Research Fellow in Palliative Care

We are looking for a motivated and collaborative researcher to join the STRENGTH Study team, a new NIHR-funded project working to improve support for family carers of older people experiencing anticipatory grief. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to meaningful, real-world research at the intersection of ageing and palliative care, in a team that genuinely values your professional development.

This is a part-time (0.6 FTE), fixed-term post for 12 months. You will be supervised by the two project leads and benefit from structured mentorship and support with developing your own research profile.

You will play a central role in the day-to-day delivery of the project, contributing across all stages of the research, including:

Literature review

• Supporting database and grey literature searches and screening
• Assisting with data extraction, critical appraisal, and preliminary synthesis

Survey and interviews

• Helping to finalise and pilot a national online and postal survey
• Coordinating survey distribution with voluntary and carer organisations across England
• Managing and cleaning survey data, and contributing to descriptive and exploratory analyses
• Supporting recruitment of unpaid carers for in-depth interviews
• Conducting interviews
• Contributing to reflexive thematic analysis using NVivo

Co-design and intervention development

• Supporting triangulation of review and empirical findings

PPIE, dissemination, and team working

• Liaising with the patient and public involvement lead and carer advisory group
• Contributing to academic papers, conference abstracts, and accessible lay summaries

About you

We are looking for someone who is thoughtful, curious, and committed to high-quality research that makes a difference to people’s lives. We value diverse backgrounds and career paths, and we particularly welcome applications from people who are underrepresented in health and social care research.

Essential experience and skills:

• A postgraduate research degree (or equivalent experience) in a relevant discipline. We are happy to consider candidates who have submitted a doctoral thesis and are awaiting viva or outcome
• Experience of qualitative research in health or social care settings
• Familiarity with qualitative analysis software (e.g. NVivo, Atlas.ti, or similar)
• Quantitative literacy, including experience of managing survey data and conducting basic descriptive analyses
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Awareness of research ethics and safeguarding when working with potentially distressed participants
• Excellent organisational skills
• A collaborative, reflective approach to teamwork

What we can offer

In addition to a competitive salary you will receive 25 days annual leave, with 8 additional days for Bank Holidays and 7 for University closure days. We offer a generous pension, flexible working options, access to world-class leisure facilities, a range of travel schemes, and supportive family friendly benefits including an excellent on-site nursery.

Further information

To apply, please submit the following documents on our website:

• A CV outlining your academic and relevant professional experience
• A supporting statement clearly explaining how you meet the essential criteria as outlined in the person specification (see job profile below)

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Dr Richard Green (richard.green@surrey.ac.uk).

Online interviews will be held on Monday 18th May.

We recognise that a strong candidate may not have ticked every box above. If you meet most of the essential criteria and are genuinely excited about this work, we encourage you to apply.

We particularly welcome applications from people who can demonstrate a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, and/or experience of working with underrepresented or marginalised groups in health and social care research.

Further details

Job Description