Research Associate - MENTOR 3.0

University of Sheffield - School of Psychology

Job description:

Do you want to use your psychology skills to improve how workplaces support mental health and keep people well in work? We have an exciting opportunity for a Research Associate (Psychology) to join colleagues in the School of Psychology at the University of Sheffield on MENTOR 3.0, an NIHR-funded research programme delivered in partnership with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Yorkshire.

MENTOR 3.0 programme aims to help people stay well and remain in work by strengthening everyday support between employees and their line managers through a structured joint employee–manager intervention. The intervention will be facilitated by trained in-house staff within participating organisations. The project focuses on making the intervention practical, acceptable and scalable in real-world settings, using co-production and implementation focused evaluation.

You will join a multidisciplinary team spanning occupational health psychology, public health, social care, health economics, behavioural science, prevention, and implementation research. Working closely with academic colleagues and partner organisations, you will play a central role in coordinating and running key project activities, building strong relationships with SMEs and stakeholders, and supporting inclusive co-production with employees and people with lived experience of mental health-related absence or leaving work. You will contribute to the project’s feasibility study, including supporting recruitment and study delivery, and planning and delivering co-production workshops and mixed-methods research activities (quantitative and qualitative) to refine the intervention and strengthen its implementation.

You should hold a PhD (or equivalent) in Psychology or a closely related discipline, and be able to demonstrate experience delivering and evaluating psychological interventions (e.g., intervention studies, feasibility trials, mixed-methods evaluations). Strong organisational and communication skills are essential, as we are looking to produce high-quality outputs for both academic and non-academic audiences. Familiarity with workplace mental health and evidence-based approaches relevant to stress and burnout (e.g., ACT/CBT or contextual behavioural approaches) is desirable, alongside experience of working collaboratively with stakeholders outside academia.

The role can be held on a hybrid basis, with a mix of in-person and remote working. The postholder will be expected to travel with the PI to visit stakeholders and participants within the South Yorkshire region.