Job summary

We are seeking an outstanding Research Lead for the Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium (https://www.vaccineimpact.org/). This major collaborative initiative directed by Professor Neil Ferguson, is based within the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London and funded jointly by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance ($11 million over 2016-22). The MRC Centre has built upon a world-leading research group in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology to undertake applied collaborative work with national and international agencies in support of policy planning for emerging and endemic infectious diseases.

Your role will also offer substantial opportunities to interact with the consortium’s modelling/research groups, and to work with staff in Gavi, BMGF and other major global health bodies (notably the World Health Organization) and with public health policy-makers in low and middle-income countries. This is a key time for the Consortium, as we drive forward our country engagement agenda and contribute to the Immunization Agenda 2030 and Gavi 2021-2025 strategies.

Duties and responsibilities

You will drive the consortium’s research agenda; use the consortium’s unique data set to address important questions that will have real-world impact on vaccine delivery, in collaboration with the research groups; and lead the secretariat’s science team of three full-time researchers. The team collaborates closely on the analysis of vaccine impact estimates generated across the consortium and the refinement of the methods used for impact estimation. This research includes (a) improving methods for generating ensemble estimates of disease burden and vaccine impact that fully represent uncertainties in the underlying data sources, assumptions and alternative model structures; (b) refining estimates to allow for sub-national variation in vaccine coverage and disease burden; (c) assessing the effects of socio-economic and geographic clustering of vaccine coverage across different vaccines (i.e. the effect of ‘hard-to-reach’ groups with low coverage of all vaccines); (d) assisting key country partners with the refinement, interpretation and use of consortium outputs.

Essential requirements

You will be an established researcher with a PhD and an excellent track record of several years of public health research with a vaccination related focus and a commensurate publication record. You should have research experience of working with mathematical or statistical models; quantitative data analysis, visualisation and interpretation; and communicating research findings to a non-specialist audience.

Further information

Candidates who are appointed as:
Research Fellow - will be within the salary range £45,615 - £53,988 per annum.
Advanced Research Fellow - will be within the salary range £56,321 - £66,700 per annum.
The role is full-time and fixed term for 2 years.