Postdoctoral Research Associate - Reimagining Governance for a Flourishing Research Culture

Contract Duration: 12 Months

We are very excited to be offering an opportunity a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) (maternity cover) to join our research team. The team includes the co-applicants: Professor Ari Saranandom (Department of Biosciences), Professor Fuschia Sirois (Department of Psychology), Dr Ladan Cockshut (Assistant Professor for Research Culture and Co-I for Evaluation), Dr Beth Upex (Head of Technical Skills, Department of Archaeology) and Andrew Moss (Research Culture Manager, Research and Innovation Services), 3 PDRAs, an external consultant and a Senior Project Manager. We are a cross-departmental and cross faculty team and will be based in a collaborative space.

This role will be responsible for conducting ethnographic research into governance across selected research institutes and will co-design and deliver pilot projects aimed at improving governance structures. This post-holder will be an integral member of our research team, working with colleagues from a diverse range of departments and disciplines to deliver this ambitious project.

The successful applicant will be expected to:

• Conduct ethnographic research, including interviews and participant observation, across selected university research institutes
• Conduct literature reviews and examine documentation relating to research governance
• Use an action research approach to deliver co-designed research governance interventions
• Use a mixed methods approach to collect and analyse data, including ethnographic research in committees, creating and deploying surveys via Qualtrics and analysing quantitative data using SPSS

The post-holder will be expected to:

• Participate in regular meetings of the research team
• Produce and deliver periodic updates for the Project Oversight Group (POG)
• Publish high quality outputs, including project reports, papers for submission to peer reviewed journals and papers for presentation at conferences and workshops
• Pursue opportunities for professional and career development, including training opportunities and conference attendance.