Research Assistant-1

Location: UBC Hospital Site - Vancouver, BC, Canada

Job Title

Research Assistant-1

Job Category

Non Union Technicians and Research Assistants

Job Profile

Non Union Salaried - Research Assistant /Technician 2

Job Family Group

Staff - Non Union

DepartmentWood Laboratory | BC Centre for Substance Use | Faculty of Medicine

Job End DateNovember 30, 2027

Posting End DateNovember 29, 2026

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

This position is subject to the satisfactory completion of required background checks

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary

The Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters (CRISM) invites applications for two Research Assistants to join the CRISM British Columbia Team (https://www.bccsu.ca/about-crism-bc/). CRISM is a national research network dedicated to generating, translating, and mobilizing evidence to improve the health and well-being of people who use substances and to strengthen substance use policy, prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and health systems in Canada.

The successful candidate will support a portfolio of systematic review activities addressing priority questions related to substance use, clinical care, treatment, harm reduction, prevention, public health, and health services. The work will involve the identification, screening, appraisal, extraction, organization, and synthesis of evidence from published research studies.

The position will involve working closely with CRISM investigators and research team members to support systematic reviews conducted using established methodological approaches. Depending on the project, the successful candidate may contribute to reviews intended to inform clinical practice, clinical guidelines, practice recommendations, and other evidence-based guidance documents.

The successful candidate will be expected to work carefully and systematically, apply established review protocols and eligibility criteria, maintain accurate documentation, and communicate effectively with members of the research team. The position may involve working across multiple systematic review projects and research questions.

Organizational Status

The British Columbia CRISM Node is housed at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) and is comprised of a network of research scientists, service providers, policy makers, community leaders, and people with lived experience of substance use disorder. The BCCSU is the provincial resource for evidence-based information and treatment guidance in the field of addiction and is affiliated with UBC and Providence Health Care. The BCCSU advances evidence-based policy for positive and public policy change, reducing stigma, and supporting patients and their families. The BCCSU is committed to conducting and translating leading-edge research into improved addiction care across British Columbia and beyond.

Work Performed

The successful candidate will support systematic review and evidence synthesis activities, including:

Conducting and supporting literature searches to identify published research relevant to systematic review questions

Screening titles and abstracts and reviewing full-text articles against established eligibility criteria

Documenting inclusion and exclusion decisions and identifying studies requiring further discussion or adjudication

Extracting data from published research studies using standardized extraction forms and protocols including study design, populations, interventions or exposures, comparators, outcomes, results, study setting, funding sources, conflicts of interest, and other relevant study characteristics

Supporting quality appraisal and risk-of-bias assessment using established methodological tools appropriate to the research question and study design

Supporting the organization, management, and quality assurance of systematic review data including maintaining study screening records, data-extraction files, evidence tables, and other review documentation

Identifying and documenting discrepancies or issues in published research that may affect interpretation of findings

Supporting the assessment and documentation of potential spin or misleading reporting in published research, where relevant to the systematic review

Supporting the development and refinement of systematic review protocols and related documentation

Supporting registration of systematic review protocols on registries such as PROSPERO, where appropriate

Supporting the synthesis and presentation of findings, including preparation of evidence tables and summaries of study characteristics and results

Contributing to the preparation of manuscripts and other scholarly outputs arising from systematic review activities

Summarizing relevant author conflict-of-interest disclosures, funding sources, committee involvement, and other study or guideline characteristics where required by the review

Participating in research team meetings and discussions related to systematic review methodology and findings

Communicating progress, methodological questions, discrepancies, and challenges to the project lead

Performing other systematic review and evidence-synthesis activities as required by the research program

Research Environment

The successful candidate will work within an interdisciplinary research environment involving CRISM investigators and collaborators with expertise in substance use, clinical research, public health, epidemiology, health services research, evidence synthesis, guideline development, and knowledge translation.

The position provides an opportunity to contribute to research that moves