Informal enquiries are welcome and should be made
to Martin Williams (e-mail
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] or
telephone: 0116 252 5419). Please do not respond to this address.
  Apologies for the length of advert!



Research Assistant in Medical Statistics

School of Medicine

Department of Health Sciences (Trent RDSU)

Salary Grade 6 - £24,284 to £28,152 p.a.
(Salary subject to outcome of October 2008 pay review)

Available from 1 November 2008 until 31 March 2010

Ref: R3920

A vacancy is available for a Research Assistant
in Medical Statistics within Trent
RDSU. Applicants should have a postgraduate
qualification in applied, medical or social
statistics. Good presentational, consultancy and
interpersonal skills are essential. Experience
of the design and analysis of health services
research and/or of teaching quantitative research methods is desirable.



The University

The University of Leicester is one of the UK's
leading research and teaching universities. The
University was founded as a University College in
1921 and granted a Royal Charter in 1957. It has
an estate of approximately 232 acres that
includes a fifteen-acre Botanic Garden, an
arboretum and a range of residences in the
suburbs that are set in attractive gardens.

The University has 19,375 students including
8,329 at postgraduate level. There are 34
academic departments located in five
faculties: Arts, Law, Medicine and Biological
Sciences, Science and Social Sciences. There is
a University-wide Graduate School and an
Institute of Lifelong Learning. The University
employs approximately 3,500 staff.
Leicester is a member of the 1994 Group of
internationally renowned universities engaged in
leading-edge research and high quality
teaching. Over 90% of academic staff are
research active. 13 departments gained the 5 or
5* ratings that indicate internationally
significant work in the 2001 Research Assessment
Exercise. According to Thomson Scientific,
Leicester has the tenth highest number of highly
cited researchers amongst the UK’s universities.
The discovery of DNA Genetic Fingerprinting is
our most famous research achievement, but our
world class research stretches across the arts,
science, medicine, law, education, biological sciences and social sciences.

The University of Leicester is, according to the
Times newspaper, "an award winning institution
attracting top academics". For three consecutive
years, the University of Leicester has recorded
the highest average score for overall
satisfaction amongst mainstream universities in
England in the National Student Survey. Three
quarters of our subjects are in their subject top
10. Teaching in 18 subject areas have been
graded as "Excellent" by the Quality Assurance
Agency – including 14 successive top
scores. Leicester is home to two prestigious
national Centres for Excellence in Teaching and
Learning (in Genetics and Geographical
Information Science) and plays an important role in a third (Physics).

The University is ranked 12th in the UK by the
Independent’s Good University Guide. The Guide
describes Leicester as a “first class
university”. It is ranked 14th by the Guardian
University Guide and 19th by the Sunday Times
University Guide which shortlisted Leicester for
its award of University of the Year 2007.
Leicester features in the world's top 200
universities (151st in the Shanghai Jiao Tong
Table and 185th in the Times Higher World University rankings 2007).

The University is committed to producing research
and teaching of the highest quality, to promoting
undergraduate and postgraduate studies through
campus-based and distance-learning programmes and
to developing close collaboration with the local and regional community.
The School of Medicine

Dean designate: Professor David Wynford-Thomas,
MB BCh, PhD, DSc, FRCPath, FMedSci (from autumn 2008)

As part of the School of Medicine’s commitment to
the maintaining and improving on its existing
high standards of research and teaching, it
carried out an extensive and successful
restructuring process in 2003. The five
substantial academic departments are defined
primarily by their research interests and span
the traditional clinical subject areas. They are
Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine (Head:
Professor W P Steward); Cardiovascular Sciences
(Head: Professor N J Samani); Health Sciences
(Head: Professor R H Baker); Infection, Immunity
and Inflammation (Head: Professor P W Andrew);
and Medical and Social Care Education (Head: Professor S Petersen).

