Research Assistant

Post Date : 25-Jun-2025 Close Date : 09-Jul-2025 Job Title : Research Assistant : Childhood Obesity Department :  School of Physiotherapy Tenure : Specified purpose contract for 6 months (0.5 FTE) Location :  St. Stephens Green Campus Reporting to :  Dr. Grace O’Malley, School of Physiotherapy Salary :  Dependant on candidate skills and experience Closing date : 9th of July RCSI is a community of academic, research, clinical and professional staff working collaboratively to lead the world to better health. Here, you will thrive in an innovative and inclusive atmosphere and your personal development and wellbeing will be supported. We invite you to join us to help deliver on our exciting mission “To educate, nurture and discover for the benefit of human health”. We seek candidates whose experience to date has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to the “Race Equality Action Plan 2025-2029” at RCSI. Our students come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds. This makes our university stronger and ensures we hire the best talent. Innovating for a Healthier Future 2023-2027 is RCSI’s new five-year strategic plan. Through it, RCSI will enhance human health by meeting the health workforce needs of society, creating the insights and inventions that drive health improvements, and working in partnership with patients and the public in support of better health and well-being for all. The strategy unites the RCSI community in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals – with a particular focus on Goal 3, which targets good health and well-being. For each of the last six years, RCSI has been positioned in the Top 300 of universities worldwide in the Times Higher World University Rankings. We are proud that RCSI ranks fifth in the world for “Good Health and Well-being” in the Times Higher Education #SDG #SDG Impact Rankings 2024. This reflects our commitment to supporting people of all ages to live healthy lives and our work to promote the concepts of well-being and positive health. In 2024, RCSI was delighted to be named one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work in Ireland. At RCSI, our core values of Respect, Collaboration, Scholarship, and Innovation are at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive environment where every colleague is valued and empowered to thrive. Our dedication to these values ensures that we foster a culture of mutual respect, open collaboration, continuous learning, and innovative thinking. Join us at RCSI, where your contributions will be recognised, and you will be part of a dynamic team making a real impact on global health. Background Childhood obesity is a major public health problem. Child and adolescent obesity can lead to serious health consequences during childhood and into adulthood. In line with the UN convention on the Rights of the Child, children should have access to treatment for health conditions and providing treatment for obesity and related co-morbidities is a key focus of Irish health policy since 2005. In line with current Irish healthcare policy, the Obesity Research and Care Group (ORCG) aims to support the Irish health service to provide treatment and prevention for child and adolescent obesity. This research assistant post will involve a mixed-methods approach to addressing the needs of stakeholders across the health service. The researcher will collaborate with the research team specifically in the area of video, audio and mixed media dissemination endeavours. Specifically, the duties of the post are :

• Engage in and lead dissemination activities using video and audio and mixed media.
• Identify and explore implementation of artificial intelligence-supported tools in the work of the ORCG.
• Proactively participate in a programme of quantitative and qualitative paediatric research work under the direction of the principal investigator and ORCG team members.
• Participate in literature reviews and apply insights to manuscript preparation.
• Support report and manuscript preparation.
• Work collaboratively with the wider project team.
• Conduct administrative work associated with the work of the ORCG.

Knowledge & Experience – ( Essential) :

Knowledge & Experience (Desirable) :

Skills & Competencies :

Excellent Communication Skills : Proven ability to communicate with diverse groups of adults, children, adolescents, health professionals, policy makers and the general public. Project Management Skills : Ability to ensure that project plans are communicated and that timelines are met Self-starter with the ability to work as part of a team : Ability to operate effectively as part of a team – is cordial, tolerant and willing to help others, is co-operative and patient; shares work and information; establishes rapport, can influence and develop effective networks I.T. skills : Knowledge of MS Office suite, video, and audio tools and software. Conscientious : Have a pro-active approach to work, anticipating and resolving problems in advance; have keen attention to detail - from anticipating and addressing issues in advance to understanding requests and delivering quality work with minimal errors. Flexibility : Can operate flexibly within a busy environment; can shift focus when required. Customer Focus : Have strong customer service skills. Be able to communicate with a high level of initiative, tact, diplomacy and confidentiality. Motivated : Display a ‘can-do’ attitude, be committed to RCSI ORI and its development; demonstrate enthusiasm and passion for the role.