Summary
ISARIC is seeking two early career researchers, with the support of their supervisor(s) and institution(s), to partner in the development and delivery of scalable analytics and analytical tooling for the ISARIC Clinical Epidemiology Platform.
The programme focuses on designing, implementing, and validating reproducible analytical pipelines, data processing frameworks, visualisation tools, and scalable computational workflows for rapid, high-quality analysis of clinical data during outbreaks.
Selected researchers will collaborate closely with the ISARIC Global Support Centre data team. Funding is available for an initial two-year period with possibility of extension to mid‑2029.
Key Dates:
Deadline for applications: February 16 2026, 23:00 GMT
Shortlisting discussions: February 2026
Final selection: March 2026
Background
Rapid, scalable analytics are fundamental for generating clinical evidence during outbreaks or emerging infectious diseases. Many research networks face persistent challenges including fragmented pipelines, uneven analytical capacity, and limited interoperability, limiting timely outbreak response.
The ISARIC Clinical Epidemiology Platform, composed of tools such as ARC, BRIDGE, VERTEX, provides an infrastructure to enable harmonized data analysis through:
• modular and reproducible data processing and analytic pipelines
• automated quality control tools
• statistical and machine‑learning frameworks
• visualization and reporting modules suitable for LMIC settings
This call aims to identify early career researchers who will contribute actively to analytical tool development, strengthening ISARIC’s capacity to deliver rapid, standardised analyses during emerging outbreaks, while increasing the outbreak research preparedness and response capacity in their home institutions.
Eligibility requirements:
• Applicant researchers and/or supervisors must belong to, or plan to join, an ISARIC Member Network.
• Applicant researchers must be (or have supervisor-supported plans to become) full‑time employees of the institution for the funding period.
• Applications must include the support of a supervisor based primarily at the applicant institution.
• Applicant institutions must be legally registered in a low‑ or middle‑income economy (LMIE).
• Institutions must meet the University of Oxford’s due‑diligence requirements and sign a research collaboration agreement.
Each early career researcher applicant must submit an individual application, even if from the same institution or supervisor as another applicant.
Responsibilities and activities:
Researchers will work with the ISARIC Data Team to support design, implementation, maintenance, and evaluation of scalable reusable analytical pipelines. Work will be undertaken at the researchers’ home institution. Examples of activities include:
• Contributing to the development of standardised analysis software components (1)
• Validating and implementing pipelines on real outbreak datasets (2) (3)
• Developing visualisations to better inform and communicate generated evidence (4)
and broader activities related to developing and iteratively refining analytical methods informed by key clinical research questions for emerging infectious diseases, as defined and prioritised through consultation with ISARIC partners and by ongoing user and site feedback.
Activities include:
Documentation and Procedures
• Contribute to analytic protocols, SOPs, user guides, and API documentation of the ISARIC Clinical Epidemiological Platform.
Research, Development, and Engineering
• Design and develop novel, modular analytical pipelines for cleaning, transforming, quality-checking, analysing clinical data across outbreak contexts.
• Support reproducible research practices, including version control, unit testing, CI/CD, and containerisation.
• Build or enhance innovative analytical modules for VERTEX dashboards, BRIDGE data-utility components, or ARC-linked processes.
• Implement novel or adapted statistical and machine-learning approaches, under the supervision of senior statisticians, where appropriate to the data and use case.
• Contribute to the development of new benchmarking frameworks for cross-cohort model evaluation and comparison.
Visualization, Communication, and Interpretation
• Develop visualization modules, dashboards, or automated reporting templates.
• Support presentation and interpretation of findings to ISARIC partners.
Training, Dissemination, and Implementation
• Develop training materials and contribute to hands-on workshops and webinars.
• Support local implementation of analytical pipelines by partner sites as part of training activities, including guided set-up on local REDCap or equivalent databases.
• Support adoption of analytical tools across LMIC partner sites through mentored, outbreak response–driven deployments.
• Promote uptake across LMIC partner sites by coupling training with hands-on implementation milestones and follow-up support.
Available funding and duration:
A maximum of £80,000 of salary support per researcher is available over 2 years (Q2 2026–Q2 2028). Continuation for up to 18 additional months will depend on:
• Timely delivery of agreed outputs
• Quality, robustness, and reproducibility of analytical contributions
• Active engagement with the ISARIC team, wider ISARIC community, and research partners
• Demonstrated contribution to innovative methods, tools, or implementations aligned with the ISARIC Clinical Epidemiology platform
• Uptake of the contributions across the ISARIC community
• Alignment with overall platform objectives
Deliverables and reporting:
• Weekly updates to the Analytics Project Coordinator.
• Quarterly institutional reporting on progress and expenditure.
• Delivery of analytic modules, dashboards, documentation, training resources, and validated pipelines.
Application process:
Please complete the online form. The application deadline is 23:00 GMT on February 16 2026.
Evaluation criteria:
Communication Skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including technical documentation, assessed through the written application materials and interview.
Academic and Professional Background
• Degree in data science, computer science, statistics, epidemiology, informatics, engineering, or related field.
• Interest in outbreak analytics or health data science.
Technical and Research Skills
• Experience in data analysis, modelling, software or tool development.
• Strong proficiency in Python for data analysis and research software development, including data wrangling, statistical analysis, and reproducible workflows.
• Demonstrated experience developing, adapting, or maintaining analytical pipelines for observational clinical data, including data cleaning, transformation, quality checks, modelling, and reporting.
• Ability to work within a governed, multi-study clinical epidemiology platform, following shared data standards, versioned codebases, and agreed analytical protocols.
• Experience contributing to collaborative codebases (e.g. GitHub), including version control, code review, and documentation.
• Ability to implement and adapt analyses independently, while working under methodological oversight from senior statisticians, data engineers and software developers.
Availability
• Commitment of a minimum of 35 hours per week during the funding period.
Motivation
• Strong commitment to enhancing LMIC analytical capacity and contributing to ISARIC’s long‑term platform.
Supervisor and Institutional Support
• Supervisor with demonstrated expertise in analytics, modelling, software development, or epidemiology, and commitment to supporting integration of the work within the ISARIC Clinical Epidemiology Platform.
• Institutional support to enable local implementation and longer-term impact, including provision of appropriate infrastructure and facilitation of adoption, reuse, or extension of developed analytical pipelines and tools within the home institution.
Application materials should include:
• A letter of motivation from the applicant researcher;
• Up to two academic or professional letters of reference for the applicant researcher;
• A letter of support from the applicant’s supervisor; and
• A short standalone document outlining two proposed project ideas or platform enhancements the applicant would seek to develop or contribute to within the ISARIC Clinical Epidemiology Platform.
All letters must clearly address the selection criteria outlined above. In addition, the supervisor’s letter of support should specify the applicant’s and/or supervisor’s status with respect to ISARIC membership, and describe how the applicant, their institution, and/or their network intend to engage with ISARIC during the fellowship period.
Lead applicants who are currently delivering ISARIC-funded responsibilities should also clearly describe in their application how these responsibilities will be transferred, managed, or otherwise aligned with this fellowship opportunity.
The proposed ideas will be evaluated based on their alignment with the ISARIC Clinical Epidemiology Platform, degree of innovation, and feasibility of implementation. Submission of these ideas does not constitute a commitment that they will be taken forward as part of the programme. The primary purpose of this document is to assess the applicant’s understanding of the platform and how their work could integrate within it.