THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
Recruitment Role Profile Form

Job Title:ResearchAssociate/Fellow in Health Innovation and Translation (fixed-term)

School/Department:Nottingham University Business School – East Midlands Academic Health Sciences Network.

Salary:£25,013 - £36,661, depending on skills and experience (minimum £28,132 with relevant PhD). Salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance

Job Family and Level:Research and Teaching Level 4/Career Training Grade

Contract Status:This post will be offered on a fixed term contract for 2years 6 months

Hours of Work:Full-time

Location:Nottingham University Business School (Jubilee Campus) and East Midlands AHSNoffices (Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham)

Reporting to:Emma Rowley, Senior Research Fellow (Nottingham University Business School)

Margaret Woolley, Head of Programme Office, East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN)

Background & Introduction

Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) is a leading and active partner in a portfolio of applied health services research, including studies funded by Department of Health, NIHR, the Health Foundation, especially in the area of Improvement Science, and with partners, such as Nottingham University Hospitals and Alliance Boots. The School’s research in the organisation and management of healthcare services reflects research excellence, especially enterprise and innovation, operations management, risk management, organisational learning, and strategic leadership. Building on this, the School has recently established a new Centre for Health Innovation, Leadership and Learning (CHILL).CHILL is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research centre, and leads and delivers on NUBS’ capacity building and collaborative strategy for applied health organisation and improvement research.

EMAHSN is one of 15 networks across England established to achieve the overall goal of improving patient and population health outcomes by translating research into practice and developing and implementing integrated health care systems. The key objectives of the EMAHSN are to: 1) focus of the needs of patients and local populations, through supporting and working in partnership with commissioners and public health bodies to identify and address unmet clinical needs, whilst promoting health equality and best practice; 2) build a culture of partnership and collaboration, through promoting inclusivity, partnership and collaboration to consider and address local, regional and national priorities; 3) speed up adoption of innovation into practice to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience, through supporting the identification and more rapid spread of research and innovation at pace and scale to improve patient care and local population health; 4) create wealth through co-development, testing, evaluation and early adoption and spread of new products and services.

Purpose of the Role:

The purpose of this role will be to have specific responsibility for translationalresearch activities within the East Midlands Academic Health Sciences Network (EMAHSN). The role combines rigorous academic knowledge and expertise, with the proven capacity to engage and work collaboratively with NHS and other service providers, from senior executives to frontline clinicians. Its broad remit will be to support and facilitate the translation of knowledge and evidence into improved delivery of high quality care, through partnership, co-development, and adoption of evidence based practice. In undertaking this work, the successful candidate will shape and develop the clinical and application themes of the EMAHSN, and at the same time apply, develop and appraise the NHS Single Change Model as a vehicle for use within the AHSN context.

The successful candidate will also be expected to be an active part of the wider research team at the Centre for Health Innovation, Leadership & Learning (CHILL) at the Business School, where they will have the opportunity to use their initiative and creativity to identify further areas for research, develop research methods and extend their research portfolio.

Main Responsibilities / % time per year
1. / Provide project advice and research consultancy across EMAHSN to ensure internal audits, research studies and innovation projects are informed by appropriate evidence, are based upon appropriate conceptual frameworks and follow robust methods (i.e. research scans and synthesis, research design support, and on-going project mentoring). / 15
2. / Undertake formative and summative evaluations to EMAHSN change programmes and innovation cycles, including the design, management and undertaking of independent appraisals of improvement projects (i.e. small scale evaluations and qualitative enquiries of local change projects). / 20
3. / Gather and appraising evidence by completing literature searches and rapid reviews of the evidence. / 20
4. / Effectively and clearly communicate information on innovations and evidence that can benefit patients using a range audience appropriate media, in collaboration with the AHSN Communications Team. / 5
5. / Support capacity building, for example, providing training/facilitating events to support the translation of research into practice. / 7
6. / To support partners with rapid evaluation/audit to assess the need for system level change and/or the impact of any change on service delivery. / 15
7. / Support service innovation and improvement through working with service leaders and providers to better define, assess and respond to the nascent challenges of service improvement (i.e. stakeholder analysis, or utilising the creative problem-solving methodologies to support innovation and change).
8. / Support the translation and diffusion of evidence into practice through engaging and working collaborative with care providers at all levels to support learning, innovation and change (i.e. production of learning resources). / 10
9. / Attend existing networking events to promote EMAHSN work and to learn about developments across the East Midlands. / 5
10. / Other such comparable duties as may be required by the EMAHSN Director. / 3

Through these activities the Research Associate/Fellow in Health Innovation and Translation will support EMAHSN’s work in the translation of knowledge and innovation into practice, and will contribute to academic learning on the application of the NHS Single change model within healthcare, and EMAHSN in particular. As such, it is expected that the role will develop and contribute to robust academic outputs (with academic support) and make a sustained impact on service delivery.

Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience

Essential / Desirable
Qualifications/ Education /
  • PhD (or near to completion) in social sciences, implementation or improvement science, or the equivalent in professional qualifications and experience in research area.
/
  • Masters degree, or equivalent in social sciences.
  • Postgraduate training in social research methods/theories.

Skills/Training /
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex information with clarity.
  • High analytical ability to analyse and illuminate data, interprets reports, evaluate and criticise texts and bring new insights.
  • Ability to synthesise and disseminate evidence for stakeholders (in appropriate style and language).
  • Ability to creatively apply relevant social science theories, approaches, techniques and methods to research data.
  • Ability to assess and organise resource requirements and deploy effectively in meeting research and team objectives.
  • Interact sensitively & professionally with senior level practitioners, managers, policy-makers.
  • High quality writing for academic & practitioner audiences, with evidence of ability to publish at national and international level (to include conference and working papers).
  • Ability to build relationships and collaborate with others, both internally and externally.
/
  • Experience of using software packages for qualitative data analysis
  • Ability to foster a research culture and commitment to learn from others

Experience /
  • Experience of service evaluation work.
  • Experience of knowledge translation.
  • Experience in use of research methodologies and techniques to work within area, including social science methods and theories.
  • Experience of capacity development training (in areas such as qualitative and quantitative methods, writing, knowledge translation skills, evaluation frameworks, building networks).
  • Experience & knowledge of health care systems, as well as research experience in these areas.
/
  • Experience and knowledge of public services research, including working across organisational & professional boundaries in the public/voluntary sector.
  • Knowledge of implementation research and improvement science.
  • Experience of developing new approaches, models, techniques or methods in research area.

Statutory/Legal /
  • DBS clearance (on appointment).

Other /
  • Ability to work autonomously & exhibit initiative.
  • Excellent written & verbal communication & presentation skills.
  • Ability to work to deadlines and prioritise tasks.
  • Ability to work well in a team.
  • Willingness to travel across the East Midlands and beyond.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr Emma Rowley, CHILL senior research fellow and research manager/ EMAHSN Work-stream Lead, tel: 0115 82 31313 or email: . Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted. For more information about Nottingham University Business School, please see