Research Assistant : 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 Research Assistant 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 research assistant role offers an unprecedented opportunity to work with cross-disciplinary researchers across multiple leading institutions with international collaborators across 5 continents. It is ideally suited for a junior researcher looking to broaden their research experience in clinical neuroscience and gain experience in computational methods. The post holder will be supported to develop their research portfolio, with a potential to work towards a postdoctoral research degree (DPhil, i.e., PhD).

The postholder will lead the patient recruitment from NHS psychiatry clinics, manage the day-to-day logistics of the study, and conduct fMRI sessions and online behavioural experiments. The Research Assistant will act as a key clinical research link between academic centres and NHS clinical sites, and work closely with the research team.

About You

The ideal candidate will have a demonstrable interest in developing research competencies and enthusiasm for quantitative methods, cognitive neuroscience and willingness to gain expertise in programming. You will have an understanding of basic principles underlying functional neuroimaging analysis and/or quantitative analysis of behavioural data, and have previous research experience (e.g. undergraduate/postgraduate studies.

Research experience in conducting experimental projects in related fields and experimental studies involving clinical populations would be desirable.

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 7 July.

Advert information