Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Principal Investigator: Dr Hang Zhou)

University of Nottingham Ningbo China

Business School

Area

Opportunities at the University of Nottingham in Ningbo China

This job position will be at Nottingham University Business School China. Dr Hang Zhou’s research team is seeking outstanding Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join the postdoctoral research station in business administration for the development of University of Nottingham Ningbo China research agenda. 

Your Responsibility

Your key responsibilities include:

• To formulate and articulate research objectives, alongside developing proposals for both individual and the research team project (Artificial Intelligence applications in banking system), utilizing established methodologies and techniques to execute research effectively within the specified area; 
• To analyze data meticulously, interpret findings, evaluate scholarly texts, and contribute innovative insights, while adhering to project deadlines and collaborating seamlessly with team members and partners;
• To write up research work for publication and/or contribute to the dissemination at national/international conferences, resulting in successful research outputs;
• To identify opportunities and assist in writing bids for research grant applications; 
• To build relationships with both internal and external contacts in order to exchange information, to form relationships for future collaborations and identify potential sources of funds and/or opportunities for collaboration. 
   

About You

• The candidate must have obtained a PhD degree within 3 years and in the relevant areas of Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence, Credit Risk Modeling and Operations Optimization Modeling;
• The candidate must have strong programming skills in Python, and preferably be familiar with the Pandas, Scikit-learn, Pytorch and Flask packages.
• Ability to creatively apply relevant research approaches, models, techniques and methods, especially in the area of machine learning. 
• Some practical experience of applying the specialist skills and approaches and techniques required for the role.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, including the ability to communicate with clarity on complex information. Excellent communication skills in Chinese is a plus.
• Ability to build relationships and collaborate with others, both internally and externally.

About Us

Join a unique British University in China. Join a unique British University in China. University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) was the first Sino-foreign university to open its doors in China. Located in Ningbo, this award winning campus offering a UK-style education has grown to establish a student body of over 10,000 in just 21 years.

About Postdoctoral research station in Business Administration. Postdoctoral research station in Business Administration was approved to establish in Nov 2023. It is UNNC’s first postdoctoral research station, and its founding deeply aligns with the national strategic needs in promoting talent cultivation and innovation as well as that of UNNC. UNNC’s undergraduate programme of Business Administration was launched in 2004 and the doctoral programme in 2009. The subject has been listed among the world’s top academic subjects by Shanghai Ranking for four consecutive years. The discipline of Business Administration has also established teaching and research platforms at multiple levels and carried out in-depth industry university research cooperation with world renowned enterprises such as Microsoft and Amazon. In the future, UNNC will incorporate the development of the postdoctoral research station into the agenda of the university to provide talent support in efforts to promote scientific and technological innovation as well as economic and social development.

About the Research Team 

Our research team are recipients of funding under the Yongjiang Talent Introduction Project (甬江引才工程) scheme from Ningbo Municipal Government for Research on credit risk assessment and decision support application based on Ningbo financial intelligence ( 基于宁波金融智能化的信用风险评估和决策支持应用研究 ). Key team members are:

Dr. Hang ZHOU is Assistant Professor in Finance. He received his PhD from the university of Edinburgh. Prior to Joining UNNC in October 2020, he was assistant professor in Finance at the University of Edinburgh (2017-2020). His research spans over topics in empirical Asset Pricing, Credit Risk, and the applications of Machine Learning.

Dr. Anthony Bellotti is Professor in the Department of Computer Science at UNNC. He received his PhD in machine learning from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2006 and was a Research Fellow in the Credit Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh from 2007 to 2010. He was senior lecturer at Imperial College London until 2019. His main research area is machine learning, with particular interest in credit risk models, dynamic survival models and reliable machine learning. 

The research team has published extensively on topics in machine learning applications in multiple international refereed journals and conferences.

About the Project 

Project title: Artificial Intelligence applications in banking system (credit risk)

Project statement: Develop a credit default forecasting system that incorporates latest machine learning, age-period-cohort (APC) analysis and stress testing capabilities based on economic and other external factors. The system should be flexible to deal with data from different sources. This research and software will support banks and financial institutions with risk management and planning for loss control, and also inform policy-makers seeking to regulate lender institutions.

The main foundation of this system will be non-linear survival models with estimation using neural networks and XGBoost models. These are the most popular machine learning models proposed for credit risk modelling (Breeden 2021) and the use of survival models in this domain is now well-known (Banasik et. al. 1999; Bellotti & Crook 2009). The combination of survival model and machine learning for credit risk is relatively new (Frydman & Matuszyk 2022; Blumenstock et. al. 2022) and the output of our research group has already incorporated APC analysis to provide interpretation for credit risk analysts (Wang et. al. 2024).

Your Remuneration, Benefits and Support

You will be offered a fixed term contract with University of Nottingham Ningbo China for 2 years. You will be offered a minimum annual salary package of RMB269,906 with competitive benefits package. Postdoctoral Research Fellow is also able to apply RMB50,000 research funding after they start their research. 

How to Apply

Applicants should submit an application via our on-line application system before 11 January, 2026. Only on-line applications will be accepted. Referees will be contacted prior to interview and interviews will take place in Ningbo China or online.

Applications should include but are not limited to the following:

• A cover letter
• An up-to-update CV includes academic and research achievement list
• A Research proposal (Please refer to the attached project summary)

Enquiries

Informal enquiries regarding the research project may be addressed to Hang Zhou, Hang.Zhou@nottingham.edu.cn. If you are unable to apply on-line please contact the Human Resources Office, Tel: 86 574 88180000(Ext. 8854).