The School of Medical Sciences at Örebro University is seeking a research assistant

A full-time nutritional research assistant is required to assist with the development and validation of dietary assessment instruments.  An important aspect of this work will be to assist in creating instruments that are suitable for a culturally and ethnically diverse population.  The development of the instruments will take place during 2020.

Duties and responsibilities

The duties of the research assistant will include assisting with the following:

  • Organisational aspects and communication with participants, including: registering participants, planning appointments, organising the presence of interpreters, answering phone calls and sending reminders using a questionnaire management system
  • Conducting semi-structured interviews about dietary behaviour among Syrian, Iraqi and Somali women, including:
    • 24h diet recall (using the instrument from the national diet survey): helping participants to complete this diet questionnaire and make an inventory of food identification problems when using this tool
    • food frequency questionnaire – helping participants to complete this diet questionnaire and make an inventory of food identification problems when using this tool
    • general eating and cooking habits, and
    • past diet during pregnancy, breastfeeding and the diet of the childhood of the participants’ offspring
  • The research assistant will have to record a combination of verbatim and summarised answers on a pre-structured recording sheet
  • Cleaning and managing data from the various dietary assessment instruments, as well as basic descriptive statistical analysis
  • Participation in development/improvement of the nutrient calculation of the dietary assessment instruments, such as finding nutritional composition of foods, common recipes, as well as common names of foods and dishes, portion sizes and food photography

Qualifications

Applicants should have completed an undergraduate degree or equivalent. Key aspects of the job include data collection through interviews and therefore good communication skills are essential.  Experience of interviewing is desirable.  Knowledge and experience of research in the area of nutrition is essential.  Knowledge of Swedish, Middle-Eastern or Northern African cooking and culture is desirable.  Knowledge of managing a database is desirable.  Research support experience is desirable, but more recently qualified applicants may be considered if they can demonstrate competence.

Close attention will be paid to your personal qualities, your ability to perform duties autonomously, your interpersonal skills and ability to cooperate, as well as your ability to relate to people in a way that inspires trust and confidence.

We expect you to be flexible and open to change with the ability to assume a quality-conscious and responsible approach towards your duties.

Information

The position is full-time and temporary until 31 December 2020 in the first instance.

The salary depends on the successful candidate’s qualifications and experience.

For more information, please contact Dr Marleen Lentjes: maria.lentjes@oru.se

Application

The application is online. Click the button “Apply” to begin the application procedure.

For the application to be complete, the following electronic documents must be included:

  • A covering letter
  • CV with a relevant description of your overall qualifications and experience
  • Copies of relevant course/degree certificates and references verifying eligibility and criteria met

Only documents written in Swedish, English, Norwegian and Danish can be reviewed.

The application deadline is 2020-03-15. We look forward to receiving your application!

We decline any contact with advertisers or recruitment agencies in the recruitment process.

As directed by the National Archives of Sweden (Riksarkivet), Örebro University is required to deposit one file copy of the application documents, excluding publications, for a period of two years after the appointment decision has gained legal force.

Check Also

The 10 Golden Rules for a Healthy and Balanced Diet

Eating healthy is crucial for maintaining good health and preventing many diseases. However, with so …