Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Analytics

27 Mar 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

RCSI - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Department

Human Resources

Research Field

Other

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)

Country

Ireland

Application Deadline

22 Apr 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/Dublin)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

39

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Job Title:	Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Analytics
Department:	School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
Reporting to:	Dr Frank Moriarty
Location:	RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin 2
Contract/Duration	4 years (with potential for extension)
Remuneration:	IUA Scale PD2a – up to point 5 (47,854) commensurate with experience, with increments
Closing Date: Starting Date:	April 22nd 2024  June 2024

RCSI is a community of academic, research, clinical and professional staff working collaboratively to lead the world to better health. Here, you will thrive in an innovative and inclusive atmosphere and your personal development and wellbeing will be supported. We invite you to join us to help deliver on our exciting mission “To educate, nurture and discover for the benefit of human health”. We seek candidates whose experience to date has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to the “Race Equality Action Plan 2021-2024” at RCSI. Our students come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds. This makes our university stronger and ensures we hire the best talent.  

 

For each of the last six years, RCSI has been positioned in the Top 300 of universities worldwide in the Times Higher World university Rankings. We are proud to announce that RCSI has ranked first in the world for “Good Health and Well-being” in the Times Higher Education #SDG Impact Rankings 2023.  This reflects our commitment to supporting people of all ages to live healthy lives and our work to promote the concepts of well-being and positive health. Our values of Respect, Collaboration, Scholarship and Innovation continue to unite and direct our purpose.

 

About Our Research

RCSI recognises that excellence in research is critical to the quality of its educational activities, its credibility, and, overall, to its mission to enhance human health. RCSI’s research strategy aims to build upon its strength in translational biomedical and clinical research to deliver transformational, high impact changes in health care. Targeting both Irish national and EU funding, along with increased collaboration with industry, is a major part of the RCSI research strategy. Forging increased collaboration between RCSI PIs and industry is of critical importance to achieving success in this area. RCSI is also committed to provide its researchers with the supports and developmental opportunities to enable them to continuously grow and support their overall career development.

 

Summary of Post

DIAMOND (Developing Innovate Analytical Methods for research ON Deprescribing) is an ambitious research programme supported by a €2.4m Career Development Award from Wellcome. This is part of Wellcome’s Discovery Awards, which aim to transform our understanding of health and disease and develop methodologies, frameworks, tools or techniques of benefit to health-related research.

 

DIAMOND will harness the large amounts of information already collected as part of routine healthcare, such as during GP and hospital visits, to understand the effects of reducing or stopping (i.e. deprescribing) medications which may no longer be needed or causing more harm than good. The programme aims to develop and advance novel methods from the field of pharmacoepidemiology to research deprescribing using big data, and to apply these methods to generate new evidence on the benefits and harms of stopping medications. This research has the potential to inform the decisions of patients and their healthcare professionals as the focus of healthcare shifts to more personalised medicine. Ultimately, this will help people age better with medicines that are right for them.

 

The programme will focus on identifying deprescribing as it currently happens in routine practice and developing methodological approaches for causal inference on the effects of deprescribing, which will be applied to common medication classes. It will also focuses on quantifying risks of adverse effects from a range of medications, including antidepressants and anti-platelet drugs, and exploring how this information may be used to target deprescribing to provide greater benefits.

 

We want to recruit a postdoctoral researcher who will primarily focus on data analysis for epidemiological studies within the research programme. This research will include generation of synthetic data for simulation studies to evaluate statistical methods, and analysis of linked patient record data employing a variety of approaches e.g. target trial emulation, propensity score weighting, instrumental variable analysis, K-means clustering. The role will also involve developing methodological outputs from the research, for example statistical code and/or software packages for implementation of methods in different statistical software systems. The position will provide opportunities for the successful candidate to undertake training and development, as well as to develop and pursue their own research ideas relating to the programme.

 

Specifically, the duties of the post will be:

• Lead the conduct of selected quantitative epidemiological analysis of patient record data, pharmacovigilance data or other data sources.
• Create synthetic datasets for evaluation of analytical approaches.
• Collate, clean and manage study data according to best practices, including developing and updating a programme data management plan and preparing data for archiving.
• Create scripts/code for data management and analysis, which can be shared, reused, and potentially developed into statistical packages.
• Develop study protocol(s) for pre-registration and study approval.
• Write-up of results and preparation of reports for funder requirements and for dissemination to key stakeholders and via peer-reviewed journals.
• Contribute to the supervision of undergraduate and/or postgraduate students that may be working on the programme.
• Support Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) and engagement/outreach activities.
• Perform any additional tasks as may be required.

