Research Associate - Mapping Mate

The Rosalind Franklin Institute (the Franklin) is a technology institute established by the UK Government as a unique centre committed to advancing tools that are needed to transform healthcare in the future.

The Institute brings together researchers in life and physical sciences, and engineering, to develop a spectrum of tools which we will use to image, interpret and intervene in biological systems. These insights will speed up the discovery of new medicines, help find new diagnostics and contribute to a deeper understanding of human health and disease. Our Science Strategy seeks to focus the Franklin’s research and unite our researchers around our Technology Innovation Challenges and Life Science Challenges.

For more information on the Franklin’s Challenges .

Every 16 seconds a family suffers from a stillbirth, and the rate of unexplained stillbirth is trending upward. Stillbirth often occurs because of an issue with the amount of oxygen that the developing fetus receives. However, the combination of drivers in each case is unique, and current technologies for predicting stillbirth do not take into account the interactions between the mother, fetus, and placenta when determining risk.

As such, prediction of stillbirth falls short. Our team has developed a new way to integrate clinical data to predict how much oxygen is available to a fetus in pregnancy; this tool is called SADIE. Early testing shows the capabilities of SADIE are promising. This research fits within wider product development/design workflows by seeking to understand the care pathways that SADIE will engage with in the NHS through stakeholder engagement and qualitative research approaches.

We anticipate future commercialisation of this technology will enable a step-change in a clinician’s ability to take the right steps at the right time to both reduce the occurrence of stillbirth and the short and long term costs associated with preterm birth and neonatal intensive care.

This project will be completed in collaboration with the University of Manchester and will entail spending time there. This working pattern is flexible (including part-time hours, minimum 18.75 per week) and will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate.

As a Research Associate at the Franklin, you will bring scientific knowledge and skills to deliver a specific research project and/or you will bring independent, creative science, or specific skills to a team delivering a project or program. Through this work, you will build scientific independence, develop new science and leadership skills, and establish a growing reputation externally.

In this particular role, you will:

• * Design and conduct interview with stakeholders across the NHS care pathway, including maternal fetal medicine clinicians, midwives, sonographers, digital health experts, information technology experts and patient group representatives.
• * Identify and document current pain points associated across the maternity care pathway.
• * Analyse interview data to Identify opportunities, capacity and staff motivations to embed SADIE in NHS workflows, and technological synergies/parallels that may help enable this.
• * Based on stakeholder engagement, generate user requirement documentation to ensure SADIE is developed to meet the users/use-case.
• * Work to complete these requirements will take place either in person at the Franklin, the University of Manchester or remotely via online meetings.
• * Plan and conduct research, analyse and interpret results and supervise delivery of outputs (e.g. research report, patent application) in a scientific/technology area of interest.
• * Work within a project team, contributing to wider projects around Franklin's key…