Research Associate

**Position Details**:

- Position Information**Position Title**
- Research Associate

**Department/Unit**
- Pediatrics

**Research Project**
- Post-COVID Public Health Governance

**Location**
- Halifax

**Posting Number**
- GP78-22

**Employee Group**
- Grant-Paid

**Position Type**
- Term

**Duration of Contract (if applicable)**
- 1 year, with possibility of renewal

**Employment Type**
- Part Time

**Full-time Equivalency (FTE)**
- 0.5

**Salary**
- $63,700 per annum, prorated to $31,850 based on 50% FTE (17.5 hours per week)

**About the Organization**

**Job Summary**
- Reporting to the PI and Co-I, the Research Associate (RA) will advance the understanding of public health governance, its shortfalls and its needs, including for Indigenous and equity-seeking communities, and help craft a governance framework for a post-COVID Canada.

**Key Responsibilities**
- Contribute to the design of, and recruitment for focus groups (FG), prepare FG transcripts for analysis, and perform analysis of transcripts for key concepts and themes (using NVivo or similar software).
- Conduct literature reviews of deliberative engagement and anticipatory governance (with input from RA), develop taxonomy of deliberative engagement or participative governance practices, and contribute to the design of deliberative engagement and legal foresighting of events and framework.
- Jointly identify key tasks, processes, and deliverables, lead the recruitment of participants and the conduct of Deliberative Events (DE), ensuring that generated data and insights can inform the design of a new public health governance framework, and analyze DE data for key concepts, themes, areas where standards or legal guidance is needed.
- Lead and contribute to the development of reports, policy briefs and scholarly articles.
- Assist in identifying avenues for outcome dissemination and user-community engagement and developing material and practices for same.
- Assist in identifying further sources of funding that will facilitate project advancement and enhancement.

**Note**
Evening and weekend work may be required on an exceptional basis to meet operational requirements. National travel approximately 3 days per month to engage with academic and community partners may be required.
The RA will need to effectively organize a large number of project participants, and will need to adjust their communication approach based on the sensitivity of individual needs and experiences, some of which may be challenging or difficult individuals.
The successful applicant will be eligible for hybrid work (combination of in-person work on campus and remote work) as agreed by all parties based on operational requirements and university guidelines.
Dalhousie’s vaccine mandate has been suspended at this time, and employees no longer need to provide proof of full vaccination. However, health and safety risks to our community will continue to be monitored and a vaccine mandate may be reinstated if necessary.

**Qualifications**
- Undergraduate degree in a relevant field such as social sciences, anthropology, health, epidemiology, women’s studies (or equivalent combination of training and experience) is required. Masters degree preferred. Applicants who are professionally engaged in public health, and who are interested in becoming more engaged with university or community-based research are encouraged to apply. Formal training in empirical social research and in analyzing qualitative data, with experience using research software like NVivo is required. Proficiency in community engagement, research partnerships, qualitative and mixed methods research methodologies is required. Experience within a public health or health policy environment, with proficiency in professional, academic, and/or policy writing, including manuscripts for peer-review and policy briefs is an asset. Ability to read multiple disciplines and draw on different perspectives in pursuit of project objectives is required. Familiarity with various academic search engines, word processing platforms (Microsoft Office, PC and Mac), research support programs (NVivo, Otter, etc) is required. Experience conducting literature reviews, preparing associated memos for team members, and analyzing data from a theoretical perspective is required. Must be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders in a timely fashion using multiple tools, including social media platforms to advance the project brand. Must possess excellent time management skills and be able to adapt to competing priorities to efficiently meet deadlines. Must be able to work both independently and within a closely-knit team environment. Must be passionate about improving health outcomes for Canadians in pandemic and routine settings, with an emphasis on engaging with equity-deserving communities commonly left out of governance design exercises.

**Additional Information**
- Dalhousie University supports a healthy and balanced li