DepartmentThe Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex wishes to appoint three talented and ambitious quantitative researchers, to the post of Research Fellow or Senior Research Officer (see job pack for further detail), to carry out research and development work on Understanding Society in relation to:1. Family and child development; 2. Innovations in data collection methods;3. Linked and missing data. Understanding Society is the largest household panel study in the world, designed to address key scientific and policy questions of the 21st century. We interview all household members annually, and are expanding the range of other data collected between waves and harvested from other sources. The Study is underpinned by rigorous innovation in survey methods, and produces high quality research data for academic and policy communities.
The appointment will be made as Senior Research Officer or Research Fellow.Duties of the RoleAll three posts are fully funded by the Understanding Society grant for three years in the first instance. The successful candidates will collaborate with leading experts to produce and disseminate high quality research, and develop approaches to enhance Understanding Society. They will undertake experiments, evaluate implementation, monitor fieldwork and prepare associated documentation. They will contribute to data analysis and writing of manuscripts for publication in academic journals. They will engage with relevant external networks and carry out knowledge exchange activities, which promote the Study. The family and child development post will focus on enhancing our data collection in childhood, and exploiting the unique opportunities for research created by interviewing all family members and following them as they move into different households. The Innovations in data collection methods post will test data collection using mobile devices and develop methods to maximise the quality of resulting data.The Linked and missing data post will help develop approaches to addressing missingness in research created by having data from multiple instruments across multiple waves over time and integrating it with other kinds of data such as administrative, transaction information, etc. Skills and qualifications requiredCandidates at Senior Research Officer, grade 8 should have a relevant doctoral degree in quantitative social science or other quantitative disciplines or be close to completion of doctoral degree. For the Research Fellow, grade 9 level candidates have obtained a doctoral degree.To be appointed at the higher grade 9 of Research Fellow candidates will already have an independent research reputation and a proven ability to publish at the highest level so that they can make a strong contribution to the next Research Excellence Framework exercise in 2020.For the missing and linked data post candidates must demonstrate postgraduate training in advanced statistics or econometrics.Candidates should have experience of advanced quantitative analysis using large-scale complex survey data as well as demonstrable ability to undertake statistical packages, such as Stata or R.Please state in your application which role you are applying for and at which level. This is a fixed-term post for 3 years or until 31 March 2022, the date on which the research grant ends. Part-time working will be considered at a minimum of 0.8 FTE.At the University of Essex internationalism is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally-oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries and a university where you can find the world in one place.Please see the further detail link below for a full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role plus more information relating to the post. We recommend you read this information carefully before making an application. Applications should be made on-line, but if you would like advice or help in making an application, or need information in a different format, please telephone the Resourcing Team (01206 876559).
*Further detail: Senior Research Officer/ Research Fellow jobpack
*More information: Working at the University