Senior Research Associate

Linguistics and English Language within the School of Social Sciences at Lancaster University is seeking to appoint a Senior Research Associate to work on a subproject of the Common European Language Indication and Analysis (CELIA) project. The EU-funded CELIA project aims to innovate, optimise and improve the language analysis procedures that EU+ migration authorities use when investigating asylum seekers’ identities and countries of origin. 

In close collaboration with colleagues at the University of York, the Lancaster-led subproject specifically contributes towards the methodological development and testing of automatic and semi-automatic language indications for Arabic language variants. The subproject turns to solutions in linguistics, speech science and speech technology to feed into this strand of the CELIA project. In line with the guiding principles of the CELIA project, the specific methods in focus promote explainability, transparency and use of reliable gold-standard training data.  

Key Responsibilities

• Adapt and test existing automatic accent/dialect classification technology
• Generate results and data visualisations to reflect system performance under different conditions
• Collaborate with the project team to objectively evaluate system performance
• Contribute to the development of project reports and academic outputs

It is not expected that the postholder will be already familiar with automatic accent/dialect classification systems, but they will have demonstrable experience in learning, using and testing new methods and language technologies. In addition, the postholder will have demonstrated that they can meet project deadlines and report results through a range of presentation modes (e.g., oral presentations, written reports and publications).

The postholder will have a PhD in speech science, speech technology, linguistics, data science, computer science or related discipline. Ideally, they will have experience in working with large datasets of speech recordings or language through programming with a language like Python or similar. 

A parallel post is also being advertised at the University of York for a researcher with specialisms in Arabic. 

The successful applicant will be in post by 1^st December 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter. The post is full-time and fixed term for 24 months. The role will be based at our Bailrigg campus in Lancaster, but agile working may be possible in this role, providing the opportunity for the postholder to split their working time between on and off campus.

Lancaster University is highly ranked and research-led and situated near the historic city of Lancaster. The North West of England offers high standards of living, beautiful countryside, including the Lake District, and excellent national and international transport connectivity. For more information, see Jobs - Lancaster University.

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