Qualifications – (Essential):

• PhD in a relevant field (e.g. biostatistics, health informatics).

Knowledge & Experience – (Essential):

• Evidence of success with writing for publication in biostatistics, applied health data analytics or other relevant field(s), reflected in authorship of peer-reviewed papers or reports.
• Strong  quantitative  data  analysis  skills;  experience  of various statistical  methods/approaches, and statistical software packages such as Stata or R.
• Experience cleaning, managing and analysing large datasets for research.
• Experience working on projects with multiple stakeholders, ideally including PPI contributors.
• Experience communicating research to academic, policy-maker and/or lay audiences.

Knowledge & Experience – (Desirable):

• Experience of research relating to pharmacoepidemiology/medicines optimisation.
• Experience managing and analysing healthcare record data for research.
• Experience of generating synthetic data for research.
• Knowledge and experience of open research principles and practices.
• Organisational, interpersonal, report writing and IT skills
• Project and team leadership, coordination and management skills
• A capacity to work collaboratively as part of a team as well as independently.

 

We are all too aware that imposter syndrome and the confidence gap can sometimes stop fantastic candidates putting themselves forward, so please do submit an application — we’d love to hear from you.

 

 

Application Process

Please apply online through the RCSI careers portal on the closing date with your CV and cover letter.

 

Informal Enquiries can be directed to [email protected] . Please note we do not accept CVs directly.

 

Click here to read our Recruitment and Selection Policy for Researchers.

 

Employee Benefits

RCSI make sure you have the resources you need to thrive by offering a wide range of benefits in areas including time away, finance, community, health, and well-being and insuring your financial future. Below are some additional benefits available to you as an RCSI employee:

• • Minimum of 20 days annual leave, plus an additional 6.5 Privilege days
  • Flexible/hybrid working options for colleagues across many roles
  • Additional leave options incl. paid maternity leave, paternity/parental leave, study leave
  • 7% Employer pension contribution
  • Onsite gym €10 per/mth incl. classes and PT sessions
  • Childcare support 20% discount at Giraffe
  • Free eye test and annual flu vaccination
  • TaxSaver commuter tickets and Bike to Work schemes
  • A site sustainability team focusing on the environmental initiatives;Green Campus Initiative ’
  • Competitively priced café and restaurant
  • Equality, Diversity & Inclusion forums, and network groups
  • Employee assistance programme with Spectrum Life
  • Learning and Development training programmes incl. LinkedIn Learning for career progression
  • Discounted services incl. GP visits, 10% off dental, staff parking, mobile tariffs, Group Scheme discount on numerous brands
  • Sports and social club incl. yoga, Pilates, fitness classes, Zumba, running club, social evenings, Summer BBQ
  • Ticket Draws for events including; Rugby, Taste of Dublin, Dublin Horse Show, theatre, music & comedy events

 

 

Note: This job description may be subject to change to reflect the evolving requirements of the School and RCSI. Similar vacancies that arise in the next 6 months may be filled from the pool of applicants that apply for this position.  RCSI is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability or race. RCSI is committed to embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across everything we do. This ensures we can all work and learn in an environment defined by dignity and respect. Eligibility to work in Ireland is a requirement of this role, Proof of eligibility documentation will be required at a later date. Under limited and specific circumstances (research/ specialist roles) RCSI may be in a position to seek a hosting agreement and/or work permits. Employees are required to undertake 6 months service in their current role before applying for other internal opportunities, unless agreed in advance by the SMT representative

 

 

Requirements

Research Field

All

Education Level

PhD or equivalent

Additional Information
Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Country

Ireland

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://my.corehr.com/pls/coreportal_rcsip/erq_jobspec_details_form.jobspec?p_i…

Contact

State/Province

Dublin

City

Dublin 2

Website

http://www.rcsi.ie/careers

Street

123 St Stephen's Green

Postal Code

Co.Dublin

E-Mail

[email protected]

Phone

0877558652

STATUS: EXPIRED