Research Fellow - Sociology and Criminology

Position Details

School of Social Policy

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary will be £32,817.00

Grade 7

Part time - 80% FTE

Fixed term contract for up to 4th January 2022

No work on bank holidays or weekends

Closing Date: 10th November 2020

Job Purpose

We are seeking a part time Research Fellow to work on a Standard Life Foundation-funded project entitled Pension Decision-making in the New Retirement Landscape: Understanding and Improving Outcomes for Consumers.

Older people's ability to maximise their pension income is essential at a time when responsibility and risk for financial well-being is increasingly individualised. Recent policy changes have given people more flexibility and choice over how they access their Defined Contribution (DC) pension savings. Some have benefited from these changes but others are facing significant threats to their retirement security. This research will improve understanding of individuals' pension decision-making and provide policy and practice recommendations for producing better consumer outcomes.

• Plan and undertake empirical research into pension decision-making
• Outline and gain ethical approval for the research
• Organise and conduct stakeholder workshops
• Recruit research participants with the help of a recruitment company
• Collect and analyse data
• Write academic outputs
• Present and explain findings to academic and practitioner audiences
• Attending meetings
• Liaising with staff, collaborators, and stakeholders of the research
• Coordinating meetings
• Producing progress reports

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Desk research - Literature reviews (e.g. multi-disciplinary literature review of financial decision-making; critical review of legal and policy context; grey literature review)
• Organisation of stakeholder workshops
• Design and development of fieldwork materials - interview guides, focus group guides, preliminary stimulus material for focus groups, participant information sheets, informed consent sheets
• Data collection - in-depth interviews and focus groups
• Qualitative data analysis
• Contribute to the writing and production of the final project report
• Dissemination of project findings -organisation of final project event and additional dissemination work (e.g. research seminars)
• Contribute to the writing, presentation and publication of academic outputs
• Contribute to the writing of an application for UoB impact accelerator fund
• Undertake management/administration arising from the research
• Contribute to Departmental/School/CHASM research-related activities
• Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines

Person Specification

• First degree in Social Policy, Sociology or other relevant discipline
• PhD in Social Policy, Sociology or other relevant discipline (or near completion, i.e. submitted thesis)
• Experience of conducting and analysing qualitative research
• Experience of conducting research related to personal finance
• Experience of applying ethical considerations to the collecting and managing of qualitative data
• Experience with data management and NVivo qualitative data analysis software
• Experience of writing up research for academic and non-academic audiences
• Excellent organization skills
• Ability to work to deadlines
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly in both written form and in presentations (Including a very high standard of written and spoken English)
• The ability to develop constructive and efficient working relationships with people at all levels within an organization, demonstrating an understanding of their perspectives, priorities and expectations

For further information please contact Louise Overton: l.e.overton@bham.ac.uk

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