Senior Research Associate in Sustainable ICT

The role

This is an exciting opportunity to join the recently awarded UK-funded CANDISE project (EP/X038858/1).Together with our globally leading industrial (including Akamai, BT, Meta, Netflix, and Sony) and academic partners from the US and the EU you will study how technological innovation towards the low carbon economy transforms the sector's environmental footprint, and how to synergistically align all stakeholders.

Current thinking about the carbon footprint of digital services tends to take a short-term view. Together with our globally leading industrial and academic partners you will study the systemic, long-term environmental impact from changes to the design, provision, and use of digital services and empower all stakeholders to make better-informed decisions for carbon reduction, contributing to carbon reduction goals in the ICT industry.

Environmental impacts are shaped by decision taken and influenced by a wide set of technical and non-technical factors and studying their effects requires a multidisciplinary approach. You will work closely with our partners and based on your deep understanding of ICT systems you will apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approaches and systems thinking to consider how human-computer interaction, the dynamics of electricity generation and consumption, and regulation shape the future impact from manufacturing, use and end-of-life of digital devices and services.

You will join an internationally-leading team with a strong record of research, industrial collaboration, and real-world impact.

This is an open-ended appointment for initially 2 years, with the possibility to extend. The role is offered full or part-time. You would be expected to work in the office 2 days per week.

What will you be doing?

• You will conduct original research studying the future carbon impacts of high-bandwidth digital services, including video streaming, gaming and virtual reality.
• For your assessments of the life-cycle carbon impacts you will interview and design workshops between engineers, designers and business managers from organisations across the supply chain.
• You will co-author high-impact publications and collaborate with other researchers in the team.

You will be part of a highly inclusive and supportive team and wider work environment at the University of Bristol. We provide training to support your needs, and time is allocated for professional development.

You should apply if

• You have a PhD or equivalent expertise in a relevant, related field and a track record of leading high-impact academic publications.
• Demonstrable experience in quantitative data analysis and excellent communication skills are an essential for this role.
• Experience of qualitative research skills or an openness to learn these would be desirable.

Additional information

For informal queries please contact Daniel Schien at Daniel.schien@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 24 April 2024.

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.

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