These Departments bring considerable intellectual
resources to bear on a range of vital medical
challenges and reflect the priorities of the
National Health Service. They provide a
stimulating environment for research and study at
all levels, and offer a wide range of
opportunities for professional training and development.

In addition to the departments there are clinical
divisions, which bring together clinical
academics from cognate clinical specialties, and
whose role is to co-ordinate links with NHS
colleagues, the Royal Colleges and postgraduate medical education.


The Department of Health Sciences

Head: Professor R Baker

The Department of Health Sciences at the
University of Leicester is a research-led
department with established strengths in
epidemiology, medical statistics, social science,
public health, primary care, health services
research and psychiatry. Structured to support
innovative multidisciplinary and multi-method
solutions to research questions, its mission is
to conduct high quality scientific research that
can inform policies and practices aimed at
securing people’s health and well being.

The principal task of the Department is to
undertake research of international quality. The
Department has been structured to achieve
strength in depth in a limited number of research
fields. Research is broadly grouped into five
areas: Biostatistics and Social Science,
Epidemiology, Primary Care, Mental Health and
Hospital based subjects. The research groups
are: Adult Psychiatry, Ageing and Older People,
Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Cardiovascular/
Diabetes, Child Health, Child Psychiatry,
Forensic Psychiatry, Genetic Epidemiology, Health
& Disability, Infant Morbidity & Mortality,
Medical Statistics, Orthopaedic Surgery,
Psychiatry for the Elderly, Quality and Service
Delivery, Social Science, Trent RDSU.

In order to ensure that research is conducted at
the highest international standards there are
substantial continuing collaborations with major
international research universities and centres
in the United Kingdom including the Office for
National Statistics, London; Harvard Medical
School; Medical University of South Carolina; the
Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol,
Warwick and London (UCL, Institute of Psychiatry,
SGMS, Imperial), the World Health Organisation,
and collaborations elsewhere throughout Europe and the USA.

External research income 2001 – 2008 was over
£25million, and the funding bodies include the
Research Councils, NIHR (programme grant and
Research for Patient Benefit funding, SDO, HTA,
Policy programmes). the Department of Health, the
EU, Wellcome Trust, BHF, Diabetes UK and others.
Major funding was recently awarded for an NIHR
Collaboration in Applied Health Research and Care
(CLAHRC). Professor Baker is an NIHR Senior Investigator.

The Department has over 140 academic, research,
administrative, technical and clerical
staff. There are 14 professors, including
professors of genetic epidemiology, epidemiology
(2), medical statistics (two), and quality in
health care, plus professors of psychiatry,
psychiatry for the elderly, child and adolescent
psychiatry, criminological psychology, neonatal
medicine and orthopaedic trauma surgery; 4
Readers in general practice, medical statistics,
perinatal and paediatric epidemiology, social
science and health, 13 Senior Lecturers in
orthopaedics, psychiatry, pain management,
epidemiology, primary care and community child
health; 3 senior research fellows; 7 Lecturers;
52 research staff, a departmental manager, 10
computing and administrative staff and 30 support staff.

The Department has important links with other
academic and NHS organisations delivering both
clinical services and HSR, particularly under the
auspices of the Trent Research & Development
Support Unit (RDSU), the Comprehensive Local
Research Network, Diabetes Research Network, and
the East Midlands and South Yorkshire Primary
Care Network (EMSYNET). In addition, the
Department enjoys close relationships with R&D
departments in NHS Trusts in Leicestershire and
Northamptonshire. A number of the department’s
clinical academics have clinical roles with the
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, the
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust or Leicester City PCT.

Departmental Staff are housed in several
locations. The Department Office is located at
22/28 Princess Road West, Leicester LE1 6TP,
along with many members of the research staff.
Clinical staff are also located at Leicester
General Hospital and Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Also see our Web page on <http://www.hs.le.ac.uk/>http://www.hs.le.ac.uk.


