Research Fellow in Law

Location: Milton Keynes

Terms: Permanent, Full-Time post 37 hours per week

Closing date: 29^th March 2024, 12 noon

Flexible working patterns will be considered.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be approximately once or twice per week.

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.

About the Unit

The Faculty of Business and Law is one of the four faculties of The Open University. It brings together two Schools – The Open University Business School and The Open University Law School – and has a strong reputation as a high-quality and innovative provider of management and legal education.  Our courses and qualifications are studied by a wide range of people from all backgrounds – we are proud  of our strong social mission; to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We promote social justice and social mobility via genuine access to university education for all.

The Faculty employs around 130 academic staff, two thirds of whom are based at The Open University’s Milton Keynes campus and one third in the OU’s regional offices, aligned to the Faculty’s three Student Support Teams. The regional academics manage the Faculty’s 700 Associate Lecturers.  Around 80 academic-related and administrative members of staff support the Faculty.

We are committed to developing our staff to achieve their full potential and offer a range of formal and informal training and development opportunities to support individual and Faculty objectives.

About the Centre

The Centre for Protecting Women Online is funded by a £7.7 million grant from Research England. It will be a vehicle for understanding and addressing challenges posed to women’s safety online through a novel, interdisciplinary and ambitious research agenda. This will be combined with cross-sectoral, collaborative outputs and interventions which inform law, policy, technology development and practice to reduce online harms suffered by women and girls; minimise anti-social behaviours online whilst promoting pro-social behaviours and help build tech/ software that helps ensure accountability, credibility and helps facilitate justice. The work of the Centre will be delivered through a management and five interwoven Work Streams. Professor Jurasz leads on the Law & Policy stream.

The role  

The Open University is recruiting a highly motivated Research Fellow to work in the Centre for Protecting Women Online funded by Research England. The successful candidate will work closely with Professor Olga Jurasz, Director of the Centre for Protecting Women Online, who is based in the Law School and who leads the Centre’s cross-disciplinary research team. We are looking for an adaptive Research Fellow who would seek to play an active part in building a strong, open and innovative research culture in the Centre. The Research Fellow will use their research knowledge, skills and experience to contribute to the design and delivery of an ambitious research programme within the Law & Policy work stream. This includes (but is not limited to) initiating and leading on research projects, applying for external research funding, supervising PhD students, producing high quality outputs, working collaboratively with non-academic partners and stakeholders.

The postholder will be expected to contribute to research and administration within the Centre for Protecting Women Online. This includes proactive engagement in research, knowledge exchange and impact-related activities to deliver Centre’s objectives. They will work collaboratively with centre’s partners and researchers as well as Initiate and build new partnerships leading to applications for external research funding relevant to the Law & Policy stream. They will take a lead role in dissemination of research carried out within the Law & Policy stream of the Centre (including writing academic and non-academic publications; presentation of research findings at conferences and events; communicating research to non-academic and lay audiences via media).

Skills and experience

The candidate is expected to hold a PhD in a law relevant to the Centre’s work within the law & policy stream. They need to have substantial relevant experience of conducting research in collaboration with non-academic partners and/ or working with non-academic partners as well as knowledge and understanding of the current law and policy landscape concerning women’s online safety. Understanding of research funding landscape and a strong track record of applying for research funding is crucial to support centre’s development and income generation. The candidate will be expected to develop a high-quality publication record that is REF returnable and relevant to the work of the Law & Policy stream. A strong record of research and/or knowledge exchange that is commensurate to the position.

More information can be provided via a link to the Job Description.

If you would like to discuss the application or recruitment process before making an application, please contact Emma Jones at Resourcing Hub on 01908 655544 or resourcing-hub@open.ac.uk quoting the reference VRF 21521.

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.