Research Fellow (Systems Strengthening)

Grade UE07: £41,064 to £48,822 per annum 

CAHSS / Moray House School of Education & Sport

Full-time: 35 hours per week 

Fixed-term: 30th April 2027

 

The Opportunity: 

Childlight, a global child safety institute, is looking for a Research Fellow to undertake research to improve what we know globally about child protections systems’ capability to deal with child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). This research will inform the Childlight Into the Light global index, particularly in relation to policing data, with potential expansion to additional sectors such as health, education or justice in subsequent years. This will include contributing to the development of review and verification plans to validate country-based systems data.  

The post holder will identify and analyse systemic gaps and opportunities in data use for improved child protection systems, developing practical, evidence-based toolkits, promising practice briefs and minimum standards documentation. 

You will have strong research and analytical skills, experience of working with different types of data, (such as law enforcement, health, child protection or education data), or nationally and/or sub-nationally representative surveys that measure CSEA.  

 

Your skills and attributes for success:  

• .Strong experience of and interest in working across research methods.  

• Experience of working with prevalence and administrative data 

• Experience of practice / paid / voluntary/research work with children and young people living with disabilities 

• Expertise in the area of child sexual exploitation and abuse research or related field that has had a demonstrable impact 

• Experience of knowledge exchange through effective public engagement. 

• Growing portfolio of high-quality research publications in child protection or public health research 

• A passion for making the world a better place and preventing CSEA, improving services and safeguarding children 

 

Click to view a copy of the full job description (opens new browser tab)  

 

Application Information

 

Please ensure you include the following documents in your application:

• CV
•  Cover letter

 

As a valued member of our team you can expect:  

• A competitive salary

• An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work.  

• To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community 

• Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family-friendly initiatives, and flexible work options. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits  

 

Championing equality, diversity and inclusion 

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.  

Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab) 

The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role.  This will depend on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant.
 

Key dates to note 

The closing date for applications is 22nd August 2025.

Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.  

Interviews are expected to be held within three weeks after the closing date. 

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.