Trent Research and Development Support Unit

Trent Research and Development Support Unit
(RDSU) is a collaboration between departments in
Leicester, De Montfort, Nottingham and Sheffield
universities. The RDSU provides high-level
academic support aimed at increasing the quantity
and quality of health services research,
including health-related social care research.
The RDSU is part of the National Institute for
Health Research and is one of a national network
of RDSUs in England funded by the Department of Health.
The aims of Trent RDSU are:
§ To provide researchers in health and
health-related social care with a comprehensive
‘one-stop shop’ for conducting and supporting high quality research;
§ To work with organisations to increase
their research and development capacity;
§ To initiate and participate in health services research;
§ To provide education and training for
health professionals and career researchers in
our region and maximise uptake of regional and national training schemes;
§ To work with the Department of Health
in developing the research and development strategy.
Trent RDSU employs high calibre staff with a wide
skill-mix including health services researchers,
health economists, statisticians, qualitative
researchers, epidemiologists, health
professionals, public health and information
specialists. RDSU staff have considerable
expertise in building research capacity and
forging productive links between practitioners,
health care organisations and academic
researchers. A number of staff members are
recognised nationally and internationally for
their expertise in methodological areas, ensuring
that the most up-to-date techniques are used to
support health services research.
See
<http://www.trentrdsu.org.uk/>http://www.trentrdsu.org.uk for more information.


Job Outline

· Title: Research Assistant
· Grade: 6
· Department: Health Sciences (Trent RDSU)

Job Purpose

The post holder will work with the Directors and
others in Trent RDSU to provide advice and
methodological support to health researchers,
support protocol development and submissions for
new research funding, analyse project data and
contribute to academic publications and other
outputs. The post holder will also provide
statistical consultancy to other NHS research
groups and support the design and delivery of
educational course in research methodology within the RDSU.

Principal Accountabilities:

· Support study design and protocol
development for research funding (e.g. NIHR RfPB,
SDO, HTA) for NHS-based studies;

· Contribute to the research activity and
outputs of Trent RDSU through research
collaborations and the production of high quality peer-reviewed publications;

· Provide methodological advice and
support to NHS and academic colleagues through
research clinics and one-to-one consultancy;

· Engage in relevant professional
activities and in continuous professional development;

· Work with the Director and others within
the RDSU to design and deliver lectures, seminars
and workshops on various quantitative research
methodologies to a mixed audience;

· Engage in continuous review, quality
assessment and subsequent development of the
curricula of these courses, with the aim of ensuring high quality provision;

· Support and comply with the University
and departmental teaching quality assurance
standards and procedures, including provision of
such information as may be required by the department or by the University.


Additional information

Trent Research and Development Support Unit
(RDSU) is a collaboration between departments in
Leicester, De Montfort, Nottingham and Sheffield
universities. The RDSU provides high-level
academic support aimed at increasing the quantity
and quality of health services research,
including health-related social care research.
The RDSU is part of the National Institute for
Health Research and is one of a national network
of RDSUs in England funded by the Department of Health.

The post holder will be based at the Princess
Road West site of University of Leicester.


Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience Required:



Essential


· Postgraduate degree in applied, medical of social statistics*
· Good knowledge of STATA, SAS or alternative statistical software*



Desirable


· Higher degree in medical statistics*
· Experience of the design and analysis of health sciences research*
· Track record of peer-reviewed publications*
· Track record of collaboration in health or health-related research*
· Relevant doctoral degree*
· Teaching experience in Higher Education
· Experience of providing statistical consultancy to non-statisticians

Skills, Abilities and Competencies



Essential


· Ability to provide appropriate advice on
quantitative methodologies to NHS and academic researchers
· Ability to teach quantitative methods to
adult-learners in lectures, seminars, and workshops
· Ability to develop and collaborate in research grant proposals
· Be able to demonstrate:
o The ability and willingness for
occasional travel within the East Midlands
o Excellent verbal and written communication skills
o The ability to work independently as well as part of a team

(* Criteria to be used in shortlisting candidates for interview)


EXTRACTS FROM TERMS AND CONDITIONS



The appointment is subject to University Charter,
Statutes, Ordinances, and Regulations, and to the
standard Terms and Conditions of Appointment for
Academic-Related Staff. A copy of the full Terms
and Conditions may be obtained by contacting Personnel Services.


