Research Associate (CH11677)

Job title Research Associate

Department Psychology

Salary Starting from £37,099, rising to £44,263

Grade Grade 7

Contract Type Full Time, Fixed Term

Placed on Friday 10 May 2024

Closing date Sunday 02 June 2024

Interview date Friday 21 June 2024

Reference CH11677

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We are seeking a highly motivated and skilled postdoctoral Research Associate to join our interdisciplinary team based within the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, under the leadership of Professor Laura Smith.

The successful candidate will be working on the human-centred design theme of the EPSRC AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI) Hub. The Hub's ambition is to pursue cutting edge research at the intersection between the fields of applied AI and Collective Intelligence across five application domains (Pandemic Resilience, Smart cities, Financial Stability, Health Ecosystems and Environmental Intelligence) and two cross-cutting themes (Human-Centred Design and Infrastructure and Governance).

Research within each application domain and cross-cutting theme will be pursued by a team of academics, postdocs and PhDs working with academic and non-academic stakeholder partners from relevant sectors.

About the role

The human-centered design theme has two purposes: first, to integrate an understanding of how humans interact and behave in sociotechnical systems into the design of smart agents for each application domain, and second, to address research questions of when, how, and why smart agents and collective intelligence can create tipping points for collective behaviour change.

In this role, you will support academics from multiple disciplines to design and conduct research studies that contribute towards our understanding of how people behave and interact with smart agents within socio-technical systems. This means you may also have the opportunity to work with distinguished scholars throughout our academic community at Bath and beyond.

There is a strong expectation that you will actively contribute to the strong profile of online behaviour and digital technology research work at Bath and its interdisciplinary ethos through participation in the development and publication of research results in major international conferences and journals. You will also be involved with synthesising and disseminating outputs from relevant work as part of a wider programme of knowledge exchange at the AI4CI hub.

The post is full-time for an expected duration of 30 months, to start on or soon after 1st July 2024. Informal enquiries can be made to Prof Laura Smith ([email protected]).

About you

The ideal candidate will:

have a relevant PhD in Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, Computational Social Science, or a related discipline,

have a good knowledge of social psychology and collective behaviour,

be interested in applying social psychological insights to the development of systems for collective intelligence,

have a strong commitment to pursuing applied research in a collaborative and inter-disciplinary setting,

have an interest in AI, machine learning, mathematical modelling, and/or digital technology,

be familiar with one or more programming languages. This might include experience using R, Python, HP, Java, or HTML,

have advanced skills in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

What we can offer you:

a very generous employer contributory pension scheme

generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance

we are a family-friendly University and with an increasingly agile workforce, are open to flexible working arrangements

an excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce

a wide range of personal and professional development opportunities

a number of support options available for new and existing staff to help with the cost of some immigration expenses which you may be eligible for: Relocation allowance, Visa Reimbursement, Interest-Free Loan.

Find out more about our benefits.

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year.

We consider ourselves to be an inclusive university, where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students, so we encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on our teams.

We are very proud to be an autism friendly university and are an accredited Disability Confident Leader; committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff.

Find out from our staff what makes the University of Bath a great place to work. Follow us @UniofBath and @UniofBathJobs on Twitter for more information.

Further details:

Job Description & Person Specification

Terms and Conditions of Employment

We are constantly seeking to reduce the unconscious bias that enters any assessment process, with the goal of creating an inclusive and equal assessment process. To support this, personal details will be removed from application forms at the initial shortlisting stage.