The Post
The University of Stirling seeks an enthusiastic and motivated Research Fellow to join the project team for the research project: Building Effective Digital Post-Hospital Discharge Services for Older Adults in Social Care: A Mixed Methods Process Evaluation using the NASSS Framework. The project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and is a four year study which will evaluate the delivery of digital post hospital discharge and reablement services for older adults in social care. The project is a partnership between seven Universities: the University of Stirling, Northumbria University at Newcastle, The Open University, King's College London, Newcastle University, London School of Economics and the University of Hertfordshire; and five practice partners: Middlesbrough Council, Oxfordshire County Council, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, Shaping Our Lives, and Age UK Bristol.

The project adopts a multi-method methodology using the Non Adoption, Abandonment, Scale-up, Spread and Sustainability (NASSS) framework to evaluate post hospital discharge services using smart technologies within the two local authorities and the ICB. The project adopts a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including scoping literature reviews ethnographic observations of service delivery in local authorities/ICB interviews with service stakeholders (including clients and their carers, social care staff and service commissioners) and secondary analysis of operational and outcomes data collected by local authorities. Co-production is also a central element of the project, supporting all research activities with the involvement of three co-production groups of older social care users.

We are looking for an experienced Research Fellow with expertise in mixed method approaches and social care research and practice, to manage the project, and to contribute to a range of mixed method data collection activities. The post-holder will hold primary responsibility for day-to-day project management, supporting literature and evidence reviews, supporting the analysis of local authority outcomes data and development of a data dashboard and supporting two qualitative research fellows who will be recruited at later stages of the project. The researcher will also support development of project knowledge exchange and impact activities in later stages of the project.

The Research Fellow will also contribute as necessary to support the work of wider work packages when requested. The Research Fellow will be supported in their career development by the project's Principal Investigator and in a wider collegiate and supportive environment, including opportunities for mentoring and career development activities offered to researchers locally, and opportunities made available to researchers who are employed on NIHR funded research projects. The post will provide the Research Fellow with an opportunity to develop their research profile through collaborating on publications, knowledge exchange events organisation and engaging with a wide range of stakeholders. The Research Fellow will also be encouraged to engage with development activities to support their career development beyond the duration of this post. The post holder will work with Principal Investigator Dr Grant Gibson, with additional support from Co-Investigator Dr Jason Adair. The Research Fellow will also work with co-investigators acting as work package leads at partner institutions. The post is based at the University of Stirling. Requests for home or remote working will be supported, subject to discussion with the principal investigator. In cases where remote working is agreed, some travel to the host institution will be required.

Description of Duties
The primary responsibilities of the Research Fellow will include:

• Hold day-to-day responsibility for project management, including writing applications for University and HRA ethical review, and liaising with project partners and research fellows to set up research activities
• Contribute to delivery of scoping literature reviews, including developing the search strategy, literature searching, identifying appropriate grey literature sources (e.g. local authority evaluation reports), evidence synthesis and writing up
• Contribute to quantitative secondary analysis of local authority outcomes data and development of a data dashboard to support local authorities outcome assessments
• Supporting ongoing and end of project knowledge exchange, dissemination and impact activities, including developing and delivering a variety of knowledge exchange events and publications, and producing end of project resources in a variety of formats for different audiences
• Contributing to project meetings, maintaining appropriate project records, clearly communicating with project partners and ensuring project documentation is compliant with research governance processes
• Assisting with other project work packages where necessary
• Work to deadlines to enable completion of the project on schedule