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Research Associate/ Research Fellow

Job title Research Associate/ Research Fellow

Department Institute for Policy Research

Salary Starting from £33,797, rising to £40,322

Grade Grade 7

Contract Type Full Time

SOC Code - Visa Requirements 2119

Placed on Thursday 17 December 2020

Closing date Sunday 17 January 2021

Interview date Monday 15 February 2021

Reference SB7871R

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This is a 24-month, fixed term research position funded by a grant by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) awarded to the Institute for Policy Research (IPR), the Department of Economics and the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath. The successful candidate will be managed and co-located on a 50:50 basis between the University of Bath and the Food Standards Agency in London. 

The Fellow or Associate will work full-time at the University of Bath and will be obliged to travel to and work at the FSA’s offices at Clive House, London on a regular basis. This position can be offered as Research Associate(£33,797 - £40,322 per annum) and Research Fellow (£41,526 -£49,553 per annum) depending on experience.

Due to Covid 19, this role will be a mixture of remote working, multi-site working and working on campus when required however this will be subject to change in line with government guidance (during the coronavirus outbreak, the fellow or associate will follow FSA guidelines on alternative ways of working). 

You will work closely with Professor Julie Barnett (Health Psychology, Department of Psychology and Institute for Policy Research) and Dr Eleonora Fichera (Health Economics, Department of Economics) at the University of Bath. IPR is a leading public policy research institute with extensive expertise of research into evidence-based policy. You will also collaborate with the Department of Economics which has strong expertise in behavioural and health economics, and the political economy, as well as the Department of Psychology, which has leading expertise on behaviour change. The combination of expertise in Psychology and Economics with a strong policy focus will be ideal to support your training and the implementation of the FSA’s behavioural science strategy. 

You will actively work at the interface between social science research and policy design and implementation. As such, you will have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the protection of public interest by applying quantitative skills to the analysis of consumer and firm behaviour, whilst equipping policymakers with the tools to apply your findings. In particular, you will investigate how to apply behavioural science to food policy in order to a) maximise food business compliance, and b) improve consumers’ food hygiene and safety behaviour and advise how these insights should inform food policy. You will be leading on the design and evaluation of effective food policies based on insights from behavioural economics, health psychology and other social sciences. This will require quantitative policy evaluation using secondary data, design and evaluation of trials, incentive design, literature reviews, communication of findings to policymakers as well as advising them on implementation.  

Relevant training opportunities across the Departments of Psychology, Economics and Social and Policy Sciences will be offered by the University of Bath and the FSA.

Please note, candidates must provide a combined covering letter and comprehensive academic CV with their application materials. The cover letter and CV will be evaluated on the grounds that they demonstrate the fulfilment of the essential candidate criteria as outlined in the job description.

The Institute for Policy Research (IPR) aims to further the public good through research into issues of significant relevance to policy debate and decision-making. We work across the university and with external partners to enable effective research collaborations that contribute to tackling public policy challenges in the UK and beyond.

We deliver activities for policymakers, researchers and practitioners to enable dual learning and original contributions to both research and practice. 

Our campus is surrounded by beautiful countryside, and the City of Bath with its historic charm and social activity only a short distance away creates an excellent environment in which to work. We encourage all staff to learn, develop new skills and progress their careers throughout their employment with us and believe our staff are vital in creating the University’s inclusive and innovative community. We are committed to providing a family friendly workplace and our staff have access to a number of services that promote wellbeing and improve work-life balance. 

We recognise the commitment, achievements and talents of our workforce through our offering of initiatives and benefits, including (but not limited to): 

  • Generous employer pension contributions
  • 39 days holiday (annual leave, discretionary days and bank holidays)
  • A flexible working environment
  • A commitment to personal and professional development
  • Ofsted outstanding rated onsite nursery
  • Salary exchange scheme (cycle to work)
  • Onsite private and NHS dentist, onsite medical centre
  • Employee discount scheme

We value, promote and celebrate inclusion, challenging discrimination and putting equality, diversity and belonging at the heart of everything we do. We aim to be an inclusive university, where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students, creating a learning environment and organisational culture that enhances health and wellbeing across our community. We are very proud to have recently received Ambassadors for Autism certification and are an accredited Disability Confident Leader (level 3); committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff.

Further details:


We are constantly seeking to reduce the unconscious bias that enters any assessment process, with the goal of creating an inclusive and equal assessment process. To support this, personal details will be removed from application forms at the initial shortlisting stage.