Research Coordinator

Purpose of the GOAL Research Study

There are over one million Syrian refugees living in Lebanon, with the majority living in Lebanon for over five years. Lebanon is experiencing many of the health challenges found in other protracted displacement settings, such as high unmet mental health needs among refugee and host populations and fragmented health policy responses. While effective mental health services exist, there are major gaps in access to them. The challenge is how to best deliver such services, including designing health systems to support effective delivery. This requires the close involvement of Syrian refugees and Lebanese living with mental disorders in designing relevant and impactful services and systems. 

GOAL is a three-year research project which began in February 2020 with funding from the United Kingdom’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).  It is a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the National Mental Health Program of Lebanon, St. Joseph’s University of Beirut, Abaad, War Child Holland (Lebanon office), and Positive Negatives.

The overall aim of GOAL is to support government and partners in strengthening the ability of health systems to meet the mental health needs of refugee and host communities affected by protracted displacement, focusing on Lebanon.

The specific objectives of GOAL are to:

1. Explore barriers and facilitators to strengthening health system governance for supporting access to culturally appropriate mental health care for Syrian refugees and host populations in Lebanon
2. Strengthen mental health service user participation in health system governance in Lebanon
3. Identify sustainable financing mechanisms that can strengthen health system responses for mental health services for Syrian refugees and host communities in Lebanon
4. Strengthen capacity on governance and health financing to support a resilient and sustainable health system addressing the mental health needs of Syrian refugees and host populations in Lebanon
5. Maximise the value of the project findings and methods for other protracted displacement settings in ODA countries

General objective of the job

The focus of this role will be leading on and supporting the implementation of the GOAL research, and the implementation of the interviews, any assessments and/or observations. The position will be based in the Beirut office, some travel will be required to areas within T5 and Akkar governorates and other governorates if needed. The position is for maternity cover of the current research coordinator but there may be opportunities for a continued role on the project subject to performance.

Roles and responsibilities

• The Research Coordinator is essential to the success of any research project- s/he forms the backbone of the GOAL research team in Lebanon.

• The Research Coordinator will work within the GOAL team to coordinate all aspects of implementation of research activities.  
• S/he will be the supporting the coordination of relevant partnerships and maintenance in close collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and tropical Medicine and other GOAL research partners.
• Coordination and preparation of logistics and administration around research implementation, this include the supervision of timesheets and time writing for everyone involved in the project, in addition to payments coordination with the Admin Officer.
• Working with finance teams in Lebanon and Amsterdam, in coordination with senior researcher, to ensure financial reporting is completed in a timely and accurate manner.
• Act as the focal point for communication and coordination of the Household survey package of the GOAL project with the LSHTM.
• Scheduling and conducting interviews and Focus Group discussions in English and Arabic with different stakeholders related to the research as well as support in  overseeing data collection  in the field if needed 
• Transcribing and translating qualitative data collected into written English transcripts in a timely manner and reviewing drafts for any spelling, grammar, or formatting errors, as well as other inconsistencies.
  • Adhering to all confidentiality guidelines and respecting sensitive information related to transcription and translation.
  • Communicating with the supervisor when there are issues.
  • Quality checking transcripts of other team members
  • Keeping typing skills sharp by completing regular typing drills.
• Conducting ethnographic observations in coordination with other researchers
• Assisting in capacity-building of local research team in research methods, research ethics, and interventions, with support of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This competency-building will involve
  • • Basics of data collection for qualitative and quantitative research projects
    • Interviewing methods
    • Data management processes
    • Research ethics including participant safety, confidentiality, reporting of adverse events, maintaining integrity of research data
    • Intervention facilitation (with support from relevant trainers)
    • Child safe-guarding
• Supervision and coordination of the tasks of the local research team to ensure quality of data collected.  This will include:
  • • Holding regular supervision meetings and performance appraisals with research assistants
    • Scheduling and coordination of data collection including managing all logistics such as transport, work schedules, resources required,
    • Monitoring of quality of data collection, adherence to ethical practices, and intervention fidelity
    • Overseeing data entry and data management, and able to be responsible for data set cleaning.
    • Communicating key information from the research in a simple, clear, effective way to stakeholders that are non-researchers
• Managing and reporting on adverse events and serious adverse events related to implementing the research project according to War Child Holland data management protocols
• Participating in regular research supervision and coordination meetings with War Child Holland Research Office team
• Attending GOAL management meetings, communication working groups meetings and others.
• The Research Coordinator takes a proactive role in monitoring progress of research implementation and proactively observes, documents and shares any community-level barriers.
  • S/he participates in weekly research supervision and coordination skype meetings with War Child Holland R&D department.
  • S/he shares updates about the research implementation in a structured way with the rest of the team.
  • S/he is proactive in problem solving and suggesting solutions to community-level barriers.

6. Reporting

• They will report to the Head of programs in Lebanon with a functional reporting line to the Senior Researcher at War Child Holland Research and Development Department in Amsterdam.
   

7. Profile

Essential:

• A Master’s degree in in relevant field (e.g. Psychology, Nursing, Education, Public Health, Social Sciences)
• Extensive experience working within Lebanon
• At least 3 years experience in conducting field-based research activities and data management with human subjects in a relevant field (i.e. psychosocial support, mental health, education, and/or child protection).
• Excellent communication skills in English (oral and written) and Arabic (oral and written).
• Previous experience doing translation and transcription
• Ability to communicate the process, challenges, and results of research to others in a simple, clear, effective way.
• Ability to operate independently with minimal supervision
• Available full time, committed to invest at least 6 months in contributing to our research agenda in Lebanon

Desirable:

• Previous extensive experience with qualitative research methods, including participant observation.
• Previous experience working within the mental health sector in Lebanon

8. Job Location: Lebanon

9. Period of Employment: from October 2021-March 2022.