Research Associate/Senior Research Associate (Engagement Associate): Policy & Regulation to Address Privacy and Online Harms

The role

REPHRAIN, National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online, is looking for an interdisciplinary researcher with experience in policy and regulatory approaches to addressing online harms.

REPHRAIN is the UK’s world-leading interdisciplinary community focussed on the protection of citizens online. A UKRI-funded National Research Centre, REPHRAIN has over 100 researchers at 17 UK institutions working across 46 diverse projects. REPHRAIN also works collaboratively with 23 founding industry, non-profit, government, law, regulation and international research centre partners as well as a wider set of policy and practice stakeholders. The Centre’s aim is to address the current tensions and imbalances between the substantial benefits to be gained by full participation in the digital economy, and the potential for harm through loss of privacy, security, disinformation and a myriad of other online harms. 

What will you be doing?

This role will support the delivery of the cross-cutting strand, Policy and Regulation. This strand analyses the policy and regulatory implications of protecting people including minors and vulnerable individuals against the broad range of online harms they encounter in the digital world.

The post holder will assist researchers and academics across the REPHRAIN project portfolio in achieving real-world impact by helping their research be communicated to policy stakeholders and ultimately used in policy processes –  nationally and internationally. The successful candidate will work with the Centre’s Executive Team to drive the delivery of policy engagement activities. The post holder will work with project researchers to develop policy engagement strategies, draft policy briefs and reports and deliver engaging events that bring policymakers and academics together. 

You should apply if

• Knowledge of the multiple, fragmented and overlapping national and international online harms laws.
• Knowledge of the main national and international policy and regulatory developments relevant to online harms.
• Familiar with the main academic debates surrounding online harms in the fields of policy and/or regulation.
• Sufficient understanding of PETs to explore their implications, from policy and regulatory perspectives, for online harms.
• Experience of drafting policy briefs or reports for multiple stakeholders.

For a full view of requirements please look at the job description attached below.

Additional information

For informal queries please contact Professor Awais Rashid (awais.rashid@bristol.ac.uk) or Yvonne Rigby (y.rigby@bristol.ac.uk).

To find out more about what it's like to work in the Faculty of Engineering, and how the Faculty supports people to achieve their potential, please see our staff blog:

https://engineeringincludesme.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/

Interviews are anticipated to be held on 13th November 2023.

Our strategy and mission

We recently launched our strategy to 2030 tying together our mission, vision and values.

The University of Bristol aims to be a place where everyone feels able to be themselves and do their best in an inclusive working environment where all colleagues can thrive and reach their full potential. We want to attract, develop, and retain individuals with different experiences, backgrounds and perspectives – particularly people of colour, LGBT+ and disabled people - because diversity of people and ideas remains integral to our excellence as a global civic institution.

Advert information