Research Assistant: Metabolic Psychiatry and Preventive Mental Health

University of Oxford - Department of Psychiatry

The University of Oxford is a stimulating work environment, which enjoys an international reputation as a world-class centre of excellence. Our research plays a key role in tackling many global challenges, from reducing our carbon emissions to developing vaccines during a pandemic.

The Department of Psychiatry is based on the Warneford Hospital site in Oxford – a friendly, welcoming place of work with an international reputation for excellence. The Department has a substantial research programme, with major funding from Medical Research Council (MRC), Wellcome Trust and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and provides highly rated medical training in psychiatry. The Head of Department is Professor Belinda Lennox.

We are seeking to appoint a Research Assistant to join a growing programme in metabolic psychiatry. Reporting to Associate Professor Amedeo Minichino, you will join a team working at the frontier of preventive mental health across clinical trials, large-scale data science, and translational research.

About the Role

The post is funded for one year and is based in the Department of Psychiatry at the Warneford Hospital. Due to the nature of the role (support for clinical studies), flexible working is not available for this post.

You will manage your own research and administrative activities, including supporting clinical trial and experimental medicine studies. You will select, follow, and adapt specialist data analysis methodologies using R and/or Python to work with large-scale datasets.

You will represent the research group at internal and external meetings and seminars, including presenting research findings at lab meetings and relevant conferences. You will also contribute to discussions with collaborators and partner institutions, helping to refine analytic strategies and prioritise next steps.

About You

You will have a first degree in psychology, neuroscience, medicine, pharmacology, or a closely related biomedical discipline or data science, statistics, or computer science. You will have a demonstrable interest in psychiatric research and mental health and be working toward a doctorate in a specialist discipline along with sufficient specialist knowledge to work within established research programmes.

You will have experience working with large datasets, including data wrangling and producing clear visualisations, and be confident in following and adapting research methodologies. You will be able to manage your own research and administrative activities, including organising workload, maintaining clear and reproducible records, and meeting agreed deadlines. Experience of working with clinical trial or experimental medicine studies would be desirable.

Diversity

Committed to equality and valuing diversity

Our active Psychiatry People and Culture teams and initiatives including our values and behaviours framework, work to make the Department of Psychiatry as supportive, welcoming and inclusive as possible.

Application Process

You will be required to upload a covering letter/supporting statement, CV and the details of two referees as part of your online application. Please see the University pages on the application process at https://www.jobs.ox.ac.uk/application-process

The closing date for applications is 15 April 2026