Job vacancies

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Research Fellow/Research Assistant

Ref Number: B16-01704
Professional Expertise: Research and Research Support
Department: School of Education (B16)
Location: London
Working Pattern: Full time
Salary: £43,124–£51,610
Contract Type: Fixed-term
Working Type: Hybrid
Available for Secondment: No
Closing Date: Friday, 14 March

The job description and person specification are available in this document. To apply for the vacancy please go through the UCL website.

About the role

The Centre for Longitudinal Studies at UCL wishes to appoint a talented and ambitious quantitative researcher as a Research Fellow to provide research input to the ESRC-funded project “Survey Data Collection Methods Collaboration: Securing the Future of Social Surveys”, known as Survey Futures.

Survey Futures is a collaboration between 11 universities and three survey organisations, in partnership with the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Its objective is to deliver a step-change in survey research to ensure that it will remain possible in the UK to carry out high-quality social surveys of the kinds required by the public and academic sectors. The Director of the collaboration is Professor Peter Lynn (ISER, University of Essex) and the Deputy Director is Dr. Olga Maslovskaya (University of Southampton).

Survey Futures aims to assess the quality implications of the most important survey design choices relevant to future UK social surveys, to provide good practice guidance and practical training materials, and to identify promising ways to improve the capacity and skillset of both interviewers and research professionals.

This post will contribute to two of nine Survey Futures research strands, on ‘Video Interviewing and on ‘Complex Measurement in Self-completion Surveys’ and to training and capacity building and other activities of the collaboration. The post requires an understanding of survey methods and statistics, and a commitment to rigorous evaluation and to effective dissemination.

You will contribute to outputs including publications in peer-reviewed journals and to dissemination via national and international conferences and other relevant events.

The role will involve close collaboration with other CLS researchers and those from other institutions involved in the Survey Futures collaboration.

The post is available until Tuesday, 30 June 2026 and will provide a fantastic opportunity for early career training.

Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD. Candidates in the final stages of completing a PhD will initially be appointed at Research Assistant Grade 6B with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD thesis. Candidates with no PhD who are not working towards submission of a PhD will be appointed at Research Assistant Grade 6.

About you

The appointed candidate will have a good understanding of Survey Methodology and experience of conducting quantitative analysis of complex survey data.  You will conduct high quality research and contribute to writing up findings in peer-reviewed journals and presenting at conferences.

For appointment to Research Fellow you will have a PhD in quantitative social sciences.  For appointment to Research Assistant you will have a post-graduate degree or equivalent professional qualifications and experience in quantitative social sciences.

Your application form should address all the person specification points and should clearly demonstrate how your skills and experience meet each of the criteria.

It is important that the criteria are clearly numbered and that you provide a response to each one.

Duties and responsibilities

You will be expected to:

• Deliver high quality research in the area of survey data collection methods. You will analyse data from various surveys including the CLS cohort studies to address the research objectives of the ‘video-interviewing’ and ‘complex measurement in self-completion surveys’ research strands of the ‘Survey Futures’ collaboration.
• Disseminate findings by taking the lead in preparing good practice guides and publications for journals, presenting results at conferences, and/or exhibiting work at other appropriate events.
• Collaborate/work on research tasks with colleagues in other institutions which are part of the collaboration.
• Carry out administrative tasks associated with the specified research funding, for example, organisation of project meetings and documentation.
• Develop and maintain collaborative working relationships within CLS and work proactively with colleagues in other institutions which are part of the collaboration.
• Engage in additional methodological training as required.
• Carry out any other duties commensurate with the grade and purpose of the post.

In addition, the post holder will be expected to:

• Actively follow and promote UCL policies, including Equal Opportunities and Race Equality policies.
• The staff member will have a responsibility to carry out their duties in a way that embodies UCL’s environmental and social sustainability values, actively supporting UCL’s Sustainability Strategy, policies and objectives within the remit of their role.
• Maintain an awareness and observation of fire and health and safety regulations.
• Carry out any other duties commensurate with the grade and purpose of the post.

The successful candidate will need to meet UCL’s expectations of core behaviours as outlined in https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/policies-advice/core-behaviours-framework

As duties and responsibilities change the job description will be reviewed and amended in consultation with the post holder.

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