About the Organization: Sangath (www.sangath.in) is one of India's leading mental health research non- profit organisation. It was founded in 1996 with its headquarters in Goa; major hubs in Delhi and Bhopal, and project sites in many parts of the country. Sangath's mission and expertise lies in developing and evaluating mental health interventions to be delivered through existing public systems. Its major thematic areas are: Child development and disability; adolescent health; mental disorders; and ageing.
Sangath was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation International Prize for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2008 and the WHO Public Health Champions Award for India in 2016. It has completed a number of randomized controlled trials for mental disorders in India, including the only two autism trials in the country.
About the Research Program: This program of work is developing and validating non-invasive, scalable tools for assessment of child development in preschool years. The tools include parent-report questionnaires, tablet-based gamified neuropsychological tasks, eye tracking and electroencephalography (EEG). The tools will be administered by trained non-specialist workers in homes/community centre settings on 0-6-year-old children in Delhi/NCR and Haryana. The key strength of these tools is that, in the long term, they will provide a low-cost, scalable way to assess child development and identify children that are at risk of not reaching their full developmental potential and refer them for timely interventions.
For this program of work, Sangath has partnered with a consortium of Indian and international research organisations that will be working together.
Location: Saket, New Delhi
Term: 3 years
Job Responsibilities: We are looking for candidate with an exposure to working on research projects involving human subjects in the development sector (NGO) who would be willing to work for an exciting program for three years. We will expect the candidate to:
Support the functioning of the research and field teams
Preparation of timelines, day-to-day management and oversight of daily activities of projects within this research program
Get trained in all study tools to be administered as part of the research program
Administer study tools on participants during the formative phases of the projects within this research program
Recruit and train non-specialist workers on all study tools
Supervise non-specialist workers throughout the data collection periods
Follow and ensure confidentiality of data and ensure secure and timely transfer of the collected data
Have regular coordination and communication with all team members of the research program
Participate in joint program activities including project meetings, academic activities in coordination with the research team
Support project documentation, budgeting and reporting
Support translation, back translation and documentation of all study tools into Hindi (from
English)
Support creation of standard operating procedures for all study tools and visits
Document feedback and insights from formative phase on participant engagement with study tools
Monitor budget utilisations and inform budgetary projections on the basis of program requirements
Draft ethical and scientific reports in a timely manner
Support communication with stakeholders
Establish and maintain clear communication and effective working relationships with key external stakeholders, including government and non-government agencies, local service providers, health professionals and collaborators
Support organisational activities
Work collaboratively with Sangath administrative personnel
Participate in and support Sangath activities and meetings
The Project Director will report directly to the project Co-Principal Investigator (Dr Supriya Bhavnani) and Principal Investigator (Dr Gauri Divan) of this research program.
Essential
Doctorate (PhD) degree in Neuroscience/Cognitive Science/Clinical Psychology any related field
Experience of working in a research project involving human subjects
Authorship of peer-reviewed journal publications
Commitment of two years
Desirable
Fluency in reading, writing and speaking Hindi
Experience in early child development research or with children with developmental disorders
Experience of quantitative statistical analyses (eg using STATA/R)
Experience with digital tools (such as tablet based neurocognitive assessments)
Experience of EEG analytics
Experience of data science methods
How to apply
Interested candidates are requested send their CV, peer reviewed publications and cover letter to bittoo.kumar@sangath.in. by 20th October 2022.