Pre-doctoral position

The research group “Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders and Ageing” led by Dr. Josep Maria Haro seeks a pre-doctoral researcher to work in the Epidemiology of Youth Mental Health research line, together with Dr. Rodrigo Antunes Lima.

We offer a 6-12-month contract, with the possibility of renovation. The main attribution of this position is to support the conduction of two EU-funded projects: the e-Intervention Enhancing Mental Health in Adolescents (IMPROVA project; https://www.improva-project.eu/), and the ePlatform for Promoting Health in Schools project (ePro-Schools;
https://www.linkedin.com/company/epro-schools/?viewAsMember=true ).

IMPROVA will co-design, pilot, evaluate, and facilitate the upscaling of a modular eHealth intervention platform that aims to improve mental health and wellbeing, early detect mental health problems and prevent common mental problems in adolescents. IMPROVA will be implemented in school settings and will include components for adolescents, parents, teachers, and other school staff in complementary and synergistic modules based on materials designed and tested in >20 projects carried out by the consortium members. The platform will be co-created by the consortium in collaboration with stakeholder groups (adolescents, parents, teachers, other school staff, schools and policymakers). IMPROVA includes an international inter-disciplinary group of researchers and practitioners from medicine, education, psychology, sociology, public health, economics, physical activity, ethics, law, UX design, computer science, medical informatics, data science, ICT technologies, and policymakers. After pilot testing the platform, IMPROVA will be implemented via a cluster randomised controlled trial in secondary education schools randomly selected in France, Germany, Romania and Spain, including 8,000 adolescents. A 360º evaluation of IMPROVA will include Effectiveness, Implementation, Economic, and Social Return on Investment analysis. Using implementation science methodology, IMPROVA will co-design transferable evidence-based guidance for scaling up the platform with users and policymakers. IMPROVA aims to provide an evidence-based, innovative, large-scale, comprehensive intervention, and a scale-up plan to promote mental health and prevent mental disorders in adolescents; empower adolescents and families to make better decisions regarding their mental health; and provide schools and the community with tools to achieve a society with better mental health and lower stigma.

ePro-Schools will co-design, pilot and evaluate an evidence-based modular eHealth intervention platform to promote physical activity and healthy eating, and reduce time in sedentary behaviours.

A profound co-creation process, including marketing survey and focus groups with adolescents, teachers, school directors and policy makers together with the adaptation of previous interventions conducted by the consortium members will support the development of the platform. The ePro-Schools platform will contain modules for adolescents and their parents, teachers and school administration. Although the platform will be implemented through schools, it will include contents to be implemented outside the schools setting. By evaluating register-based and cohort data, we will identify schools that have adolescents from socially disadvantaged settings to conduct a randomised controlled trial in those schools to test the ePro-Schools platform. Using implementation science methodology, ePro-Schools will co-design transferable evidence-based practices and methodologies and guidance for scaling up the platform with policymakers and stakeholders as well as informing specialists, policymakers and the general public.

Main tasks and responsibilities:

- Support the co-creation of the ePro-Schools program
- Support the implementation of the IMPROVA and ePro-School programs during the RCT
- Support users in using the platform during the RCT
- Conduct qualitative interviews with stakeholders
- Support the preparation of manuscripts and other dissemination activities (seminars, conferences, etc.)

Requirements:

- Holding a Master’s degree in a health-related discipline (Psychology, Medicine, Public Health, etc), social science or a closely related subject relevant to the project study, is a requisite
- Relevant experience of research in the field of the study; i.e.: experience in international projects, published manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals
- Experience in school-based studies and/or the development or implementation of eHealth platforms
- Previous participation in international collaborative projects
- Other relevant skills: English and Spanish (Written and Spoken), knowledge on Catalan will be evaluated positively.

We offer:

- A 6-12-month contract with the possibility of renew

- Trial period of 4 months.

- Working days: Full time (37.5 hours)

- Economic conditions according to profile and knowledge provided.