Postdoctoral Fellow

Job Title: Postdoctoral Fellow Department: Health Psychology Reporting to: Prof. Frank Doyle Location: RCSI Dublin Contract/Duration: Specified purpose contract for up to 24 months Remuneration: Post-Doctoral PD1 salary scale commensurate with experience Closing Date: 17th of September 2025 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 first in the world for "Good Health and Well-being" in the Times Higher Education #SDG #SDG Impact Rankings 2025. 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. About Our Research RCSI recognises that excellence in research is critical to the quality of its educational activities, its credibility, and, overall, to its mission to enhance human health. RCSI's research strategy aims to build upon its strength in translational biomedical and clinical research to deliver transformational, high impact changes in health care. Targeting both Irish national and EU funding, along with increased collaboration with industry, is a major part of the RCSI research strategy. Forging increased collaboration between RCSI PIs and industry is of critical importance to achieving success in this area. RCSI is also committed to provide its researchers with the supports and developmental opportunities to enable them to continuously grow and support their overall career development. About the School of Population Health Established in 2022, the School of Population Health (SPH) builds on existing strengths at RCSI in behavioural science for population health, analytic and population health sciences. The School comprises the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Department of Health Psychology, Data Science Centre, Healthcare Outcomes Research Centre (HORC), Institute of Global Surgery and SPHeRE (Structured Population health, Policy and Health Services Research Education - national doctoral programme). It included some 100 academic, research and professional staff, as well as 38 PhD scholars. Population health scientists and researchers at RCSI have an impressive, multi-year track record undertaking impactful multi-disciplinary research and collaborating with an extensive network of international and national partners. Summary of Post We have a 2-year full-time post-doctoral position at RCSI, suitable for a psychologist, health services researcher, health economist or related discipline. The successful candidate will be employed on a Research Ireland funded project to evaluate treatments for depression and their costs in an Irish context, using network meta-analytic and health economic approaches. The researcher and a Research Assistant (hired later) will work with a team on this proposal, which has 4 main aims: - To conduct network meta-analysis to estimate the most clinically-effective interventions, including antidepressants, psychotherapies, exercise, or other treatments. - To conduct comparative cost effectiveness analysis of these results, using Irish cost estimates - To obtain stakeholder views on the results obtained, including managing Public-Patient Involvement - To assist with grant funding application(s) The position is based in the Department of Health Psychology, RCSI, Dublin 2, but remote working will be considered. Specifically, the duties of the post are: Lead the application of network meta-analytic techniques to depression treatments, including collaboration with internationally-renowned researchers Obtain and apply Irish cost estimates to calculate incremental cost-effectiveness ratios and current Irish costings for results Conduct qualitative interviews and/or focus groups with a broad range of stakeholders, including managing PPI input, with a view to obtaining perspectives on the results Work closely with a Research Assistant on the above tasks Assist with drafting grant applications for forthcoming relevant grant calls in areas of mutual interest, including managing stakeholder involvement in same Co-ordinate own day-to-day work to support ongoing project Facilitate communication and dissemination of project outputs, including conference presentations, authored peer-reviewed articles, etc. Liaise with the Principal Investigator, colleagues and stakeholders on matters relating to this and future projects Undertake duties assigned by the Principal Investigator or his/her nominee in support of the project Qualifications - (Essential): A PhD degree or equivalent in psychology, health economics, health services research, data science or a related discipline. Knowledge & Experience - (Essential): Excellent database management and quantitative analysis skills. Evidence of the ability to work independently and efficiently, including excellent oral and written communication skills. Excellent organisational, interpersonal, report writing and IT skills. Knowledge & Experience (Desirable): A thorough knowledge of statistical analysis using Stata, R or equivalent. Experience of randomised experiments/trials Experience of systematic reviews, preferably to peer-reviewed publication Project management experience. Track record in scientific publication and dissemination. Experience of working in a multidisciplinary research team. Robust knowledge of quantitative research methods, design and data analysis. Qualitative skills We are all too aware that imposter syndrome and the confidence gap can sometimes stop fantastic candidates putting themselves forward, so please do submit an application - we'd love to hear from you. Application Process Please apply online through the RCSI careers portal on the closing date with your CV and cover letter. Informal Enquiries can be directed to Prof. Frank Doyle () Click here to read our Recruitment and Selection Policy for Researcher.