Dr Simon Bell will be doing an online seminar on Wednesday 3rd March, 2021 to a broad audience in Iran, aimed at academics and students, part of a series related to Covid-19. His presentation will look at green and blue spaces, the issue of mental health problems exacerbated by the virus and lockdown and the importance of access outdoors to help cope with that. It will draw on research about Iranian parks and their quality and also some recent research exploring people’s use of green and blue areas during those times and its impact on their mental state.

We are recruiting for a Postdoc researcher for ACRC. Click here to apply and see details below. Deadline is 15 January, 2021.

Job Description

UE07 £33,797 – £40,322
The University of Edinburgh – Advanced Care Research Centre/OPENspace Research Centre, Edinburgh College of Art
Fixed Term, 3 years Full Time
1/03/2021 – 28/02/2024

The Research Fellow will have expertise and experience in using a range of appropriate methods in community settings, analysis of resulting data, and experience of working collaboratively with participants. Successful candidates will be able to demonstrate critical engagement with conceptual and theoretical work on environment-behaviour interactions and the ability to develop new understandings through working with participants to elicit what is meaningful and important in a supportive environment. They will be experienced in undertaking research on potentially sensitive issues and with vulnerable individuals.

The Opportunity:

The Advanced Care research Centre (ACRC – www.ed.ac.uk/usher/advanced-care-research-centre) is a new, £20million programme led by University of Edinburgh and funded by Legal and General in collaboration with the Universities of Edinburgh and Newcastle. ACRC will research and develop innovative solutions for the care of people in later life, contributing to tackling the global challenge of promoting and maintaining ‘healthy ageing’. Central to the ACRC approach is a commitment to working in partnership with people in later life, their families and communities, and to creating a sustainable, UK-wide collaboration to ensure excellence and impact. ‘Understanding the Person in Context’ is one of seven work-packages and is providing longitudinal, mixed-methods research to the programme; the post sits within this work-package.

This component of research involves the concept of ‘personal projects’ and their analysis. It will draw on projective approaches to understanding people and their relationship with place, as well as social-ecological approaches to understanding links between environment and behaviour. Personal projects are the self-generated and purpose-oriented activities an individual is doing or planning to do (originally developed by psychologist Brian Little). By examining people’s personal projects and their social and physical environmental context, we can better understand what contributes to meaningful quality of life for individuals. By exploring the environmental contribution to these projects, for good or ill, we can understand how better to support projects that are core to people’s sense of self and ability to flourish.

Your skills and attributes for success: 

·       Relevant postdoctoral experience (or equivalent work experience) of conducting mixed methods research (including fieldwork), and postdoctoral experience relevant to the work as described above

·       Experience of developing and maintaining relationships with external stakeholders and research participants

·       Excellent communication skills (oral and written), including public presentations and ability to communicate with academic and non-academic audience

·       Knowledge and experience of University Research Ethics compliance

·       Ability to work independently but also as a member of a team.

Click here for a copy of the full job description.

As a valued member of our team you can expect: 

An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. We give you support, nurture your talent and reward success. You will benefit from a competitive reward package and a wide range of staff benefits, which includes a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family friendly initiatives, flexible working and much more. Access our staff benefits page for further information and use our reward calculator to find out the total value of pay and benefits provided.

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.

About Us

Central to the ACRC approach is a commitment to working in partnership with people in later life, their families and communities, and to creating a sustainable UK wide collaboration to ensure excellence and impact. Building on world-leading, multidisciplinary research expertise and infrastructure, we will develop world class data, technology, and social assets that deliver impact through research and development. This will drive innovation of new data-centric products, services, models of care, and system innovations that will engender a step-change improvement in the quality of life of our citizens and sustain their independence and dignity in later life.About the Team

The ACRC is led by Professor Bruce Guthrie and is based in and co-ordinated from the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh.  The ACRC programme spans several other Schools across all three of the University of Edinburgh’s Colleges.

‘Understanding the Person in Context’ (WP4), is led overall by Professor Heather Wilkinson and will be carried out in close collaboration with colleagues at Newcastle University. The component of research undertaken as part of this post will be led by Professor Catharine Ward Thompson, Director of OPENspace research centre in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), Edinburgh College of Art.

Interviews are planned end January 2021

If invited for interview you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK.  Further information is available on our right to workwebpages.

The University is able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role.  If successful, an international applicant requiring sponsorship to work in the UK will need to satisfy the UK Home Office’s English Language requirements and apply for and secure a Tier 2/Skilled Worker Visa.

About Us

As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.

About the Team

The Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture (ESALA) is guided by values of creativity, experimentation, scholarly rigour and ethical responsibility.
We have strong and vibrant alliances with the architectural and landscape professions and other community, cultural and business groupings in Scotland, and clearly articulated links with relevant schools and institutions internationally.We engage in policy debates nationally and internationally both within teaching and through research activities.
The Deparment of Architecture & Landscape Architectur holds a Bronze Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance the representation of women in science, mathematics, engineering and technology. To find our more, visit ( http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/architecture-landscape-architecture))

How do social and physical environmental exposures “get under the skin” to affect cellular ageing and become embodied in human health? Our new project working with health geographers and psychologists will explore this – find out more here.

• 

Please check out, ‘Place, Pedagogy and Play: Participation, Design and Research with Children’ a new book by Simon Bell, Matluba Khan and Jenny Wood, with a preface by Catharine Ward Thompson.

https://www.routledge.com/Place-Pedagogy-and-Play-Participation-Design-and-Research-with-Children/Khan-Bell-Wood/p/book/9780367086374

Dr Simon Bell’s latest book came out recently, published by Routledge – the 3^rd Edition of his book “Elements of Visual Design in the Landscape” which was first published in 1993 and a second edition in 2004. In this podcast from the New Books Network Simon is interviewed by landscape architect Tricia Keffer about the book and about himself.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simon-bell-elements-visual-design-in-landscape-routledge/id425210498?i=1000466492553

Great news that Tuesday’s article in the Guardian by Lucy Jones on how ‘Nature patched me back together’ cites our MMP research – see the paragraph third from the end on ‘… Researchers in Edinburgh…’.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/feb/25/ecological-grief-i-mourn-the-loss-of-nature-it-saved-me-from-addiction

Last night on BBC2’s Trust Me I’m a Doctor Catharine Ward Thompson’s work was featured regarding the effect of green spaces on the health of office workers.  A couple of familiar faces volunteered as participants for the study – Bobby and Claire Pembleton. Follow this link to learn more about it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1bMWbxkFVDwZVqzDTXBj3QC/can-time-in-nature-improve-my-health?fbclid=IwAR0QqkaXFY6eAr5WB9HYOsy_GN5vmRAgw1OrqQAELZVd4XuqUtdkfoQPK-Y