Research Assistant I

University of Arkansas System•Little Rock, AR

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Research Assistant will work to facilitate the human behavior and neuroscience research efforts of the Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC) by contributing to critical functions related to our ongoing projects and future research plans. The RA in this position will serve as manager of the BIRC’s practice of open and reproducible neuroimaging science, including maintaining database structure and managing it for existing and new research studies. The RA will also have the opportunity to work directly with standardized pipelines of medical research data analysis, while building experience in advanced data analytics. The RA will have the opportunity to contribute to scientific publications in the BIRC. This position will also aid in the day-to-day activities within the BIRC as they relate to the recruitment, screening, enrolling, and assessing of research participants to BIRC studies, and helping to ensure all BIRC projects meet enrollment goals. Position may also entail acquisition of data using MRI or fNIRS technology, and may also entail training and conduct of BIRC research regulatory compliance practices.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in neurosciences, psychology, communication, data science, or related field, plus one (1) year of human behavior research experience required.
Interest in acquiring skills and implementing clinical, sociodemographic, cognitive, affective, and behavioral assessments of child, adolescent, and adult study participants.
Ability to work in collaboration with clinics in Neurology and Psychology to ensure ethical practices and consistency in the collection of participant research data.
Ability to evaluate the safety of participants entering the MRI environment (e.g., researching various implants/devices, conducting thorough screening to ensure no adverse events in the scanner).
Ability to identify problems and crises that arise (angry or upset participants, participants getting lost en route to studies, etc) and resolve them or report to supervisor.
Proficient with Microsoft Office products, technology-oriented.
Proof of legal authority to work in the United States on the first day of employment.

Nice To Haves

Fluency in Python is preferred, but not mandatory.
Knowledge of other computational languages is helpful.

Responsibilities

Serve as manager of the BIRC’s research practice of open and reproducible neuroimaging science. This entails maintaining, improving, and implementing pipelines for the BIRC’s neuroimaging data into an internationally recognized standardized data format termed BIDS (Brain Imaging Data Structure) by writing Python code. This requires familiarity with Python. Fluency in Python is preferred, but not mandatory. Knowledge of other computational languages is helpful.
Conduct supervised analyses of behavioral and neuroimaging data, including regressions relating task performance to demographic variables (e.g., trauma history, childhood adversities, drug addiction behaviors, late-life dementia, and reduced functioning, etc).
Conduct quality assurance analyses of neuroimaging data under the mentoring of the BIRC’s scientists, and extend the behavioral analyses to model task-related changes in brain activity.
Support data analyses of structural and functional MRI data.
Enroll, screen, and assess participants for ongoing studies within the BIRC.
Screen potential participants to determine eligibility, schedule initial intake assessments, and provide reminder phone calls and texts as needed.
Conduct informed consents to ensure participants have accurate information related to the study, participate in behavioral data collection by conducting participant clinical interviews and assisting participants on self-report measures, and ensure compliance with all study protocols during data collection activities.
Monitor participants in follow-up portions of studies to ensure accurate and timely collection of longitudinal data on research projects.
Assist with data acquisition, including running behavioral tasks and collecting psychophysiological data (e.g., skin conductance, heart rate, electromyographic recording of facial muscle responses), MRI data, or fNIRS data.
Assist, on an ongoing basis, in achieving the targeted enrollment goals for all actively enrolling BIRC studies by engaging in recruitment strategies. Recruitment strategies include, but are not limited to, going to pre-established community partners and describing studies to patients, patrons, or members, and asking potential participants to participate in studies.
Complete research documentation to ensure accurate and up-to-date research records and participant tracking information.
Provide data management and entry, maintain RedCap electronic data capture, and establish new databases for new projects.
Serve as backup to the Research Coordinator for participant compensation using petty cash accounts and maintaining detailed compensation records.
Demonstrate the ability to work effectively in a team environment by daily interaction with BIRC faculty and staff, research participants, and administrative support.
Perform other duties as assigned.