Full time.

Fixed term for 32 months.

The closing date for applications is midnight on 8th January 2023.

Interviews are expected to take place on 19th January 2023.

There is an expectation that work will be undertaken in the UK.

For the purposes of sponsorship, this is a postdoctoral role under SOC code 2119.

The University of Stirling recognises that a diverse workforce benefits and enriches the work, learning and research experiences of the entire campus and greater community. We are committed to removing barriers and welcome applications from those who would contribute to further diversification of our staff and ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is woven into the substance of the role. We strongly encourage applications from people from diverse backgrounds including gender, identity, race, age, class, and ethnicity.

We are looking for skilled and enthusiastic quantitative social scientist to join an ESRC-funded project looking at Intersectional Stigma of Place-based Ageing (ISPA).

We are looking for a full time Research Fellow (100% FTE 32M/G7) who will support Dr Vikki McCall (PI), and Co-I’s Professor Alasdair Rutherford (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling) and Dr David Manley (University of Bristol) on advanced quantitative data analysis. The candidate will also work with Co-I’s Dr Louise Reid (University of St Andrews) and Dr Kim McKee (University of Stirling) within the project via analysis that supports project outputs. This post will involve substantial secondary analysis of existing datasets.

The candidate will also assist an emerging Early Career Researcher network and be supported in their capacity building and career development.

The ISPA Project

The ISPA project will firstly investigate the lived realities of disabled adults with sensory and mobility impairments, identifying how different types of stigma (related to age, disability, and place) converge to produce added barriers to living inclusively, and; secondly, it will utilise this new understanding to develop an innovative Inclusive Living Toolkit co-produced with older disabled adults. Ultimately, the project will create more inclusive and evidence-based approaches to ageing across the lifecourse, whilst also co-producing and using the developed Inclusive Living Toolkit to deliver practical interventions in areas of multiple deprivation to support organisations to understand and tackle intersectional stigma.

The post-holder will mainly focus on combining diverse quantitative datasets to understand the complex picture around under-represented groups who experience intersectional stigma and explore how this is related to accessibility and inequality. They will focus on new connections between disability, place, stigma and multiple inequalities (including income, health, class, age). Rather than focus on a single dataset, we intend to approach the questions in a more exploratory manner with multiple datasets including Children of the 90s (ALSPAC); Millennium Cohort; BCS50, 70; HAGIS; ELSA. The project involves mapping of quantitative patterns of inequality focusing on disability, place, stigma and multiple inequalities (including income/health/class/age).

The post holder will collaborate with an emerging group of community peer-researchers (CPRs), the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Housing LIN alongside a wide variety of housing, health and social care partners across the UK.

We will also consider part-time or job-sharing applications. Applications from people who identify as disabled are encouraged.

Informal enquires can be made to Dr Vikki McCall at vikki.mccall@stir.ac.uk

• Accessing, cleaning and preparing large individual level longitudinal secondary datasets
• Operationalizing the measures of risk and vulnerability in the data
• Estimation of statistical models
• Production of outputs, including tables and visualisations, of the analysis
• Support training and co-production of analysis and outputs with Community-Peer Researchers
• Contributing to the writing of reports, briefing papers, research summaries and academic journal articles on the results
• Participation in webinars, events, conferences attached to the project and workshops to disseminate the results
• Working closely with other members of the ISPA team (PI, Co-I’s and other Research Fellow, Project coordinator & Research Assistant)
• Fulfil wider support duties in the project when needed

• Completed, or near-completion, PhD in social science or other relevant discipline, or equivalent experience
• Experience of working with large longitudinal and/or individual level datasets
• Experience of statistical modelling
• Experience of using statistical software (for instance: STATA, R, or MLwiN)
• Interest in issues of place, age and disability
• Experience of successfully conducting high quality research both independently and collaboratively within strict timescales
• Understanding and awareness of research governance and ethical issues and experience in data management
• Good communication skills including experience of writing/contributing to publications and presentations

• Experience of working with multiple datasets including Children of the 90s (ALSPAC); Millennium Cohort; BCS50, 70; HAGIS; ELSA
• Experience using spatial data (such as UK Census) and GIS software (including QGIS, ArcGIS or R)
• Experience of documenting analysis workflow (i.e. syntax files; data dictionaries; GitHub)
• Experience of longitudinal data analysis
• Experience of data visualization
• Experience exploring intersectionality in a multilevel modelling framework
• Good collaboration skills with a diverse range of research partners and stakeholders

The role holder will be required to evidence that they can meet the qualities associated with the following behavioural competencies, as detailed within the AUA Competency Framework.

The University of Stirling is committed to providing education with a purpose and carrying out research which has a positive impact on communities across the globe – addressing real issues, providing solutions and helping to shape society. Stirling is 4th in Scotland and 43rd in the UK for research impact, with 87% of its research having an outstanding or very considerable impact on society – and more than 80% rated either world leading or internationally excellent (Research Excellence Framework 2021). Interdisciplinary in its approach, Stirling’s research informs its teaching curriculum and facilitates opportunities for knowledge exchange and collaboration between staff, students, industry partners and the wider community.

The University of Stirling is ranked among the top 30 UK universities for student satisfaction (National Student Survey) and top 10 in the UK for postgraduate student experience (Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey), and has an overall five-star rating in the QS Stars University Ratings.

More than 17,000 students study with the University of Stirling globally, with over 120 nationalities represented on its scenic central Scotland campus alone. The campus – also home to 1,700 staff – has its own loch and castle, and a recent multi-million-pound redevelopment has delivered modern, flexible, and digitally connected study and social spaces at the heart of campus, including enhanced student support and retail and catering outlets.

The University has twice been recognised with a Queen's Anniversary Prize – the first for its Institute for Social Marketing and Health (2014) and the second for its Institute of Aquaculture (2019). Stirling is Scotland's University for Sporting Excellence and its recently redeveloped world-class facilities provide the perfect training environment for the University’s sports scholars – many of whom compete at the highest level, including at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games – and for students, staff, and the wider community.

As a signatory to the £214 million Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal, the University is driving productivity and inclusive growth across the Forth Valley, and beyond. Through pioneering collaborative solutions to global challenges, researchers are putting innovation, skills, and partnership at the heart of a sustainable economic recovery.
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