Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Epidemiology / Medical Statistics

Are you a quantitative researcher who wants to work on two major suicide research projects: one with direct relevance to NHS inpatient care and one with relevance to population mental health? Join UCL's Division of Psychiatry to work on i) an NIHR-funded project evaluating the effectiveness of suicide prevention interventions delivered on inpatient psychiatric wards, and ii) an AFSP-funded project understanding temporality of suicide risk in relation to life events using Danish registry data. You will be working on complex challenges that matter

• Analyse large-scale routine mental health and population registry data, including CRIS electronic health record data from C&I, SLaM and up to four additional NHS trust sites, and linked population registry data for Denmark.
• Evaluate whether continuous/intermittent nursing observations reduce the risk of self-harm or suicide during and shortly after psychiatric admission.
• Help develop rigorous target trial emulation and related causal inference analyses in a setting where randomised trials would be difficult.
• Evaluate whether suicide risk increases at specific points in relation to key life events using multivariable regression models and self-controlled case series models
• Contribute to cost-effectiveness and cost-consequence analyses with health economics colleagues.
• Produce evidence that can inform ward practice, patient safety, staff training, policy briefings and clinical guidelines, and public mental health policy.
Professional Growth
• Join a multidisciplinary team spanning epidemiology, medical statistics, psychiatry, nursing, health informatics, health economics and lived experience research.
• Receive support and training in causal inference, self-controlled designs, target trial emulation, EHR/population registry analyses and real-world evidence methods.
• Work with collaborators across UCL, NHS mental health trusts, the North London CRIS team (UCL/North London NHS Foundation Trust), the South London CRIS team (King's College London/SLaM), Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention, University of Oxford, international policy stakeholders and lived experience advisory groups.
• Develop high-impact publications, open and reproducible analytical code, conference presentations and policy-facing outputs.
Flexibility Meets Impact While based in Bloomsbury, London, we offer blended and flexible working policies. This role offers an excellent opportunity for a quantitative researcher to make substantial contributions to mental health services research, patient safety, causal inference and applied medical statistics. About the role What will you be doing?
• Statistical analysis planning - develop and pre-register statistical analysis plans for descriptive epidemiology, target trial emulation and related quantitative analyses.
• Data management and analysis - prepare, clean, document and analyse large-scale routine EHR/population registry datasets and linked outcome data.
• Causal inference - use methods including pooled logistic regression and inverse-probability weighting to address time-varying confounding by indication, and methods including self-controlled case series models to understand temporal shifts in suicide risk Health informatics - work with colleagues on algorithms defining continuous observations, intermittent observation and general observation.
• Collaboration and interpretation
• Health informatics - work with colleagues on algorithms defining continuous observations, intermittent observation and general observation.
• Collaboration and interpretation - work with health economists, clinicians, nurses, lived experience researchers and policy colleagues to interpret and disseminate findings.
• Academic outputs - write peer-reviewed papers, lay summaries, blogs, reports and conference abstracts to reach wide audiences., The post holder will undertake quantitative research using large-scale routine mental health datasets. They will plan and execute analyses, lead or contribute to the interpretation and write-up of results, and disseminate findings to academic, clinical, public health, policy and lived experience audiences.
  
  Has strong applied statistical skills and experience analysing large-scale health, EHR, registry, administrative or longitudinal datasets.
• Can write clear, reproducible code in R, Stata or Python.
• Has an interest in causal inference, target trial emulation, real-world evidence or related observational methods.
• Is comfortable working with messy routine data and documenting assumptions, code and data cleaning decisions.
• Enjoys multidisciplinary collaboration and can communicate quantitative findings to clinicians, lived experience contributors, policy colleagues and researchers.
• Has, or is developing, a publication record in epidemiology, statistics, health services research, mental health or a related field.
  
  The post is graded on the non-clinical research staff Pay Scale, Grade 7 (the annual salary which ranges from £45,103 to £52,586, including London Allowance) or Grade 8 (the annual salary which ranges from £54,931 to £62,903, including London Allowance).
• The appointment is funded for two years in the first instance.
• Research Fellows - Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at Grade 6B (salary which ranges from £39,148 - £41,833 per annum) with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD Thesis.
Appointment at Grade 7 or Grade 8 will depend on experience and on meeting all the criteria in the person specification., As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:
• 41 Days holiday (including 27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• Electric car leasing scheme
• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance
The full range of staff benefits can be found here: Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women. The Division of Psychiatry prides itself for operating in an all-inclusive environment. Teamwork is highly valued, individual strengths are recognised and celebrated, and there is a commitment to advancing the careers of everyone, regardless of gender or role. We aim to provide a family friendly environment where both women and men feel able to take the time they need for family. The Athena SWAN Charter recognises commitment to advancing women's careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in academia and the Division is delighted to have an Athena Swan Silver Award since 2022. All staff are invited to contribute to EDI initiatives within the Division to contribute to improving working conditions and opportunities for all. Mentoring is a crucial part of supporting career progression and mentoring schemes are available for staff in the Division. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: Available documents