Research Scholar

Posting Details

Position Information

Position Number 999392 Functional Title Research Scholar Position Type Research Position Eclass EP - EHRA 12 mo leave earning University Information

Located in North Carolina's third largest city, UNC Greensboro is among the most diverse, learner-centered public research universities in the state, with nearly 18,000 students in eight colleges and schools pursuing more than 150 areas of undergraduate and over 200 areas of graduate study. UNCG continues to be recognized nationally for academic excellence, access, and affordability. UNCG is ranked No. 1 most affordable institution in North Carolina for net cost by the N.Y. Times and No. 1 in North Carolina for social mobility by The Wall Street Journal - helping first-generation and lower-income students find paths to prosperity. Designated an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, UNCG is a community-engaged research institution with a portfolio of more than $67M in research and creative activity. The University's 1,100 faculty and 1,700 staff help create an annual economic impact for the Piedmont Triad region in excess of $1B.

Primary Purpose of the Organizational Unit

This position is housed in the UNC Greensboro School of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) Office of Research. UNC Greensboro's HHS is part of the University of North Carolina System of higher education. As a minority-serving institution located in Greensboro, North Carolina, we are uniquely situated to provide students an affordable education in a thriving, small city environment. We prepare students to work with diverse populations they will encounter in their work after graduation, to serve and enhance their communities, to improve quality of life, and to advocate for underrepresented groups. We prepare students for professional careers and advocacy focused on enhancing health outcomes and life experiences through high impact, interdisciplinary, and community engaged excellence in mentoring, teaching, and research.

The primary purpose of the HHS Office of Research (OOR) is to support and encourage faculty research and scholarship across its many academic disciplines, which reflect the School's mission and are central to the health and well-being of individuals, children, families and the community. The office serves as a base for the development of externally funded grant and contract proposal development and assists faculty in the fiscal management of awards. The office also provides methodological, statistical, and data management expertise to support faculty efforts to secure grant funding and successfully complete projects once funding is secured. Additionally, the office supports collaborative work, coordinates internal research funding initiatives and programming, and organizes research-related speakers and workshops.

The mission of the School of Health and Human Sciences Office of Research is to provide exceptional unit-based support services that equitably: (1) facilitate success with external grant/contract submission and management; (2) disseminate information about research-related policies, systems, and opportunities within the school, university and beyond; and (3) generate and manage resources designed to support faculty excellence in diverse approaches to research and scholarship.

Position Summary

The primary purpose of this position is to provide methodological, statistical, and data management services in support of external proposals and subsequent awards, including consultation for methodological design, power analysis, and development of analytic and data management and sharing plans (DMSP). This support is available to all HHS faculty, and to a more limited extent, it is available to HHS students. These faculty and students engage in social, behavioral, and health research including bench/basic science, observational research, applied research, and community-engaged research. The HHS departments and programs are Kinesiology, Human Development and Family Studies, Public Health Education, Nutrition, Social Work, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Community and Therapeutic Recreation, Peace and Conflict Studies, Genetic Counseling, Gerontology, and Human Health Sciences.

Support offered by the research methodologist is intended to be a collaborative effort by the faculty/student and the HHS Research Scholar. The individual in this position may serve as a collaborator, co-investigator, and/or lead methodologist/statistician on externally funded grants and will lead the analytic/statistical portion of the projects on which they serve as co-investigator/statistician including dissemination efforts. The Research Scholar is not expected to maintain their own research agenda, but rather to support the research agenda of faculty and their students by contributing their methodological expertise. Specific services provided by this position include, but are not limited to:

• Consultation on study design: align aims, methods, & analysis

• Power analysis

• Consultation on statistical analysis for manuscript preparation

• Consultation on data management or database design

• Plan of analysis consultation and/or writing

• Assistance with data management and sharing plans

• Coming onto a grant as the statistician and/or to provide limited data management support

• Lead or provide survey methodology instruction/support to projects and proposals

• Training and support for electronic data storage, and online database and survey development using REDCap (redcap.uncg.edu)

• Writing statistical analysis and results sections for papers

• Assisting with manuscript revisions related to analyses/results

• Supervising HHS OOR Graduate Research Assistant who will assist with some of the above duties

Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D. (or equivalent terminal degree in a relevant discipline, e.g., Kinesiology, Public Health Education, Nutrition, Human Development and Family Studies, Statistics, Biostatistics); or Master's (or equivalent ) degree, plus at least 5 years of relevant post-masters professional work experience; or in rare instances, a Bachelor's (or equivalent) degree, plus at least 8 years of exceptional relevant professional experience will be considered

Additional Required Certifications, Licensures, and Certificates Preferred Qualifications

• PhD highly desirable

• Experience with a subset of programs/platforms such as R, SPSS, Mplus, SAS, STATA, REDCap, Qualtrics, and evidence of capacity to gain expertise in others

• Graduate coursework and/or professional development training in research methodology, statistical analysis, and grant writing especially targeting NIH mechanisms

• Knowledge of the varied disciplines within HHS and common methodological approaches in those disciplines (e.g., ecological momentary assessment, survey methods, observational data, biospecimen data, longitudinal data, nested/multi-level data, best practices in conducting clinical trials such as randomization)

• Knowledge of reporting requirements for NIH clinical trials

• Some knowledge of qualitative and/or mixed methods approaches

Special Instructions to Applicants Recruitment Range $75,000 - $93,177 Org #-Department HHS Office of Research

• 13402 Job Open Date 06/14/2024 For Best Consideration Date 08/01/2024 Job Close Date Open Until Filled Yes FTE 1.000 Type of Appointment Permanent If time-limited, please specify end date for appointment. Number of Months per Year 12 FLSA Exempt

Key Responsibilities

Percentage Of Time 50 Key Responsibility

Contribute to Grant Submissions and Revisions

Essential Tasks

Provide methodological expertise to support faculty efforts to secure grant funding. This includes:

• Methodological consultation and power analysis for prospective projects.

