"Research and Impact Associate in Child Health (KTP Associate)"

University of Essex - School of Health and Social Care

Location:	London, Hybrid
Salary:	£43,400 per annum.
Hours:	Full Time
Contract Type:	Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On:	14th January 2026
Closes:	11th February 2026
Job Ref:	REQ09764

KTP
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are a unique UK-wide activity that help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity by making better use of the knowledge, technology and skills within universities, colleges and research organisations.

Further information is available at: https://iuk-ktp.org.uk/

THE PROJECT
The University of Essex in partnership with Spread a Smile offers an exciting opportunity to a postgraduate with the relevant background, skills, and knowledge to use evidence-based research and expertise to assess and demonstrate the positive impact of entertainers from a specialist children's charity who visit seriously ill babies, children and young people in hospitals, and to create an evaluation framework to enable the charity to optimise their service delivery, maximise impact, and increase income streams.

DUTIES OF THE POST
The duties of the post will include:

General

• Effectively managing workload and responsibilities between KTP project delivery and academic outputs.
• Successfully delivering KTP workplan milestones and supporting Spread a Smile’s KTP Activity inputs.

Technical

• Gathering, consolidating and analysing historical data from numerous sources.
• Accessing and contextualising other forms of data from external organisations.
• Developing data driven insights/tools for understanding the long-term impacts that Spread a Smile activity has on all the people it supports.
• Creating an evaluation framework that effectively demonstrates Spread a Smile ' impacts on its users which is useable for Spread a Smile staff.
• Gaining access to hospitals and relevant ethical approvals.
• Collecting, managing, and analysing complex data relating to patient circumstances (e.g. differing ages, prognoses & length of stay etc.).

People and Change Management

• Communicating and developing relationships with senior academic staff and senior staff and trustees at Spread a Smile.
• Communicating and developing relationships with patients, families and healthcare professionals.
• Understanding the motivations of supporters and ensuring that these insights are developed into research and communicated in support of commercial and charitable impacts.
• Training and embedding knowledge into Spread a Smile staff in an accessible way.

These duties are a guide to the work that the post holder will initially be required to undertake. They may be changed from time-to-time.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

Qualifications

• Master's degree with a strong component on research methods training in education, epidemiology, psychiatry, health informatics, or a cognate discipline, or similar experience in clinical settings.
• PhD with a unique contribution to causal inference in fields like therapeutic play in education, child psychiatry, health informatics, or a cognate discipline (desirable).

Skills / Experience

• Experience of conducting research in a clinical setting.
• Experience of designing and implementing trials and collecting/managing/analysing data of different types.
• Proficient with data analysis tools/methodologies (e.g., casual machine learning) using R.
• Some knowledge of fundraising and marketing, or a willingness to learn.
• Knowledge of paediatric care and health play specialists, or a willingness to learn.
• Strong organisational and communication skills, including documenting work and presenting technical and/or scientific information to key stakeholders in the research.

LOCATION
Spread a Smile, Uncommon, 25 Horsell Road, London, N5 1XL.

Please use the 'Apply' button to read further information about this role including the full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role. You will also find details of how to make your application here.

Our website http://www.essex.ac.uk contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability and would like information in a different format, please email resourcing@essex.ac.uk.