Job Description

Position Information

Position Title

Research Associate

Department/Unit

Psychiatry

Research Project

Unifying Networks to InnovaTE (UNITE): A Whole of System Approach for Youth Mental Health

Location

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Posting Number

GP66-25

Employee Group

Grant-Paid

Position Type

Term

Duration of Contract (if applicable)

1 Year with possible renewal

Employment Type

Full Time

Full-time Equivalency (FTE)

1.0

Salary

$68,105 - $84,305 (for 35 hours/ week)

About the Organization

The Unifying Networks to InnovaTE

(

UNITE

)

projectwill mobilize an unprecedented team of multidisciplinary scientists, decision-makers, youth and community advocates to

improve youth mental health outcomes, because doing so has the capacity to generate greater personal, social and economic benefits than interventions offered at any other time in the lifespan.

There can be no health without mental health, making UNITE the best method for broad societal impact. It consists of three

critical and interrelated

projects on the pathway to societal impact: 1. Optimized Navigation Pathways; 2. Increased Data-driven Insights; 3. Strengthened Whole-of-System Capacity.

Job Summary

Reporting to the Principal Investigators, the Research Associate will support the design, implementation, and evaluation of the UNITE research projects by contributing to data collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings. The Research Associate will work collaboratively with investigators, clinicians, and community partners to ensure ethical, culturally sensitive, and methodologically sound research practices.

Key Responsibilities

Collaborate with partners across health, education, social services, and policy sectors to co-design and implement research projects addressing systemic health challenges. Apply mixed-methods approaches and ensure alignment with cross-sector priorities. Lead the preparation and submission of ethics applications to institutional review boards. Ensure compliance with ethical standards across diverse research settings. Design inclusive recruitment approaches, reducing participation barriers, and integrating stakeholder perspectives into study design, outreach, and communications. Identify, recruit, and maintain relationships with research participants. Ensure culturally responsive, ethical, and high-quality engagement with participants in diverse settings. Ensure research activities and outputs (including assessments, interventions and solutions) are informed by deep subject matter knowledge related to one or more of the following: organizational learning and behavior, public sector innovation / health innovation / social innovation, implementation sciences, health service design and delivery, leadership, human centred-design. Conduct primary data collection activities such as interviews, focus groups, surveys, and observational studies across multiple sectors. Maintain accurate and confidential data systems that support multi-sector data integration, ensuring data quality and compliance with privacy regulations. Analyze qualitative and/or quantitative data, apply rigorous data cleaning, coding, and analysis techniques using tools such as NVivo, R, SPSS, ensuring data integrity and reproducibility. Contribute to writing research reports, manuscripts, and presentations for academic, clinical, or community audiences. Contribute to the collaborative authorship of peer reviewed manuscripts, technical reports and policy briefs through the drafting, editing and submission of documents. Tailor outputs for academic, practitioner, and public audiences, ensuring clarity, impact, and accessibility. Develop presentations for meetings, seminars, and conferences. Provide mentorship to trainees, including research assistants, interns, and students, fostering their development and ensuring high-quality contributions to the research team.

Note

The successful applicant will be eligible for hybrid work (combination of in-person work on campus and remote work from within Nova Scotia) as agreed by all parties based on operational requirements and university guidelines.

Required Qualifications

PhD in management, psychology, applied health/health services, epidemiology or a related field, obtained in the last 3 years. Demonstrated experience in all stages of research, including research design; research synthesis, quantitative, qualitative and/or mixed methods. Solid understanding of ethical principles in human subjects' research. Record of scholarly publications and conference presentations, and public outreach/knowledge translation in the topic area. Excellent verbal and written English communication skills. Self-directed and able to consistently take initiative and multi-task across more than one project, with a high level of attention to detail, regard for quality, accuracy and organization.

Assets

1-2 years formal post-doc experience. Experience working with youth and/or community partners. Experience working with academic institutions and/or government agencies. Background in mental health and addiction research. Interest in advancing mental health promotion and care. Experience with sustainability planning. Experience with workshop development, facilitation and/or coaching/leadership development.

Additional Information

Dalhousie University supports a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Our total compensation package includes a voluntary RRSP, health and dental plans and an employee and family assistance program.

Application Consideration

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Diversity Statement

Dalhousie University commits to achieving inclusive excellence through continually championing equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. The university encourages applications from Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island (especially Mi'kmaq), persons of Black/African descent (especially African Nova Scotians), and members of other racialized groups, persons with disabilities, women, persons identifying as members of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, and all candidates who would contribute to the diversity of our community. In accordance with our Employment Equity Policy, preference will be given in hiring processes to candidates who self-identify as members of one or more of the equity-deserving groups listed above. For more information, including details related to our Employment Equity Policy and Plan and definitions of equity-deserving groups please visit

www.dal.ca/hiringfordiversity

If you require any support for the purpose of accommodation, such as technical aids or alternative arrangements, please let us know of these needs and how we can be of assistance. Dalhousie University is committed to ensuring all candidates have full, fair, and equitable participation in the hiring process. Our complete Accommodation Policy can be viewed

here

.


Posting Detail Information

Number of Vacancies

1

Open Date

09/19/2025

Close Date

10/10/2025

Open Until Filled

No

Special Instructions to Applicant

Quick Link for Direct Access to Posting

https://dal.peopleadmin.ca/postings/19595