Research Assistant / Research Fellow

A full-time Research Assistant or part-time (75%) Research Fellow with qualitative experience is required to work across a number of NIHR, Health Technology Assessment funded multi-centre clinical trials and contribute to other trials methodology work.  The post is available until March 2022 in the first instance and the post holder will provide qualitative research support to several trials including the PUrE trial, RAACENO, UK-REBOA, REGAL and other related work.

Please click here for full details

Senior Lecturer (HSRU)

We are seeking to appoint an outstanding senior lecturer to join the Health Services Research Unit , University of Aberdeen.  The post holder will be expected to have an established track in any health services research or associated discipline, ideally with research experience in applied health data analytics or trials methodology research.  The post holder will be working in a multidisciplinary environment and is expected to embrace a range of theories and methods to advance the field of study. Experience of securing research funding from a range of funders is important, as well as evidence of strong research networks and deliverables. 

Please click here for full details

Experts from our Clinical Trials Unit (CHaRT) and HSRU deliver a 12 week short course on Designing Real World Trials. 

This course takes you through the process of designing a randomised controlled trial (RCT). The course will focus on trials in the evaluation of real-world healthcare and public health settings.  The course aims to develop your knowledge and awareness of how to design a fair test, the appropriate use of trials and alternative trial designs, involving patients and the public, the logistics and practicalities of designing real-world trials and the role of clinical trials units.

To find out more visit the course page or contact Dr Kirsty McCormack

HSRU contributes teaching to the:

• Master of Public Health (MPH) 
• MSc in Global Health and Management 
• Research Methods for Health (PgCert). 

We offer a number of student projects each year to students on the MSc and Intercalated BMEdSci courses.

Our Designing Real-World Trials short course will earn you 15 credits at Masters level (SCQF Level 11).

Staff in HSRU are fully supported in undertaking a PhD.  They are also encouraged to provide supervisory support for full or part-time PhD students. 

HSRU has no new PhD opportunities available at the moment however please click here to view all current University of Aberdeen opportunities.

Below are our current HSRU ongoing PhD projects.

Ongoing projects

• Behavioural interventions to improve clinical trial recruitment and retention - Taylor Coffey
• Complex designs in randomised clinical trials – a case study in dentistry - Beatriz Goulao
• Interrupted times series (ITS) evaluation - Jemma Hudson
• Optimising the responsible use of antibiotics - Shazia Yousuf
• ‘Soft’ Intelligence and Online Patient Feedback: Using Care Opinion for NHS Quality Improvement in Scotland - Emma Berry
• “Stamping out the gene”? Family and identity, choice and care, in inherited Motor Neurone Disease (MND) - Jade Howard
• Towards improvement in care delivery in Huntington's disease (HD) - Daniela Rae
• What is the best way to avoid recruitment and retention problems in trials? - Adel El Feky

Examples of recently completed projects

• Making clinical trials more efficient: consolidating, communicating and improving knowledge of patient recruitment interventions - Heidi Gardner
• Development of core clinical outcome measures for glaucoma interventions - Rehab Ismail
• Mobile Bone Density Scanning Services in the UK: an implementation and outcome evaluation - Rosemary Hollick
• The relationship between perceived decision difficulty, decision time and decision quality in General Practitioners’ decision-making - Nicola McCleary

Clinical

HSRU actively mentors NHS Research Scotland (NRS) fellowships.  Recent NRS Clinical Fellows were:

Current

• Dr Callum Kaye, Consultant in Anaesthesia & Critical Care, NHS Grampian - BIS-TBI

Completed

• Mr Jan Jansen, Consultant Surgeon, NHS Grampian - Geospatial Evaluation of Systems of Trauma Care for Scotland.
   
• Dr Andy Keen, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, NHS Grampian - The application of psychological interventions (including mindfulness based approaches) to health and illness.

Non-clinical

HSRU actively encourages the development of staff through seeking prestigious research fellowships. Several funded research fellowships are supported including for example topics on the surgical trial methodology and methodological investigation of decision support for trial participation

We offer summer student work placements to current University of Aberdeen students wishing to improve their knowledge and experience in a research-focused environment.

This year we will be welcoming 6 student interns; 2 working on projects with the CHaRT programming team and 4 working on Health Services Research projects.

Applications for summer 2019 have now closed.  

There are lots of opportunities for patients and the public to be involved with our research.

You can find out more here

You can also contact our Patient and Public Involvement Co-ordinator Katie Banister