Post Doctoral Research Associate in Policing

Weekly Working Hours: 18.5

Fixed Term Contract: End Date: 20 months from start date

Job Description: 

About the role

We are seeking to appoint a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) to join the Policing stream of the Centre for Protecting Women Online (CPWO), funded by Research England. The successful candidate will work closely with Dr Keely Duddin (Lecturer in Policing), and other CPWO stream leads, to support and develop research that explores the policing of online harms against women and girls.

This role is ideal for a dynamic and collaborative researcher with an interest in applied, impact-led work in the areas of gender-based violence, digital abuse, and public protection. You will play a key role in supporting current research projects, co-developing new funding bids, and building cross-sector partnerships, particularly with policing, criminal justice, and civil society organisations. A successful candidate would also contribute to Centre’s publications and knowledge exchange activities. Relevant training and professional development opportunities will be made available.

We are especially keen to hear from applicants with a background in criminology, psychology, policing studies, socio-legal studies, or a closely related field.

Project Description

The Centre for Protecting Women Online is a research unit dedicated to tackling online harms affecting women and girls through a novel, interdisciplinary research agenda. Our work spans five interwoven streams – policing, law and policy, human behaviour, technology, and design – to produce collaborative outputs and interventions that inform national and international responses to gendered digital harm. Please visit our Centre website CPWO Centre link and LinkedIn page LinkedIn CPWO link for further details.

The policing stream focuses on the readiness, capability, and response of UK police forces to emerging online threats, such as, for example, deepfake abuse, online stalking, AI-enabled VAWG, hybrid online–offline coercive control, cyberflashing, and the misuse of smart devices for surveillance and control. The successful candidate will support and grow this work, feeding into real-time research, knowledge exchange, and practice-led outputs with national impact.

Key Responsibilities

The person appointed will be expected to contribute to the research, knowledge exchange and administration. The main responsibilities of the role include:

• Play an active part in building and supporting the Centre’s research culture.
• Initiate and contribute to innovative funding bids in collaboration with other researchers.
• Support the development and submission of funding bids in the Centre including working on systematic literature reviews, data and impact plans, networking with non-academic stakeholders and partners, working with internal research staff and scoping of potential funding sources.
• Assist with producing research outputs, including presentation and publication.
• Contribute to and support delivery of knowledge exchange and impact activities.
• Contribute and support current research related activities and projects in the Centre.
• Contribute to the delivery of the University’s research and knowledge exchange strategy.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of the University’s local, national and international academic and community networks related to Centre-related research.
• Work closely with key members of the Centre to support and enhance the postgraduate research culture.

Skills and Experience

Essential

• A PhD in Criminology, Psychology, Policing Studies, Sociology, or a related field (or evidence of near completion).
• Demonstrable knowledge of gender-based violence and/or technology-facilitated violence against women and girls (TF-VAWG).
• Familiarity with research on online environments and digital harms, particularly social media and emerging tech-enabled threats.
• Expertise in social science research methods, including qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods.
• Experience of writing or communicating research findings to non-specialist audiences, including practitioners or policymakers.
• An existing track record of publications in a relevant area (commensurate with career stage).
• Excellent IT, data management, and organisational skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and experience working collaboratively as part of a research or interdisciplinary team.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and respond flexibly to changing research demands.
• A demonstrable commitment to equality, ethical research practices, and continuous professional development.

Desirable

• Experience of grant bidding to external funders.
• Experience of working and interacting with external organisations, particularly policing and criminal justice agencies and/or culturally diverse communities.
• Experience of working in cross-disciplinary research teams.
• Experience of PhD supervision.
• Experience of designing and carrying out empirical research with practitioners and/or victims.

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

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 once a month.

To apply for this role please submit the following as one document;

• CV
• Personal statement, up to 1,000 words, you should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job and person specification.

Please Note: We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

The Open University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion which is reflected in our mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment so that all in our OU community can reach their potential. We recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength. We strive to recruit, retain and develop the careers of a diverse pool of students and staff, and particularly encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We also aspire to make The Open University a supportive workplace for all through our policies, services and staff networks.