The VinUniversity Center for Innovations in Health Sciences (IHS) is committed to advancing innovative solutions that promote health, wellness, and disease prevention, enhance early detection, and deliver accessible precision medicine for prevalent health challenges in Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and beyond. IHS aim to be the leading authority on healthcare access and social determinants of health that impact health outcomes in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, with the goal of developing policies, practices, and interventions that improve health and well-being for all.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

IHS is looking for highly motivated postdoctoral researchers who are committed to advancing impactful, mission-driven science contributing to the Center’s growing research ecosystem of interdisciplinary health research.

The postdoctoral researcher will join a 36 –month project named: Strengthening Primary-Care Mental-Health Systems in Southeast Asia, focused on improving mental well-being and mental healthcare in Vietnam, Asia and beyond, with the goal of generating new insights into approaches/models that can provide rapid, automated screening, diagnosis, and management of mental health conditions. The project aims to address mental health issues, to develop, implement, evaluate, and support the scale-up of integrated primary-care mental-health service models across Southeast Asian health systems. Working within a multidisciplinary team at IHS, the postdoctoral researcher will contribute to the full research cycle, including literature review, study design, data collection and analysis, and the translation and dissemination of research findings. The postdoctoral researcher will actively contribute to the preparation of scientific outputs that directly advance the project’s research aims and broader institutional priorities.

KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Roles & Responsibilities:

The successful candidate will be the driving force behind the project’s success and will be expected to:

Research Implementation and Coordination

• Support the design, implementation, and management of mental-health research studies
• Coordinate data collection, fieldwork, and site activities across Vietnam
• Liaise with collaborating institutions and consortium partners
• Ensure adherence to research protocols, timelines, and ethics requirements
• Contribute to project monitoring, documentation, and progress reporting

Data Analysis and Scientific Publications

• Lead or contribute to quantitative and/or qualitative data analysis
• Prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed international journals
• Contribute to technical reports, policy briefs, and dissemination outputs
• Support preparation of conference abstracts and presentations

Grant Development and Research Expansion

• Contribute to the development of national and international grant proposals
• Conduct literature reviews and support study design and methodology
• Assist with budgeting, workplans, and proposal documentation
• Support expansion of regional mental-health research initiatives

Consortium and Partnership Engagement

• Support coordination of Southeast Asia mental-health collaborations
• Participate in cross-country meetings and collaborative research activities
• Facilitate communication with national and regional partners and stakeholders
• Contribute to comparative and multi-country analyses

Capacity Building and Mentorship

• Supervise and mentor research assistants and students
• Contribute to training workshops and research capacity development
• Support development of research protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
• Contribute to strengthening research infrastructure at the College of Health Sciences

Required Qualifications

• PhD in public health, mental health, psychology, psychiatry, health sciences, epidemiology, or a related field
• Demonstrated research focus research focus in mental health, population health, or health-systems research, with particular interest in mental-health and integrated care in low- and middle-income settings
• Strong methodological training (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods)
• Evidence of peer-reviewed publications
• Experience conducting health research in low- or middle-income settings

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in mental-health or health-systems research in Asia or other LMIC contexts
• Experience with multi-site or international research projects
• Grant-writing or funded research experience
• Knowledge of implementation science or health-systems strengthening
• Experience working with clinical or community populations
• Familiarity with statistical software (e.g., Stata, R, SPSS) and/or qualitative software (e.g., NVivo)

Professional and Personal Attributes

• Strong organizational and project-management skills
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in international teams
• Excellent scientific writing and communication skills in English
• Proficiency in Vietnamese (written and spoken)
• Commitment to advancing mental-health equity and health-systems strengthening
• Interest in a long-term academic or global-health research career
• Ability to mentor junior researchers and students

Appointment Details:

• Salary: Competitive, in the range of 30,000 – 40,000 USD per annum, commensurate with experience.
• Contract: The position is offered on a yearly contract basis. subject to availability of funds, project needs, satisfactory performance, and approval from IHS.
• Principal Investigator: A successful candidate will work under management of Professor Tam Truong Donnelly. Professor Tam Truong Donnelly’s research focuses on mental health, health equity, and the health of diverse populations. Her work examines depression, access to mental-health care, and psychosocial determinants of health across diverse communities. She also conducts research on women’s cancer screening, HIV prevention, and lifestyle risk factors for chronic diseases, with an emphasis on culturally responsive interventions and health-system approaches to improving prevention, care access, and population health outcomes. Additional details about her work can be found here https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=EdgmnPgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

• How to Apply: Interested candidates are invited to submit a cover letter detailing their research experience and motivation for this specific project, along with a comprehensive CV, to the Principal Investigator. Please include “Postdoc Application in Mental Health Research” in the subject line of your email.