Research Associate in Responsible AI. Centre for Protecting Women Online

Location: Milton Keynes

Please quote reference: 21579

Terms: Full Time. Fixed-term (4 years)

Closing Date: 16th May 2024, noon

Interview date: 7th - 14th June via Teams

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 1-2 days 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.

This role will be associated with the Centre for Protecting Women Online, which is funded by a £7.7 million grant from Research England. The Centre for Protecting Women online 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 position is based on the Knowledge Media Institute (KMi - https://kmi.open.ac.uk/). KMi is a multidisciplinary corporate R&D lab for the Open University, committed to world class research activity at the forefront of data science, Artificial Intelligence and new media technology. KMi has, for almost 25 years, deployed research results to address real world scenarios that have led to innovation in education and commercial settings. KMi currently consists of around 80 researchers, has published more than 1000 scientific papers since its creation, and has been involved in over 100 EU and national projects. The research conducted under these projects covers a wide range of issues related to the use of technology for social good. The successful candidate will also work very closely with colleagues at the school of Computing & Communications, particularly with the Software Engineering and Design research group (http://sead.open.ac.uk)

The role

We are looking for a person who would seek to play an active part in building the research culture in the centre. 

We are seeking candidates who have a strong background in Large-scale data analytics (with particular interest on social media analytics), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Responsible AI with an interest in the intersection between technology, sociology, psychology, policy, and law.

The post holder will focus on research relating to Responsible AI, focusing on analysing online spaces and the effectiveness and dangers of existing technology and platforms on the protection of women online. We expect the successful candidate to conduct large-scale collection, aggregation, structuring and analysis of online data, to investigate the risks and opportunities of existing technology under a Responsible AI lens, and to work towards novel socio-technical solutions focused on protecting women online.

We welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds, including professionals from academia and industry. Applicants will be considered based on their track record in research and academic leadership. In line with our commitment to the Athena SWAN initiative and the Race Equality Charter, we welcome and support all applicants equally.

Skills and experience

• PhD, or close to completion, in Computer Science or a relevant area
• An existing track record of publications in a relevant area (commensurate with career stage)
• Knowledge and familiarity with research on online environments, particularly social media
• Solid theoretical foundation and practical experience with large-scale data analysis/statistics, machine learning, natural language processing, and responsible AI
• Good programming skills applied to a variety of domains and technologies
• A strong record of research and/or knowledge exchange that is commensurate to the position.