Research Associate

This role is open to students on physical science and engineering courses who have successfully completed their 1st year (UG 2nd-5th year and all PG students). Research assistants will be managed by the Schools of Chemistry at Imperial College London (Charlotte Sutherell), King?s College London (Helen Coulshed), University College London (Anna Roffey), University of Glasgow (Frances Docherty) as well as a dedicated research manager. The research project aims to understand the main barriers and enablers to a successful transition from school onto chemistry degree program and how staff and student opinions differ. Main duties and responsibilities: To work with staff, Research manager and other research associate to:

• Review current literature on transition into university as it relates to lab-based degrees
• Advertise opportunity to participate in research via survey completion.
• Distribute and collect surveys to 1st year students and answer any questions they may have about the survey or project.
• Upload surveys to paper.io and solve any associated queries
• Analyse data collected (quantitative and qualitative) and suggest focus group themes.
• Co-ordinate and facilitate focus groups and interviews with students.
• Analyse data collected and data management in accordance with GDPR guidelines and data transfer agreement.
• Discuss data collection and analysis issues with Research manager.
• Present findings to research group and key university stakeholders.
• Be involved in developing a toolkit to onboard chemistry students into university.
• Undertake any other reasonable duties as required by the team.
• Engage in training and professional development activities related to the project.
The role is fractional (0.1FTE October-May 2025; 0.2FTE June-July 2025). Hours of work will predominantly be scheduled remotely between Monday-Friday, 09.00-17.00 with some on campus meetings as needed and with prior agreement. There will be flexibility in how your hours are spread and you will be expected to manage your own workload depending on activity.

to build relationships with a wide range of people from different backgrounds. Experience in managing own workload, planning, and organising projects or activities independently. Excellent communication skills and able to present ideas clearly. Ability to adhere to GDPR and ethical guidelines and to follow data storage security protocols. The desirable criteria for the role are: D1. Experience of literature searching. D2. Experience of reference management software. D3. Experience of statistical analysis software (e.g. SPSS) D3. Knowledge and experience of qualitative data analysis and associated software (e.g. NVIVO). D4. Experience of audio recording and transcription software., Successfully completed your 1st year of a physical science degree.