Salary Spine:
· Grade 6: £24,284 - £25,013 - £25,763 -
£26,536 - £27,332 - £28,152 per annum
(Subject to outcome of October 2008 pay review)

The initial salary will depend upon
qualifications and experience. Salary is payable
monthly on the last working day of each month.

· Probation Appointments of
academic-related staff are normally subject to a
three-year probationary period. Appointments for
a fixed-term of three years or less are normally
probationary for their duration. Appointments on
probation are reviewed annually.

· Hours Appointments, unless otherwise
stated, are full-time but no fixed number of
hours of work is prescribed for members of the academic-related staff.

· Pensions Academic-related staff eligible
for membership may, immediately on starting their
employment, join USS - the occupational pension
scheme provided by this University. Unless,
prior to becoming an employee, he/she declares in
writing a wish not to be a member of USS he/she
will automatically be deemed to be a member from
the start of the employment and contributions
will be deducted accordingly. Contributions at
the rate of 6.35% of salary will be deducted from
the date of entry to the Scheme, at which time
full details of benefits, etc., will be forwarded
by the University Superannuation Office, from
whom further information can be obtained at any
time. The University contributes an amount equal
to approximately 14% of salary.

As a member of the USS, you will automatically
participate in SMART Pensions, which is a scheme
designed to produce financial benefits for both
the University and employees. Further
information about SMART Pensions will be provided to the successful candidate.

· Holidays The total holiday entitlement,
for full-time and part-time staff working
continuously throughout the year, is 38 days in
each year (January to December) and consists of 6
weeks (normally 24 days annual leave, plus a
further 6 days in each year allocated by the
University) plus 8 public holidays. Staff
working part-time continuously throughout the
year receive a pro rata annual leave
entitlement. A member of staff is expected to
consult his/her Supervisor over his/her leave
arrangements to ensure the smooth running of the
Department. On termination of employment, paid
holiday entitlement shall be deemed to have
accrued in proportion to completed months of
service in the leave year. Annual leave will
normally be taken during vacation periods but may
be taken at other times subject to the exigencies of the service.

· Equal Opportunities The University is
committed to an equal opportunities policy in
employment practice (a copy of the Equal
Opportunities Policy is available by contacting the Equal Opportunities Team).

· Notice The appointment may be terminated
by three months’ notice in writing by either side.

· Relocation The successful candidate will
be required to reside in or near Leicester unless
otherwise especially permitted. The University
has a scheme whereby it is prepared to give some
assistance towards removal expenses in certain cases.




Informal Enquiries


Informal enquiries are welcome and should be made
to Martin Williams (e-mail
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] or telephone: 0116 252 5419)

Applications

Applications should be made on the form provided,
forwarded to reach Personnel Services no later than 2 October 2008.

Candidates who wish acknowledgement of their
application should affix a first or second class
stamp to a self-addressed postcard or envelope,
stating on the reverse the reference number and
title of the post, and return it with their
application form. Candidates short-listed for
interview will be contacted by Personnel. If you
do not receive a communication from the
University within 4 weeks from the closing date,
then please assume that your application has been unsuccessful.


Applications should be sent to:
Personnel Services (Recruitment 2)
University of Leicester
University Road
Leicester LE1 7RH

Tel: 0116 252 5114
Fax: 0116 252 5140
E-mail: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]



#####################################
James Miller
Department of Statistics
University of Glasgow
15 University Gardens
G12 8QQ
0141 3302474
[log in to unmask]

The University of Glasgow, charity number SC004401