Senior Research Associate in Epidemiology or Medical Statistics (x2)

Two three-year positions as Senior Research Associates in Epidemiology or Medical Statistics are available in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MRC IEU) within Population Health Sciences in the Bristol Medical School, one of the leading centres for Epidemiology in the UK. The posts are to study the role that health plays in shaping socioeconomic outcomes (e.g. educational attainment, income, employment).

There is now widespread understanding that a broad array of socioeconomic factors influences health, and this is supported by a large evidence base. What is much less well studied is how health itself can influence educational attainment, income, employment, and other socioeconomic outcomes. The evidence on this topic that does exist is largely from observational studies that are likely to suffer from bias due to confounding and reverse causality. From the available evidence to date, it is therefore impossible to tell whether health is affecting socioeconomic factors, socioeconomic factors are affecting health, or the relationships are bidirectional. Improving our understanding of health as a contributor to educational attainment, income, employment, and other similar outcomes will strengthen the argument for policy that promotes good population health to improve socioeconomic outcomes.

These two senior research associate posts will join a multidisciplinary team to work on an ambitious project that will:

1. Apply causal inference methods (Mendelian Randomization) to examine the causal links between health (taking a broad view of potentially relevant health conditions) and socioeconomic outcomes.
2. Assess whether the impact of health changes across the life course, and therefore identify periods of the life course where policy changes are likely to have the greatest effects.
3. Study whether parental health causally affects the socioeconomic outcomes of children.
4. Use evidence synthesis methods (Multi Parameter Evidence Synthesis) to combine evidence from various sources to better understand the potential economic gains from improving population health, to maximise the policy impact of our findings.

Opportunities for continued training and career development are available, including the short courses run by the Population Health Sciences department, the University of Bristol staff development programme, and various book clubs, journal clubs and special interest discussion groups.

For an informal discussion about the post, please contact Dr Laura Howe – email laura.howe@bristol.ac.uk.

The University is committed to creating and sustaining a fully inclusive culture.  We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and communities.