Research Associate Cambridge

Vacancy Reference Number

RN25341

Closing Date

4 Feb 2021

Salary

£32,816-£40,322

Address

University of Cambridge

Duration

1 year

Job Details

We are looking to appoint a research associate for one year to work on datasets held at the Autism Research Centre (ARC). The ARC is a lively, friendly and diverse set of scientists in the University of Cambridge who conduct both basic and applied research to understand the causes of and interventions for autism. See www.autismresearchcentre.com

We have various datasets, some in the Cambridge University Autism Research Database (CARD) as raw data, some partly analysed, and some derived from other sources. CARD contains 10,000 autistic people and 20,000 parents of autistic children, so is one of the largest research databases for autism internationally. CARD has collected multiple types of data: psychological, cognitive, questionnaire, epidemiological, policy related, medical, hormonal, genetic, neuroimaging, etc.

The appointee will be responsible for statistical analysis, writing up and publishing datasets which will accelerate understanding about autism and lead to improvements in the health and well-being of autistic people and their families. The role will include writing up work for policy reports as well as scientific publications, presenting work at conferences and interacting with the lead investigator and wider project team. This is an opportunity for a postdoc to have co-authorship on publications based on existing data, where papers could be completed within a short timeframe. The appointee will benefit from all the other steps in research (design, ethical approval, recruitment and data collection) already being complete.

This role would suit someone who is adept at data analysis and writing up to achieve rapid publication opportunities and who enjoys learning about new data and being part of existing and well-established teams. Publishing these data will support our group in leveraging external grant funding from research funders, with the possibility of extending this role. This role is funded by the Autism Research Trust and will be part of the new Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) in Cambridge.

Person Criteria

The appointee will work with the Principle Investigator (Professor Simon Baron-Cohen), Research Associates, and other members of the ARC. Ability to interact and communicate effectively with researchers in different teams is essential. The appointee must have a PhD in cognitive neuroscience or a related discipline (biology, epidemiology, social science, psychiatry, etc.), and have previous experience of leading on analysis plans within a research role, ideally working with large datasets. Suitable candidates must be adept in using statistical packages such as R, and SPSS, and having experience of Python, machine learning, and other approaches that can be applied to a variety of datasets will be an advantage. Suitable candidates must have proven written communication skills to be able to interpret data to distil and summarise key findings for both technical and non-technical audiences.

How to Apply

https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/28318/

Please ensure that you upload a covering letter and CV in the Upload section of the online application. The covering letter should outline how you match the criteria for the post and why you are applying for this role. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.

Please include details of your referees, including email address and phone number, one of which must be your most recent line manager.

Please quote reference RN25341 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

Contact Details

nformal enquiries may be directed to Dr Carrie Allison, cla29@cam.ac.uk