Lagos Senior Research Officer – Active Lives in Hot Spots

Location: Lagos, Nigeria

Organisation: Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development (CHSD), University of Lagos

Reports to: Prof. Peter Elias, University of Lagos and Prof. Tolullah Oni, University of Cambridge

Type: Full-time (initial one-year contract, renewable up to 36 months subject to performance)

Start date: March 2026

Salary: Competitive salary within the range of N1.5 – N1.7m per month, commensurate with qualifications and experience.

HOW TO APPLY

Interested candidates should submit the following:

• A cover letter detailing motivation and qualifications.
• A current resume or CV.
• Contact information for three professional referees.

Submit Applications via https://forms.gle/JdY9SwxS4Wh6RZP69 

Deadline for application: 16 February 2026 0900 WAT.

Project Overview: 

Active Lives in Hot Spots is a research and engagement project addressing heat-health risks among vulnerable urban populations in Lagos, particularly those in and around transit hubs, including active travellers, recreational movers and outdoor vendors. These groups face increasing exposure to extreme heat in a city where most residents live in poverty and lack access to climate-protective infrastructure. Building on Lagos State’s Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) Policy (2018) and emerging climate–health adaptation efforts, this project aims to generate evidence, map exposure, and co-create responses that make heat-related risks visible and actionable.

Through a combination of stakeholder engagement, participatory mapping, citizen science, and mixed-methods research, the project will:

• Identify and map heat-exposed populations and environments at Lagos transit hubs;
• Quantify links between heat exposure, health, and the built environment;
• Engage communities and decision-makers in co-created communication and policy strategies; and
• Inform infrastructure and behavioural interventions that protect heat-vulnerable populations and support NMT policy implementation.

The University of Lagos invites applications for a Senior Researcher to join this international research programme examining the health impacts of extreme heat on active travel and physical activity at transit hubs in Lagos.

This senior role combines academic leadership with project coordination and stakeholder engagement. The successful candidate will lead the University of Lagos research contribution while coordinating and ensuring high-quality research delivery, effective integration of work packages and strong collaboration between academic, civil society and government partners.

This is a transdisciplinary role suited to an experienced researcher with a strong track record in applied, policy-relevant urban research, and demonstrated experience in leading and managing complex, multi-partner research projects.

Key responsibilities

1. Research leadership and delivery

• Lead and coordinate the University of Lagos research contributions across multiple work packages, including policy analysis, qualitative research, participatory methods and spatial or environmental health components.
• Contribute substantively to the intellectual leadership of the project, refining research questions, methods and analytical frameworks in collaboration with co-investigators.
• Ensure research activities are delivered to a high academic standard, in line with approved protocols, timelines and ethics approvals.
• Lead or co-lead selected work packages, as agreed within the project governance structure.
• Contribute substantially to transforming research outputs into policy briefs, scientific papers and technical reports.

2. Project coordination and management

• Act as the primary coordination point for the overall project, working closely with the Principal Investigator and partners at Cambridge, UrbanBetter, Lagos Urban Development Initiative (LUDI), LAMATA and Ruban.
• Support integration across work packages, ensuring coherence between evidence generation, participatory research, intervention design and evaluation.
• Oversee research assistants and postdoctoral researchers based at the University of Lagos, providing academic supervision and mentoring.
• Contribute to project planning, monitoring and reporting, including progress updates, risk management and deliverables tracking.

3. Stakeholder engagement and transdisciplinary working

• Lead engagement with Lagos-based stakeholders including government agencies, civil society organisations, community representatives, academia and media actors.
• Support the design and delivery of stakeholder workshops and co-design processes, ensuring research insights are translated into actionable outputs.
• Work closely with non-academic partners to align research with policy windows, implementation realities and community priorities.

4. Ethics, governance and data stewardship

• Lead ethics submissions and ensure compliance with approved ethical frameworks at the University of Lagos and partner institutions.
• Oversee responsible data collection, management and documentation in line with agreed data governance and sharing principles.
• Contribute to oversight of research integrity, safeguarding and participant wellbeing in field-based activities.

5. Outputs, dissemination and impact

• Lead or co-author academic publications, policy briefs and practice-oriented outputs arising from the project.
• Support dissemination to policy and practitioner audiences in Lagos, nationally and internationally.
• Contribute to capacity building within the University of Lagos through mentoring, skills transfer and collaborative publication.

Person specification

Essential

• PhD (or equivalent doctoral-level experience) in public health, urban studies, geography, climate science, transport planning or a closely related field with at least 5 years’ experience.
• Be a maximum age of 40 years as at last birthday.
• Be a resident of Lagos or willing to relocate to Lagos.
• Demonstrated experience leading or managing externally funded research projects involving multiple partners.
• Strong track record of applied, policy-relevant research in urban, health or climate contexts.
• Experience working in transdisciplinary or participatory research settings.
• Excellent project coordination and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams.
• Experience engaging government multiple stakeholders or influencing policy processes.
• Experience collaborating with civil society or community-based organisations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience producing reports and academic outputs.
• Experience leading and managing field enumeration projects, including planning fieldwork, supervising enumerators, and ensuring data quality.
• Robust qualitative and quantitative analytical skills.
• Experience working in Nigerian urban contexts.

Desirable

• Experience with heat, climate or environmental exposure research.
• Familiarity with urban transport or active mobility policy processes.
• Prior supervision or mentoring of junior researchers.

Behavioural attributes

• Ability to work collaboratively across disciplines, institutions and sectors.
• High level of organisation, initiative and attention to detail.
• Comfortable working in complex, real-world research environments with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong sense of accountability and commitment to delivering high-quality, policy-relevant research.
• Respectful, inclusive and reflective approach to community and stakeholder engagement.