Role Overview & Mandate
Executive Summary
Fixed-term contract until 31 December 2025, 1.0 FTE. We are seeking a highly skilled and quantitative researcher to...
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Fixed-term contract until 31 December 2025, 1.0 FTE.
We are seeking a highly skilled and quantitative researcher to join our collaborative project providing cost-effectiveness advice for immunisation policy to the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). An ideal candidate would have a strong background in mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, experience with matching models to data and an interest in health economics or predictions for policy.
The successful candidate would join the MEMVIE team, to be primarily supervised by Prof. Matt Keeling (Warwick Maths & Life Sciences), and also working with Dr Ed Hill (Warwick Maths), Prof. Sophie Staniszewska (Warwick Medical School) and Prof. Stavros Petrou (Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Oxford). This is a recently funded project that extends the high-impact work of MEMVIE over the past 9 years.
Immunisation is a key and highly successful tool in the fight against a range of infectious diseases, but is associated with a considerable cost, with the UK spending in excess of £200 million per year on vaccines and vaccine delivery. Infectious disease and health economic models are therefore necessary to assess whether any change in the immunisation programme is cost-effective; that is, whether the value placed on health benefits or improvements in social welfare that ensue are less than the incremental cost associated with the change in programme. The project will initially extend COVID-19 modelling, but work on other immunisation programmes is likely over the three years.
The University of Warwick has considerable experience and expertise in this area, with the assembled team serving on the several government advisory boards associated with public health. The team brings cutting-edge research techniques in mathematical modelling and health economics to provide a complementary approach to the work undertaken in this area by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The University of Warwick has a strong international reputation for work on a range of infectious diseases and providing measured policy advice to several government agencies.
Through regular meetings with the DHSC and UKHSA, we ensure that our programme of dynamic and health economic modelling on infectious diseases meets the needs of DHSC (and JCVI), and reports are presented in a way that is of immediate use to policy-makers. In particular, we outline assumptions made, highlight gaps in the necessary data and define how these affect the interpretation of the results. Two other methods are being used to validate our conclusions: firstly, we seek to publish our findings in appropriate journals thereby opening our results to peer-review by the wider international academic community; secondly, we compare our predictions to changes in disease incidence and other health outcomes that follow changes in vaccine policy.
Applications via the HR website should include a CV and list of publications, and a covering letter expressing your interests in this project. All applicants should attempt to get three referees to send their references by email to Alison Glendinning, Departmental Secretary, Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick at MathematicsPA@warwick.ac.uk by the closing date.
For Informal enquiries: M.J.Keeling@warwick.ac.uk
Interview Date: TBC.
Job Description
To contribute to the research climate within the relevant departments and to further their international standing by conducting high-quality relevant research.
To perform the necessary modelling tasks to fulfil the demands of the Department of Health and Social Case (DHSC). This will involve scoping the available literature, developing mathematical models, matching models to data, and generating predictions of future levels of disease.
To assist in generation of policy-ready documents for DHSC and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to demonstrate our findings.
To draft scientific publications of appropriate journals that explain our methodology, results and their implications.
To interact with the public (at PPI or outreach events) to further promote our research.
The successful candidate would join a vibrant group modelling infectious diseases in humans and animals, based within the highly successful Zeeman Institute. The Zeeman Institute for Systems Biology & Infectious Disease Epidemiology Research (SBIDER) specialises in bringing sophisticated mathematics to challenges in biological sciences. Our research spans from the theoretical to practical policy advice, and from the genome to the population. We are a team of around 20 academic staff from across campus with individuals based in Maths, Stats, Computer Science, Life Sciences and Medicine.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Research
- To establish a sound research base in order to pursue individual and collaborative research of high quality, consistent with making a substantial research contribution in line with the departmental objectives of maintaining their world-class research performance.
- To attend and present research findings and papers at academic and professional conferences, and to contribute to the external visibility of the department.
Administration and Other Activities
- To participate in relevant professional activities, such as departmental research seminars.
- To participate in the organisation of research workshops and other events.
The duties and responsibilities outlined are not intended to be an exhaustive list but to provide guidance on the main aspects of the job. The post holder will be required to be flexible in their duties.
