Social Sciences LEAD

General Summary

The mission of the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) is to build capacity of health systems in Africa with strong emphasis on infectious diseases through research, and capacity development. IDI has five operational areas through which it works to achieve its mission: Prevention, Care and Treatment; Training, Research and Laboratory services (provided through a partnership with the Makerere University-John Hopkins University Core Lab) and Outreach.

The Academy for Health Innovation Uganda (‘The Academy’) is one of the projects housed within the IDI. The Academy’s mission is to improve health systems through research, development and evaluation of innovative solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Grant applications and proposal development for new research
• Conduct mentorship activities to junior staff
• Contribute to designing and revision of qualitative tools
• Organize and participate in debrief sessions with research team members on qualitative data collection.
• Collect or supervise data for qualitative interviews
• Analyze qualitative data
• Play critical role in development and revision of abstracts and manuscripts
• Support grant writing and resource generation for the Academy.
• Assist in preparation of study protocols and progress reports for IRB and other research bodies
• Work with management to prepare project plans, budget and schedules
• Ensure research project compliance and adherence to the ethical and regulatory requirements
• Conduct data collection in hard to reach areas like Islands in Kalangala

Person Specification

Education and experience

Masters degree in social sciences, or any relevant field e.g Psychology, Public health, sociology

Other key requirements

• Certificate in Good clinical Practice
• Certificate in Human Subject Protection

Other Professional training with added advantage

• Certificate in computer assisted Qualitative data analysis using NVivo or ATLAS.ti software
• Certificate in Research Writing in the Social Sciences course
• Certificate in Project Management in Global Health course

Other skills

• Research skills
• Analytical skills
• Computer literacy
• Organizational skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Ability to work to deadlines
• Supervisory skills
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Willingness to problem solve
• Resilience

Decisions required on job

• Budget expenditure decisions
• Designing and revision of data collection tools
• Developing workplans
• Manuscript writing

Experience

• Experience of at least 2 years and knowledge in establishing research project and overseeing and managing project start-up and close-out
• Formal training in qualitative study designs and conduct as well as over 4 years of research experience with focus in HIV research, TB and other infectious diseases
• Experience conducting interviews, including design and reporting among populations living with HIV in Uganda

• Publication of research, at least two manuscripts as first author