PhD student in Early Child Development
We are looking for a PhD student to support our project aiming at improving early childhood development through an interactive mobile-phone based intervention. This project will be jointly implemented within the framework of the Swiss – Peruvian Health Research Platform in the San Marcos Province, Peru, an initiative of the Swiss TPH in Basel and the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. This project will be implemented in collaboration with national and international partners including Afinidata, a US-based NGO focusing on developing intelligent solutions to support early childhood development globally, the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the ETH Zurich.
Your responsibilities
The PhD student will work with local Peruvian and international partners on a multi-year study testing a new Afinidata platform to support early childhood development in Peru. The PhD student will be primarily based in the field in San Marcos, Peru and in Lima with course work in Switzerland. Meetings with the project teams in Switzerland and the US will be on a regular basis. The responsibilities of this position include
- Setting up a longitudinal randomised-controlled trial on site
- Developing data collection instruments and training data collectors
- On-site supervision and coordination of field team and study implementation
- Recruitment of families, working with community representative, health system personnel and study psychologists
- Data analysis
- Training and supervision of bachelor and master students
Experience and skill requirements
To best fit our team we expect the following qualifications:
- Interest in working with families with infants and small children in a rural environment in the Andes
- Interest in research on early child development; previous experience is an advantage
- Master’s degree in public health, health social sciences or education or related fields
- Very good statistical and analytical skills. Pre-existing experience in longitudinal data analysis in R or Stata is a strong advantage.
Keen willingness to acquire the necessary skills - Experience or interest in qualitative data analysis would be a plus
- Excellent command of Spanish and English (speaking and writing) is a must
- Excellent communication skills, strong team spirit and ability to work with professionals in a multi-cultural context
- Ability to work independently and as part of a research team
Please submit your application online via the link provided below.
We look forward to receiving your online application with:
- CV
- Motivation letter
- MSc and BSc course transcripts including grades
- Writing sample (published or unpublished manuscript)
- Names and contact information (email or phone) of 3 reference persons
Please note that we can only accept applications via our online recruiting tool:
https://recruitingapp-2698.umantis.com/Jobs/All
Only complete applications will be considered. Applications via e-mail or external recruiter will not be considered.
The deadline for applications is May 15th 2021.
Job Profile
Start of employment: June 2021 (with some flexibility)
Location: Cajamarca, Peru and Basel, Switzerland
Duration: three years
Percentage: 100%
Travel required: yes, to Switzerland/Peru
Contact
Thomas Fürst
thomas.fuerst@swisstph.ch