We are recruiting an enthusiastic and collaborative research associate with expertise in social sciences (e.g. sociology, geography and politics), sustainable consumption and qualitative methods. You will help to manage and deliver a work package exploring how healthcare settings (including dental practices, clinics and hospitals) engage with plastic materials, identifying barriers to and opportunities for more sustainable practices. This will include conducting interviews with healthcare professionals and using participant observation techniques to understand everyday clinical practices and material use. You will work closely with Bupa and the other project PDRAs and PhDs to identify opportunities for intervention.
The role will be based in the Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub, which works at the interface between the Sustainable Futures research platform at The University of Manchester and the Henry Royce Institute, the UK’s national lab for advanced materials. The Hub supports innovation in sustainable plastics and multi-materials, with a particular emphasis on tackling industrially relevant research questions. The team is necessarily interdisciplinary, with polymer scientists working with economists, social scientists and life-cycle experts to co-create robust solutions to managing plastic from creation to end-of-life. Collaborators from across the university bring expertise in social science, life cycle assessment, chemical depolymerisation, biomedical materials science, recycling and systems to support the project.

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