07/) is at the core of this programme. The Unit began the Study in 1986 and has invested heavily in its follow up over the last 20 years, the final round of which was undertaken in 2007/08. A combination of design features of the Twenty-07 Study can provide us with critical insights into the social patterning of health over the life course and hence potential entry points and mechanisms for policy intervention. These include:
o  being based in a well-characterised location – which facilitates exploration of the geographic and historical contexts of respondents’ lives;
o  having three cohorts – born in the 1930s, 1950s, and 1970s - allowing comparisons of relationships at different ages, and between people of the same age at different times;
o  covering key periods of life transitions – from adolescence to adulthood, from education to employment, from working age to retirement, from singledom to marriage (and, sometimes, back again), from being a child, through to having children, to them leaving home, and from early old age to, eventually, death – helping us compare the health effects of social changes at these crucial turning points;
o  having a cohort born before the Second World War whom we have followed since they were 55, providing unique longitudinal insights into the circumstances and health of the current generation of over 75s;
o  having collected a wide range of social and health data, both subjective and objective, at five points in time over the last 20 years (original sample=4510), supplemented in wave 5 (n=2580) by a range of biomarkers and consent to access Scottish Morbidity Records (SMR), as well as storing blood and DNA for unspecified analyses in the future.
Our main priority over the next quinquennium is to exploit fully the rich data collected on the Twenty-07 Study over the last 20 years. We have four key priorities.
o  Firstly, to analyse longitudinally the data collected in the five main waves to identify mechanisms, critical periods and events that may be entry points to reduce inequalities in health.
o  Secondly, to obtain further data about respondents, by linking to SMR data on coded hospital admissions; by exploiting the Twenty-07 tissue bank samples to investigate new hypotheses that emerge; and, by collecting qualitative data from nested subsample studies to investigate key issues in more depth.
o  ·Thirdly, to link Twenty-07 data to other datasets to put the study in context and to expand the generalisability and power of analyses.
o  ·Fourthly, to draw together findings from the Twenty-07 Study into a book to promote widespread dissemination of the results.
In our analyses of Twenty-07 and other datasets we will ensure appropriate techniques are employed to address attrition and missing data and to analyse the longitudinal data (e.g. hierarchical repeat measures, survival analysis, structural equation modelling, latent class transitions etc) according to the research question under investigation. We plan to build capacity for longitudinal research in public health through studentships and postdoctoral fellowships.
About the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
The aim of the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit is to promote human health via the study of social and environmental influences on health. Our more specific objectives include:
·  Studying how people’s social positions, and their social and physical environments, influence their physical and mental health and capacity to lead health lives;
·  Designing and evaluating interventions aiming to improve public health and reduce social inequalities in health; and
·  Influencing policy and practice by communicating the results and implications of research.
Current research programmes are (programme leader in brackets):
o  Ethnicity and health (Seeromanie Harding)
o  Evaluating non-health-care policies, programmes and projects (Lyndal Bond).
o  Gender and health (Kate Hunt)
o  Measuring health, variations in health and the determinants of health (Alastair Leyland).
o  Neighbourhoods and health (Anne Ellaway)
o  Children, young people, families and health (Danny Wight)
o  Sexual Health (Lisa McDaid)
o  Social patterning of health over the life course (Michaela Benzeval).
o  Understandings and use of public health research (Shona Hilton)
The Unit is centrally located in the Glasgow University campus and has its own specialist library and librarian, a network of PCs running a wide range of software, access to e-mail and the internet, and skilled in-house computing, statistical and clerical support. We use standard Microsoft packages and more specialised software (e.g. for statistics we currently support SPSS, SAS, Stata, Mplus, Winbugs and MLwiN). There are currently around 53 researchers, 20 support staff and 16 full-time PhD students in the Unit. Our researchers and students have backgrounds in epidemiology, psychology, statistics, sociology, anthropology, medicine, biology, economics, history, geography and human sciences. We are the largest concentration of health social scientists in the MRC's intramural programme.
We are jointly funded by the MRC and the Chief Scientist Office at the Scottish Government Health Directorates, and receive grant funding from Government Departments, charities and other Research Councils (e.g. DfID, CRUK, ESRC).
For further information about the Unit, including details of the research programmes, visit our website at www.sphsu.mrc.ac.uk.
About the Career Development Fellowship
Founded in 1913, the Medical Research Council (MRC) is a world leader in medical research. It has been responsible for some of the greatest achievements in medical science, not only in the UK but also worldwide. Our research units and institutes have produced more than 20 Nobel Prize winners to date. But if we are to tackle the health challenges of the 21st century, the MRC must continue to build on its achievements. This means attracting and training the brightest minds, so that we can develop the scientific leaders of tomorrow. The Career Development Fellowship scheme is part of our work to achieve that goal.
This innovative three-year Fellowship offers a unique opportunity to combine high-quality research training with the development of a range of general professional skills. Our aim is to enable new and retraining scientists to go on to rewarding scientific careers in academia or industry.
What does a Career Development Fellowship involve?
The Fellowship has two key elements. Firstly, you will gain experience of working in a leading research environment, at an MRC unit, with responsibility for developing a specific research project. You will work independently, under the direction of a senior researcher. Secondly, you will complete a structured programme of training and development. This programme may be part of your research project, or you may receive it through short training courses or through a combination of both approaches.
Do all Career Development Fellows follow the same training and development programme?
No, because Fellows come from a range of backgrounds and with differing levels of experience. Your training programme is tailored to your individual needs and experience. At the beginning of the Fellowship, you and your supervisor agree a personal development plan for you, detailing your research aims and development needs. Both of you will then use this plan to monitor and assess your progress during your Fellowship.
What training is available?
We provide courses in key research skills (for example, Managing Your Research, Writing Research Papers, and Writing Project Proposals) and in more general, transferable skills such as managing financial budgets and staff. All the courses are designed to optimise your employability in the future. Most are run locally and further details will be given at your induction.
What are my responsibilities?
In addition to the job description outlined above, a Career Development Fellow’s contractual obligations include: attending a half-day induction and drawing up a personal development plan within the first three months of appointment; attending training and development events; updating their personal development plan on a regular basis and having a formal career review 6-12 months before their contract expires.
What is my supervisor’s role?
Before you begin the Fellowship, your supervisor will have started to develop ideas about your research project. They will also have thought about how your training and development programme can be most effectively integrated with the project.
After your arrival you and your supervisor will agree a date for your induction. Shortly after this you will together draw up and agree your personal development plan. It is your supervisor’s responsibility to assess your progress and performance against this plan.