Postdoctoral Research Associate

Contract Duration: 14 months

Disclosure and Barring Service Requirement: 

Please note that the successful applicant will require DBS disclosure.

The Role

A 14-month fixed-term full time Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position is available at the Department of Psychology at Durham University. The successful candidate will join the research project The plasticity of the bodily self: how function and age shape the acceptance of virtual bodies. This project is led by Professor Dorothy Cowie and funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council.

This project is a collaboration between Psychology and Computer Science. As Psychology PDRA, the successful applicant will be required to liaise with the Computing staff and VR developers in the project to build environments which allow you to rigorously and effectively test your hypotheses. Your responsibilities will be to design and run experiments using these environments and to write these up, in collaboration with a team of co-authors, for publication. Additionally you will be expected to disseminate findings at conferences, and engage in outreach and networking with families and the VR developer community. The project is therefore suited for a clear communicator who is excited about working as part of an interdisciplinary team, but who also has a solid experimental psychology training base. There is a technical aspect to the project so the person must have an aptitude for technical work. Since most experiments involve a child sample, the person must be also able to personally engage children and their families and collect high-quality data from children including as part of longitudinal studies. Likewise, the person must be able to independently liaise with school teachers and outreach contacts to arrange testing in schools.

This is a great opportunity to work as part of a friendly team on a cutting-edge project which has both a clear theoretical focus and an applied angle. The PDRA will have access to outstanding resources including equipment, dedicated technical support, a large developmental database and related resources, and travel funding for conferences and collaboration. You may have some support in collecting data but must be prepared to personally collect data.

The successful candidate will have a strong academic track record, including experience in designing, carrying out, analysing and interpreting high quality quantitative research on human perception, motor control, and/or cognition. Experience with any of the following topics and approaches will be a strong advantage:

• Virtual reality
• Movement analysis
• Psychophysiological recording
• Developmental testing

However, we do not necessarily expect candidates to have experience in all of these, and we can provide training as needed on those which are unfamiliar.

You will report to Prof. Cowie as the PI on the grant.

This post is fixed term for 14 months.

The funding is available from 02/09/24 for this fixed period only;

the project is time limited and will end on 31/10/25.

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