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Behavioural Science Research Assistant

Details


1116855


UCL


09/09/2026


Other - See Job


Part-time;; 21.9 hours per week


Not Applicable

Pay


£21.44


£4.01

Description

Role

Unitemps are recruiting for a Behavioural Science Research Assistant. This role has an asap start date (early September) and a projected end date of December 31st 2026. This is a part-time role at 21.9 hours per week. Payment is set at £21.44 per hour + £4.01 holiday pay. This role is UCL Hybrid working with 1 day per week from the office and the other days from home/remote.
 

About the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change

The Centre for Behaviour Change (CBC) is a world leading and interdisciplinary research centre specialising in behaviour change (see https://www.ucl.ac.uk/behaviour-change/). This project sits alongside a portfolio of ongoing projects at the Centre for Behaviour Change aiming to improve research culture at UCL (see https://www.ucl.ac.uk/behaviour-change/research/organisational-change).

Improving research culture in universities

As well as being a global leader in teaching, UCL is also recognised as one of the most successful research institutions in the world. A healthy, inclusive and sustainable research culture underpins excellence in research and innovation. UCL has published a Roadmap outlining the vision and strategy for enhancing its research culture, and a Research Culture team coordinates, designs, and implements initiatives which deliver against the themes of the Roadmap, in partnership with colleagues across UCL and in dialogue with the research community.

In 2024 UCL was awarded Wellcome Trust Institutional Funding for Research Culture for a two-year programme of research, aiming to co-design, pilot, and evaluate interventions to improve research culture at UCL, focusing on academic leadership, development of research professionals, and building collaborations. Improving research culture will inevitably require behaviour change, and the development of strategies to support and encourage this. A pre-requisite for developing these strategies is to identify the key behaviours, actors, and factors influencing these behaviours in the context of university research culture. The CBC is collaborating with the UCL Research Culture team to conduct research applying behavioural science theories, frameworks and methods to help define research culture in behavioural terms, explore barriers and enablers to improving research culture, and generate suggestions for behaviour change strategies to foster a more enabling and supporting research culture.

Duties and responsibilities

We are currently seeking a 0.6 FTE (i.e. three days a week) fixed-term Research Assistant to support these activities until the end of the project on 30th November 2026. You will be based at the Centre for Behaviour Change at UCL, and work under the supervision of Dr Sadie Boniface (Research Lead, CBC), in close collaboration with Prof Fabiana Lorencatto (Co-Director, CBC) and the UCL Research Culture Team.

Specifically, this role will involve:

a) contributing to an ongoing process evaluation of the UCL pilot Collaborative Research Leadership Programme, through data management, analysis using behavioural and implementation science frameworks, and writing up findings

b) contributing to the analysis of an ongoing qualitative study looking at research professional services staff’s career development behaviours, and factors influencing these

c) contributing to the design and delivery of a process evaluation of a pilot intervention to improve research professional service staff’s career development

There will be opportunities to co-author peer-reviewed journal articles.

Skills and experience

Essential:

  • Degree (2:1 or higher) in a behavioural science (e.g. psychology, economics, sociology, human geography)
  • Experience of conducting theory-based qualitative research (interviews, focus groups)
  • Understanding and experience of methods for developing and evaluating interventions to change behaviour
  • Good knowledge of behavioural science theories, methods, and frameworks
  • Able to organise own activities efficiently and to a high standard
  • Attention to detail in following procedures and day-to-day coordination of projects
  • Able to work flexibly and independently, and to take the initiative to ensure the efficient and timely completion of projects
  • Good qualitative data analysis skills
  • Able to work well with academic and non-academic colleagues
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Desirable:

  • Postgraduate degree (MA or MSc) in behavioural science or a closely related field
  • Experience of presenting and communicating research to non-academic audiences

Location
UCL; hybrid working with 1 day per week from the office

Additional information

This job will close for applications at 11.59pm on Monday August 31st. Interviews will be held shortly after.

*Please note to be eligible to work within this role, you must have the right to work in the UK, be physically based in the UK and be able to travel to our London based office for a RTW check (if required).

*If you have a full-time contract of employment with UCL, you are not able to work through UCL Unitemps at the same time.

Unitemps reserves the right to close this advert for applications prior to the date specified above, if a high volume of suitable applications are received so pleased don't delay applying.

Unitemps payroll is monthly, one month in arrears, please see the payroll dates here.

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