Post-Doctoral Research Associate

Post-Doctoral Research Associate (90387)

Reference: JUN

Expiry date: 10:59, Mon, 13th Jul 2026

Location:

Liverpool

Contract:

Full-Time, Fixed-term appointment for 2 years

Benefits: 30 Days holiday + Bank Holiday and additional Christmas closure days

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) is seeking to appoint a Post-Doctoral Research Associate to join an internationally recognised team tackling a pressing public health challenge – malaria control in Sub-Saharan Africa and developing ways to do this while reducing environmental impacts.

The successful candidate will work closely with our team in Burkina Faso, and engage with manufacturers and international procurement, regulatory and guidance organisations making soft skills a critical asset. This position also offers an exciting opportunity to statistically interrogate empirical entomological and epidemiological data alongside campaign costs and to develop modes of action within the malaria simulation model – a well-established, individual-based model for malaria transmission.

While manufacturers may have already adopted efficient pathways for production in efforts to eliminate costs and align with EU regulation, there may be efficiencies to gain elsewhere in the cradle‑to‑grave pathway that may be applicable across products with matching delivery routes and use habits. We can identify these. Using statistical inference and transmission modelling, we can explore strategic solutions; for instance, increasing ITN use across communities can be costly as it requires focused educational efforts, however the environmental benefit could be considerable as it negates the need to ship more products, maximising efficacy from the products already available.

This may shift efforts from surplus ITN circulation to localised training, benefiting human health, supporting local leadership and employment, while lowering emissions. We can establish a database of these types of information and begin building a framework for assessment through this role.

• Engage with national programmes, manufacturers and procurement teams to co‑design and use emission models to generate auditable‑quality greenhouse gas emissions data.
• Establish productive relationships with key manufacturers of ITNs to facilitate emissions estimates being developed in a standardised fashion.
• Maintain crucial relationships with National Programmes to support the communication of our work – translate science into action.
• Collaborate with project partners across policy, industry and research to co‑develop frameworks for comparison of data.
• Communicate to these different audiences and procurement teams the knowledge generated.

• Review the regulatory landscape identifying key resources tracking risk from insecticidal compounds to non‑target organisms or ecosystems, any environmental assessments performed and waste generation knowledge.
• Develop descriptive statistical outputs to demonstrate the variation in such metrics spatiotemporally.

• Demonstrate competence with transmission modelling to simulate ITNs and other interventions that are used in Burkina Faso.
• Understand current mechanisms employed by malaria simulation to capture lost efficacy with increasing phenotypic resistance.
• Simulate village‑level health facility data to estimate efficacy and cost‑effectiveness.

• Contribute to training materials for, and provide training in, analytical techniques to others in the group.
• Assist in the design and supervision of student projects.
• Generate ideas and data to support new project applications.
• Contribute to the writing of research grants/fellowships in collaboration with PIs.
• Disseminate findings through publications and conferences, as relevant to research.

Candidates must hold a PhD in Ecology, Statistics or Mathematical modelling or a related field and must be numerate with skills in R programming and statistical…