Research Assistant, Polifonia

Location: Milton Keynes

Terms: Part-time, fixed term, 50% FTE (or > 50%, by negotiation). To start no later than May (or as early as possible). Post must end by April 2024.

Closing Date: 27^th Feb 2023 - 12:00 midday

Job share and flexible working patterns will be considered.

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. This project is a collaboration between the Music Computing Lab and the Knowledge Media Institute.

The role

The role is part of the €3M Polifonia project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Programme. The overall goal of this project is to create new technologies for interacting with music. This role will be focused on the ACCESS Pilot, based at the Open University in Milton Keynes, whose aim is to explore technologically mediated ways to improve inclusion and engagement in musical activities via innovative haptic, gestural, and visual interaction. In particular, ACCESS explores:  

• Haptic interaction for rhythm (including for those with hearing impairments). 
• Gestural interaction for harmony (including for those with physical or cognitive disabilities). 
• Systems for deeper public engagement with music, for example at public events.
• Novel, intuitive forms of music search for use within the Polifonia ecosystem.

We are seeking an enthusiastic researcher with skills in interactive music computing to work as a Research Assistant (RA) to support the management, evaluation, and refinement of interactive music systems developed for the project, and to support their use by target users.

Skills and experience

• A first degree or equivalent in music technology, music computing, human computer interaction, computer science, music, education, or a cognate discipline.
• Formal or informal musical skills. Active interest in making music with other people.
• Skills with one or more music programming languages (for example, Max, Pure Data, Supercollider, Web Audio, Python or JavaScript with music libraries).
• Good academic writing and personal communication skills.

The full summary of duties and person specification can be found within the Job Description. If you would like to discuss this role, please contact Simon Holland at s.holland@open.ac.uk . If you would like to discuss the application or recruitment process, please contact Simon Malkin at Resourcing Hub on 01908 655544 or alicja.hyla@open.ac.uk quoting the reference 20736 Research Assistant, Polifonia.

What you get in return

We have a strong commitment to providing training and development in and beyond your current role. This includes thorough induction into the organisation and regular reviews of your training and development needs.

We also offer a great range of benefits that support our employees and their families for the long term. Staff Benefits include an attractive pension proposition and 33 days holiday per annum pro rata, plus Bank Holidays and Christmas closure days.

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