Research Fellow in Human Sciences Group

Location: 

Highfield Campus

Salary: 

£29,301 to £31,076 per annum

Full Time Fixed Term (for 2 years)

Closing Date:  Sunday 10 September 2017

Interview Date:  To be confirmed

Reference: 905917KR

Applicants are invited for a Research Fellow or Senior Research Assistant position within the Hear For Duty team of the Hearing & Balance Centre to investigate whether pure-tone audiometry is suitable for the occupational assessment of soldiers’ fitness for duty.

How good a soldier’s hearing is can mean the difference between life and death. Soldiers are more likely to have hearing loss than the standard population due to the high levels of sounds they can be exposed to as part of their job. Pure-tone audiometry is routinely used as to help determine whether an individual’s hearing is adequate for safe and effective performance of their role, or whether they need to be moved to a different role or retired.

This two-year project is funded by the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine to improve occupational hearing assessment for infantry personnel. The project consists of two parallel studies. The first is an independent clinical audit of pure-tone audiometry undertaken in the military with an emphasis of working together towards continual improvement in quality. The second is a research study to determine whether pure-tone audiometry can accurately distinguish between those who pass or fail our simulation of a mission-critical auditory task. Our new iPad app based speech-in-noise test will also be included as an alternative candidate fitness-for-duty test.

Your role will be to co-ordinate and carry-out the audit and research study under the supervision of Drs Hannah Semeraro and Daniel Rowan, and in collaboration with Dr Adrian Allsopp of the Institute of Naval Medicine. As part of the research study, you will be involved in further development of our iPad app as well as implementing the auditory task simulation into a new iPad app.

You must have or be nearing completion of a PhD* in audiology or a related field, or alternatively have equivalent professional qualifications, including research, and significant clinical experience in audiology. You must be registered or be eligible for registration as a health professional in audiology in the UK and be able to demonstrate strong leadership and communication skills; you must also be willing to travel to many military audiometric test centres across the UK with research equipment; a full UK driving licence is desirable. Experience of clinical audit is desirable although training can be provided. The Hearing & Balance Centre also provides outstanding opportunities for you to be developed generally as a future leader of research and clinical practice.

We would welcome applicants interested in either full-time or part-time/job share arrangements. The intended start date is 2^nd October 2017.

Informal enquiries are welcomed and should be directed to Dr Daniel Rowan: dr@isvr.soton.ac.uk.

*Applications for Research Fellow positions will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification. The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon successful completion of the PhD.  Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

About The University

You will join the world-renowned Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, which has a strong legacy of improving health and wellbeing internationally. We are within a faculty of Engineering and the Environment, which was rated number one for research power in general engineering in REF2014 and has an excellent record of collaborative research with industry and government institutions.

We were awarded an Athena SWAN silver award in 2016 in recognition of our continued commitment to improving equality for women in science and engineering. We also have the Platinum EcoAward, committing all of our staff and students to take responsibility for managing their activities to minimise harm to the environment.

Application procedure

 The application deadline will be midnight on the closing date stated above. If you need any assistance, please call Georgie Warren (Recruitment Team) on +44 (0) 23 8059 7749. Please quote reference 905917KR on all correspondence.