Research Assistant

Job Description: Research Assistant (participatory toolkit: engaging with young communities)

The aim is to produce a toolkit designed to help researchers and practitioners to employ participatory methods when working with young people. The research assistant will also be working alongside researchers and stakeholders to understand ‘youth voice,’ youth social action and solutions to issues facing young Londoners.

The toolkit will draw on our experiences of participatory research with and for young people; especially, the process of involving young people as peer researchers (16- to 25-year-olds) within our existing ‘Youth Social Action’ project commissioned by the Greater London Authority. In addition to analyse the findings, the young steering group members challenge us methodologically and epistemologically, and have thus developed innovative approaches and methods that not only will enhance the research, but also make the ‘Youth Social Action’ project more meaningful, empowering and engaging to the young people involved.

The project consists of two components: (1) research with Key Stage 3 students (12- to 14-year-olds) where the key part of the qualitative data is collected through school workshops; and, (2) research with 16- to 25-year-olds, where the data is collected through interactive activities, as part of the ‘Young Changemakers’ event, scheduled to take place on 12 July 2024 at London Metropolitan University.

This is a great opportunity for a graduate student or PGR student who want to further develop skills around academic research (qualitative), writing and delivering of school workshops.

To support this project, we need two research assistants to support us with the following tasks:

Conduct desk-based research

• Help capture the youth participatory approach applied on the project.


• Undertake literature searches as appropriate, and a literature review around participatory research involving young people.


• Assist in the analysis of qualitative data, as directed by the research leads.


• Summarise the key findings of the activities.

Presentation of findings

• Assist with the presentation of findings.


• Participate in the documentation of the results arising from research activity.


• Contribute towards the publication of the toolkit.

Planning and managing resources

• Work to deadlines and manage competing priorities, with direction as appropriate from project leads.

University/school profile

• As appropriate, liaise with relevant internal and external contacts/organisations in related areas of study.

Delivery of project

• Assist with planning and delivery of an event, taking place at London Metropolitan University, where the aim is to run fun, interactive research activities for 16- to 25-year-olds.


• Assist with planning and delivery of two workshops for Key Stage 2 students, scheduled to take place in a school in Camden, London, on 15 and 16 July, 2024.

The Laboratory of RNA networks is seeking a Research Assistant  to join a team of researchers under the supervision of Professor Jernej Ule working on the dynamics of ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNP) that assemble on the 3’ UTRs of neuronal mRNAs (http://ulelab.info/). The group focuses on mechanisms of RNP assembly, as part of a project funded by the Wellcome Trust. 

The post holder will contribute to the project to develop computational approaches to study how RNA-binding proteins  regulate alternative splicing. Primary focus will be computational studies of data produced by iCLIP, RNA-seq and related methods) and developing the work towards relevant publications. 

The post is based at the UK DRI, https://ukdri.ac.uk/ 

Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, King's College, Denmark Hill Campus  

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  To conduct high quality research under the supervision of Professor Ule, and in collaboration with other members of the Ule group. 

  
  


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  Develop and test new software, analyse data, build new hypotheses and independently design further experiments. 

  
  

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  Prepare figures summarising the results and play a leading role in writing the manuscripts. 

  
  


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  Continue professional development, including participation in staff development and review procedures in accordance with UCL guidelines, including annual formal appraisal 

  
  


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  Contribute to the department’s multidisciplinary research projects within the strategy. 

  
  


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  Present at international conferences as well as internal meetings at UCL, and meetings with external collaborators. 

  
  


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  Regularly interact with collaborators and coordinate joint work. 

  
  

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  Ensuring the highest standard of record keeping, maintaining accurate, complete, and up to date records. 

  
  


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  Ensuring confidentiality is maintained as applicable. 

  
  


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  Attending and contributing to Departmental, Institutional and other meetings as appropriate. 

  
  


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  Acting at all times in accordance with the highest professional standards, and ensuring that these are maintained in the delivery of all aspects of researc

  
  

PhD in Computational Biology or a related discipline 

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  Experience in developing new computational tool 

  
  


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  Experience with mechanisms of RNA regulation 

  
  


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  Computational proficiency at advanced level 

  
  


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  Excellent oral and written communication skills 

  
  

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  Strong problem solving abilities 

  
  


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  Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to work efficiently on multiple sites 

  
  


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  Excellent inter-personal skills with an ability to work co-operatively in a multidisciplinary setting 

  
  


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  Resourceful and able to act on own initiative 

  
  


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  Interested in research and a commitment to supporting high quality research 

  
  

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  Meticulous and accurate in all aspects of work 
  
   

  
  

Teaching fellow with neuroscience knowledge for urgent level 6 marking

Ideally HEA fellowship

Marking