Research Associate in Statistics/Biostatistics at University College London

Research Associate in Statistics/Biostatistics Department of Statistical Science University College London Salary range: £32,375-£39,132 per annum

Applications are invited for a position as Research Associate in Statistics/Biostatistics. The post holder will work on the MRC funded project: “The Regression Discontinuity Design: a novel approach to evaluating the effect of drugs and treatments in primary care”, which will be developed jointly at UCL, LSE and MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge.

The regression discontinuity design (RDD) is an econometric quasi-experimental design aimed at estimating the causal effects of a treatment by exploiting naturally occurring treatment rules. This design can be applied in any context where a particular treatment is administered according to a pre-specified rule linked to a continuous variable. Such thresholds often exist in primary care in the context of drug prescription. The specific objectives of the project are to: (a) develop a RDD design methodology suited to estimating the effect of prescriptions and interventions with particular focus on developing RDD methods for binary outcomes such as mortality; (b) compare the effects of statin prescribed in primary care to that estimated from randomised controlled trials; and (c) develop guidelines and software for RDD analysis in epidemiological research.

The post is available from April 2013 (or as soon as possible thereafter) and is funded for 30 months, in the first instance.
Candidates should hold or be close to submitting a PhD (or equivalent qualification) in Statistics or Epidemiology. It is essential that the successful candidate has the ability to program simulation algorithms and manage large databases and has programming experience in statistical software packages e.g. R or STATA. If the successful candidate has not yet been awarded their PhD, the appointment will initially be made as Research Assistant on Grade 6 of the UCL salary scale (£28,338 – £29,881 per annum inclusive of London Allowance), and the appointee will be regraded to Research Associate on completion of the PhD.

A job description and person specification can be accessed at https://atsv7.wcn.co.uk/search_engine/jobs.cgiowner=5041178&ownertype=fair&jcode=1318668 together with some details about the department. Informal enquiries regarding the vacancy may be addressed to Dr Gianluca Baio, email: g.baio@ucl.ac.uk, tel: +44(0)20 7679 1248.

For any queries regarding the application process please contact Dr Russell Evans, email: russell.evans@ucl.ac.uk, tel: +44 (0)20 7679 8311.
Closing date for application: 14th April 2013.