Job Description

The Digital Mental Health Group is one of the UK's largest and most influential research teams investigating the impact of digital technologies on youth mental health, with the aim of improving outcomes for children and young people worldwide. We are known for our innovative and rigorous scientific outputs, as well as our direct provision of scientific advice to senior policymakers and politicians.

Overview:

We are seeking a post-doctoral research associate with a strong background in delivering high-quality research on social media use (or similar) and mental health or well-being, especially in adolescent or child populations, to join our team full-time for two years. You will be part of a Wellcome-funded collaboration with Born in Bradford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which will deliver a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) testing social media reduction across schools in Bradford, UK.


This work could not be timelier and more policy relevant, with interest already established across UK government and beyond. The study will likely test a social media daily limit and night time curfew in school students, feeding directly into policy decision-making. With exceptionally few social media interventions having been completed on healthy adolescent populations, this research will be at the forefront of scientific innovation.


You will work within an expert team (incl. epidemiologists, trial specialists, qualitative researchers, school involvement experts), bringing subject matter expertise about social media use in adolescence and its impacts on outcomes such as mental health. You will be responsible for situating the team's work within pre-existing literature, as well as working with very senior policy partners across the UK to ensure it remains relevant to their decision-making. You will also be involved in designing the social media intervention and ensuring it is feasible and appropriate, while assisting in its delivery. This will require regular extended stays with our collaborators in Bradford.


You will gain valuable leadership experience alongside this work, supervising junior team members and being involved in exciting research and impact opportunities across our team. Additionally, you will be supported in complementing your core research in ways that interest you and benefit the group, as well as the wider academic community: for example, by collaborating or engaging with policy, charity, or stakeholder organisations; by applying as appropriate for grants; by developing or maintaining open-source and/or community resources; by doing public outreach; and/or by advocating for improved research practices. We welcome applications from those seeking part-time work.


The post holder should be available to start in early 2026 for a duration of 2 years.

Note:

We will interview for the role on the 4th of March 2026. There will likely be a longlist stage before interview. We can sponsor visas. We expect you to work in Cambridge a minimum 3 days a week, except when working in Bradford.


For the complete essential and desirable criteria please see the further particulars below.

To ensure fairness we will not schedule individual meetings for candidates before an offer is made.

If you have any questions about this role please send these to our Centre Manager (tania.smith@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk) by 23rd of January 2025, we will post each anonymised question submitted by this deadline and our answer to the following document by the 30th of January 2025:


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yoJTO8KMKQlkqIQ5vkBTUyCjv9nh1GCLIZHGKJ6Z4ng/edit?usp=sharing


Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 2 years in the first instance.


For candidates starting prior to 1st October 2026, you will be unable to start at Senior Research Associate level Grade 8 immediately and if appropriate will be recommended for Grade 8 promotion at that point (1/10/2026), however this is not a guarantee as promotions will be assessed in the usual way.


Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a health assessment.

Applicants must have (or be close to obtaining) a PhD.

Appointment at Research Associate level is dependent on having a PhD. Those who have submitted but not yet received their PhD will initially be appointed as a Research Assistant (Grade 5, Point 38 34,610) moving to Research Associate (Grade 7) upon confirmation of your PhD award.


Please ensure that you upload a covering letter and CV in the Upload section of the online application. The covering letter should outline how you match the criteria for the post and why you are applying for this role. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.


Please include details of your referees, including email address and phone number, one of which must be your most recent line manager.


Please quote reference

SU48449

on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.


The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.


The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.



Key information

Department/location

MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit

Salary

37,694-56,535

Reference

SU48449

Category

Research

Date published

7 January 2026

Closing date

6 February 2026