Research Assistant - N8 Policing Research Project

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Job Title:

Research Assistant - N8 Policing Research Project Posting

Start Date:

14/10/2026 Job  School/Department:
Law Work Arrangement:
Part Time (Hybrid) Contract Type:
Fixed-term Salary per annum (£): £32,722-£34,630 Closing Date: 04/11/2026

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The School of Law is seeking to appoint a Research Assistant to join an N8 Policing Research Project-funded project: ‘Preventing suicides on release from police custody: risk factors, contextual characteristics, policy, practice and future research’. This project focuses on an urgent issue: suicides on release from police custody, which have remained at 55-65 per year for the last decade. The aim is to systematically the pathways associated with post-custody suicides.

This is through an analysis of an existing set of NPCC-held data on post-custody suicides in , which combines data collected by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) with data from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. This will be supplemented by publicly available Coroner’s Inquest information for all 426 individuals who are named in it.

The academic lead is Prof. Layla Skinns (University of Sheffield) and the wider team includes:
Professor Catherine Robinson (University of Manchester) and Dr Iain McKinnon (Newcastle University). The appointed research assistant will also be part of the wider research community at the University of Sheffield (see “What we offer” below).

The research assistant will collect and analyse information about all the cases in the NPCC-held data, using Coroner’s Inquests and related public records e.g., verdicts, Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports and media coverage. This analysis will include information, such as on whether an inquest took place, its outcome, and other key categorical details. For a purposively selected subset of cases, they will also gather more in-depth data.

They will also attend meetings with the research team and police stakeholders, present at and attend relevant events and co‑author outputs. Throughout the post, they will be supported in the development of their research skills and independence for the success of their future career.

• Collect qualitative and quantitative data for all 426 cases in the NPCC-held data, using publicly available information;
• Collect in‑depth qualitative data for a subset of 20 cases, using publicly available information;
• Liaise with the research team and external stakeholders on the Research Advisory Group – including staff at various levels of the organisations –about all aspects of the project;
• Undertake any necessary administrative aspects of the project, such as arranging meetings, communicating with relevant parties about the research;
• Appropriately analyse the qualitative and quantitative data, using software such as NVivo or SPSS;
• If appropriate, contribute to research outputs as a co‑author, including a report for the N8 Policing Research Partnership;
• Undertake any necessary training;
• Attend meetings with the research team and/or key stakeholders;
• Sup…