Research Associate – Research Integrity and Complexity

Role: Research Associate – Research Integrity & Complexity

Grade and Salary: Grade 7, £36,924 - £46,485 per annum

FTE and working pattern: 1 FTE, 35hrs per week, Monday – Friday

Contract: 6 Months Fixed-Term

Holiday Entitlement: 33 days annual leave plus 9 buildings closed days (and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday)

Purpose of Role

We seek an ambitious and creative postdoctoral research associate (PDRA) for a period of 6 months, starting in April 2025 or soon thereafter.

The PDRA will be working within the auspices of the WIDERA consortium project BEYOND (Beyond Bad Apples: Towards A Behavioural and Evidence-Based Approach To Promote Research Ethics And Research Integrity In Europe) under the guidance of Dr Daniele Fanelli, in a nascent Metascience Lab located in the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University.

With the overall objective of advancing Metascience and helping scientific progress of all disciplines, the PDRA will actively contribute to the development and testing of new methods to measure the complexity of scientific studies, using a combination of Natural Language Processing, Graphical Knowledge Representation, and other techniques. 

The post is for a period of 6 months full time. Candidates who wish to extend their position will be encouraged to lead or collaborate on new grant applications for this purpose.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

1. Help in the development and testing of methods to analyse how the complexity of a field's subject matter and methodology.
2. Take part in dissemination activities, such as conferences, workshops and contributions to publications.
3. Help with general management of the project and research group (e.g. web page, meeting notes, social media).

Essential & Desirable Criteria

Essential

1. Solid quantitative skills. 
2. Familiarity with Natural Language Processing techniques.

Desirable

1. A demonstrable interest in the objectives of the project.
2. Knowledge and practical understanding of fundamental concepts in information theory (e.g. Shannon Entropy, Kolmogorov complexity).

How to Apply

Applications can be submitted up to midnight (UK time) on Monday 24th March 2025.

Please submit the following via the Heriot-Watt online recruitment portal

1. Full CV including list of publications.
2. A 1-page cover letter describing your suitability for the post.
3. Contact details of two references that can be contacted after a successful interview.

For any enquiries about this position please contact Dr Daniele Fanelli ([email protected]).

We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g., part-time working and job share options.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised, and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities.  Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our university community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/services/equality-diversity.htm and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers https://disc.hw.ac.uk/ .

Use our total rewards calculator: https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/work/total-rewards-calculator.htm to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.

About Heriot-Watt University

At Heriot-Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team.

Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.