Research Fellow (WARSHARE)

Full-time: 35 hours per week

Fixed-term: for up to 60 months, no later than 31 August 2030 

The Opportunity:

The WARSHARE project is investigating how and why digital participation is transforming how individuals and societies (including militaries and states) fight, experience, and understand (perceive, explain, and de/legitimise) warfare. The project will use AI methods to mine and measure online behaviour at scale, across multiple modes of communication (messages, images, video, memes and emojis) that shape participation and meaning in warfare. 

You will lead and manage a range of individual and collaborative research activities across the WARSHARE project; devise and oversee the research strategy; and, lead the design and management of Work Package 1 (‘Participative war, form and content’) with responsibility for the day-to-day project, budget and research activities.

You will also undertake research including developing and fine-tuning large language models and topic modelling methods.

This role will require working with participants traumatised by experiences of war, and with graphic/explicit images, videos and messages depicting acts of violence, human suffering, injury and death.

This post is fixed term from as early as 1 September 2025 to no later than 31 August 2030.

This post is full-time (35 hours per week).

The salary range for this post is £49,559 to £60,907 per annum. 

Your skills and attributes for success:

• A PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant subject (Artificial Intelligence, or Data Science), with training or skills relevant to the project (Python-based data collection and data visualisation methods; training in the application of LLM-based analytical methods for both text and image). 
• Experience, expertise and demonstrated success in delivering complex research projects with knowledge exchange built in, and a sound understanding of the potential impacts of the research and ways of engaging to achieve these, particularly through social media for various audiences (e.g. academic publications, practitioners and policy-makers).
• Extensive post-doctoral or equivalent work experience, and advanced knowledge in conceptual and theoretical work on the application of LLM-based analytical methods for both text and image to social media platforms, and of conducting computational analysis of social media.
• Proven ability to devise and manage a strategic work-plan and to collaboratively deliver multiple research activities with others. 

Informal questions about this post can be directed to the Hiring Manger, Professor Andrew Hoskins, Principal Investigator, via email at andrew.hoskins@ed.ac.uk  

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