Postdoctoral Research Associate

We are a large and vibrant Psychology Department guided by our University’s founding principles of breaking new ground, of challenging existing expectations, and of making a meaningful difference in the world.

To achieve these goals, we organise our research and our teaching under the broader theme of ‘Understanding Our Place In The World’. We approach our work within this novel framework across three areas of concentration: Thinking about the world, Interacting with the world, and Experiencing the world. This allows our staff to pursue their intellectual ambitions and to achieve research excellence, all while fostering an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach that utilises multiple methodologies.

We occupy purpose-built facilities including state-of-the-art EEG/ERP, eye-tracking, psychophysiology and computerised testing labs. Academics also have access to the Centre for Brain Science, which includes TMS, tDCS, tVNS, fNIRS, virtual reality, pain and human sexuality testing facilities.

We are internationally known for excellence in research, having been ranked in the top 20 in the UK for research power in the 2022 Research Excellence Framework. We also offer an excellent BPS-accredited education to our students, with undergraduate and post-graduate courses guided by the Department’s overarching ethos.

We were recently ranked 21st in the UK for overall student satisfaction in Psychology and we are proud to hold an Athena SWAN Silver Award (2020) for our work on promoting gender equality.

Psychology at Essex: Is this your place in the world?

The successful candidate will be appointed to the position of Senior Research Officer and this title will be referred to throughout the job pack and appointment paperwork.

Duties of the Role

You will have an active role in successfully delivering the research objectives of an international project organised jointly by European agencies CHANSE and NORFACE and financed within the UK by the ESRC entitled ‘Targeting Social Wellbeing to Improve Transitions to School’ (SWITCH).

You will work on a novel interdisciplinary and longitudinal approach that combines interviews, behavioural observations, self-reports and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning. You will study how social wellbeing affects mental health, overall well-being, and academic skills in UK school children while they transition from Reception to Year 1.

A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found within the job pack.

Qualifications and Skills required

You should have a relevant doctoral level degree in cognitive and / or developmental neuroscience / psychology or be close to completion and will possess a developing research agenda and research profile.

Previous experience working with fNIRS and programming skills required for coding experiments and analysing data, or clear capacity and willingness to learn (e.g., in R, MATLAB) are essential. Previous experience acquiring both quantitative and qualitative data from children and families would be beneficial.

You will also be required to complete a Basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

More information about the exact person specification with all essential and desirable elements can be found in the job pack.

Please use the 'Apply' button to read further information about this role including the full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role. You will also find details of how to make your application here. Our website http://www.essex.ac.uk contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability and would like information in a different format, please email resourcing@essex.ac.uk. 

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