Postdoctoral Researcher : Cognitive, Computational and Clinical Neuroscience

The University of Oxford is a stimulating work environment, which enjoys an international reputation as a world-class centre of excellence. Our research plays a key role in tackling many global challenges, from reducing our carbon emissions to developing vaccines during a pandemic.

The Department of Psychiatry is based on the Warneford Hospital site in Oxford – a friendly, welcoming place of work with an international reputation for excellence. The Department has a substantial research programme, with major funding from Medical Research Council (MRC), Wellcome Trust and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and provides highly rated medical training in psychiatry. The Head of Department is Professor Belinda Lennox.

We are seeking a motivated Postdoctoral Researcher for an exciting 2-year position funded by a Wellcome Neuroscience in Mental Health award. The GPS (Goal Planning in Psychosis) study is a unique cross-disciplinary, cross-species programme investigating how prefrontal cortex dysfunction leads to cognitive and planning impairment in psychosis. The project combines task-based fMRI in individuals with psychosis, online behavioural experiments, and cutting-edge natural language processing (large language models) to investigate the brain computations supporting planning in humans, and how this can go awry in psychosis.

What We Offer

As an employer, we genuinely care about our employees’ wellbeing and this is reflected in the range of benefits that we offer including:

• An excellent contributory pension scheme
• 38 days annual leave
• A comprehensive range of childcare services
• Family leave schemes
• Cycle loan scheme
• Discounted bus travel and Season Ticket travel loans
• Membership to a variety of social and sports clubs

About the Role

This Postdoctoral Researcher role offers an unprecedented opportunity to shape research direction while working with cross-disciplinary researchers across multiple leading institutions with international collaborators across 5 continents.

The postholder will be involved in the development and implementation of novel behavioural and fMRI tasks and analyses, including tasks and analysis using AI language models (LLMs). The postdoctoral researcher will co-lead the ethical application process for clinical fMRI and online behavioural studies and supervise research assistants. They will be supported to develop their own research ideas and apply for personal fellowships.

About You

The ideal candidate will hold (or near completion of) a PhD/DPhil in computational cognitive neuroscience/psychology, computer science, or relevant quantitative field, and a demonstrably strong track record of scientific publication and novel idea generation. You will have strong programming skills and expertise with computational methods for neural/behavioural data analysis. You will have experience in conducting task-based functional neuroimaging and/or behavioural experiments, and excellent scientific communication skills.

Desirable criteria include a background in directly relevant areas of cognitive neuroscience (such as executive function, planning, abstract reasoning), and previous experience conducting or leading neuroscience/psychology studies in clinical populations.

Diversity

Committed to equality and valuing diversity

Our active Psychiatry People and Culture teams and initiatives work to make the Department of Psychiatry as supportive, welcoming and inclusive as possible.

Application Process

You will be required to upload a covering letter/supporting statement, CV and the details of two referees as part of your online application.

The closing date for applications is 12.00 midday on 23 June 2025.

Interviews will take place during week commencing 21 July.

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