• Consultation for methodological design and plan of analysis for externally funded proposals and projects.

• Statistical analysis of data.

• Consultation on study design: align aims, methods, & analysis.

• Writing for funding proposals.

• Assist in the design of the Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP).

• Lead or provide survey methodology support to proposals.

• Serve as a collaborator, co-investigator, and/or lead methodologist/statistician on externally funded grants, typically leading substantive aspects of the overall project under the general guidance of a principal researcher.

• Stay abreast of industry changes and requirements, policies, procedures, and federal grant policies in relation to proposal submissions and revisions.

• Complete tasks for competing project proposals and revisions in a timely manner.

• Seek salary support as appropriate and commensurate with effort.

Percentage Of Time 30 Key Responsibility

Contribute to the Execution of Research and Dissemination Efforts

Essential Tasks

Provide methodological expertise to support faculty efforts to successfully complete projects once funding is secured. This includes:

• Analytical support for projects already underway.

• Statistical analysis of data and manuscript preparation and revisions.

• Lead or provide survey methodology support to projects.

• Lead the analytic/statistical portion of the projects on which they serve as co-investigator/statistician.

• Direct training and support for electronic data storage, and online database and survey development using REDCap (redcap.uncg.edu.)

• Consult on data entry issues that arise.

• Provide input regarding NIH clinical trials reporting requirements.

• Write statistical analysis and results sections for papers relating to project aims.

• Assist researchers in the preparation of progress and final reports.

• Serve as a coauthor or sole author of research results.

• Collaborate with researchers on publications and presentations.

• Write, review, or consult on research products arising from the project dataset.

• Stay abreast of industry changes and requirements, policies, procedures, and federal grant policies as they relate to ongoing projects or dissemination efforts.

• Complete tasks for competing projects and dissemination efforts in a timely manner.

• May make presentations at professional meetings.

• May serve on doctoral committees, as appropriate.

Percentage Of Time 10 Key Responsibility

Stay Abreast of New Methods and Tools

Essential Tasks

• Attend and participate in the UNCG Institute of Data, Evaluation, and Analytics (IDEA) meetings, where developing research interests and opportunities are discussed to keep abreast of potential funding opportunities for HHS faculty and to help identify potential collaborators from other schools or units across the university.

• Remain active in the REDCap community and seek out resources for interesting use cases or tutorials. These enhance the Research Scholar's ability to support, train, and troubleshoot for HHS researchers.

• Attend the annual REDCap conference at least once every 3-5 years, as appropriate.

• Attend professional workshops, conferences, webinars, etc. to maintain a knowledge base, to build upon current skills, and to learn about advancements and new developments in the field.

• Stay abreast of industry changes and requirements, policies, procedures, and federal grant policies.

• Build and maintain a rapport with key IT personnel across campus to collaborate on new processes, systems, or programs and to jointly troubleshoot potential methodological and data management issues.

Percentage Of Time 10 Key Responsibility

Supervise GRA

Essential Tasks

• Supervise one full-time graduate research assistant (GRA) each academic year and summer.

• The GRA's primary responsibilities are to assist the Research Scholar with data management and analytic tasks as needed; the GRA also generates analysis & results summary reports and participates with the Research Scholar in select consults with research faculty.

• Participate in the OOR GRA selection process.

ADA Checklist

ADA Checklist

R for Rare (0-30%), O for Occasional (30-60%), F for Frequent (60-90%), C for Constant (90-100%).

Physical Effort Hand Movement-Repetitive Motions

• F, Hand Movement-Grasping

• O, Finger Dexterity

• F, Reading

• F, Writing

• F, Eye-hand coordination

• F, Vision-Color Distinction

• O, Vision-Preparing/Analyzing figures

• F, Vision-Visual inspection

• F, Hearing

• F, Talking

• F, Standing

• O, Sitting

• F, Walking

• O, Lifting-0-30 lbs.

• O, Pushing/Pulling

• R, Reaching

• O Work Environment Inside

• C

Applicant Documents

Required Documents

• Resume/CV

• Cover Letter

• List of References

Optional Documents

Supplemental Questions

Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

• Please note all (a) data analysis, (b) data acquisition/collection, and (c) data management software/applications/platforms you have used/learned about and briefly describe your proficiency with each.

(Open Ended Question)

• Please list specific analytic approaches/techniques you have expertise in via advanced coursework, professional training, and/or hands on experience.

(Open Ended Question)

• Please describe any coursework, professional training and/or hands-on experience you have had that would prepare you to contribute to grant applications.

(Open Ended Question)

• Are you eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship?

• Yes

• No