Research Associate: Digital Twin Governance & Resilience for Transport/Ports

Role Description

Department

The School of Physics, Engineering and Technology brings physicists and engineers together to push the frontiers of knowledge, foster innovation and meet the grand challenges facing society. Our aim is to deliver world-leading research in both fundamental and applied areas whilst developing new technologies that work for the public good, in an environment where everyone can thrive.

As a School, equality, diversity, and inclusion are central to our culture and we strive to provide a working environment which allows all staff and students to contribute fully, to flourish, and to excel. We aim to ensure that there is a supportive and egalitarian culture at all levels and across all staff groups and offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, campus facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds. We are proud to hold Juno Champion and Athena Swan silver awards, which recognise our commitment to creating an equitable and fully inclusive environment in which staff and students can thrive. We aim to inspire young people to engage with science and engineering through our outreach work. 

You will join a vibrant interdisciplinary team contributing to the Crisis & Resilience Digital Twin for Transport & Ports (CRDT-Port) project — a major UK-wide initiative focused on developing a national digital twinning strategy for crisis response and infrastructure resilience. The project integrates data, predictive analytics, governance models, and multi-stakeholder coordination across transport and port systems.

Role

As a Postdoctoral Research Associate, you will play a central role in shaping the national strategy, governance frameworks, and coordination mechanisms required to implement interoperable digital twins for crisis response and resilience across the UK. Working closely with academic partners, government agencies, regulators, and port authorities, you will co- develop models for data governance, ethical and secure data use, interoperability standards, and the national roadmap for CRDT deployment.

You will also contribute to the organisation and facilitation of co-creation workshops — including the Co-Creating the Crisis & Resilience Digital Twin for Ports workshop — ensuring that stakeholder needs from the Department for Transport, port operators, and City Region authorities are embedded into the technical and governance design.

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

You will have:

• A PhD in Computer Science, Information Systems or Data Science or equivalent experience
• Experience in digital twin development, data governance, information management, or systems modelling.
• An understanding of information-management standards such as ISO 19650, FAIR data principles, and the Five Safes.
• Familiarity with the National Digital Twin (NDT) programme and Infrastructure Enterprise Schema (IES) ontologies.
• Demonstrated ability to work across multi-stakeholder networks, including government, regulatory bodies, and industrial partners.
• Excellent communication, organisation and collaborative research skills.
• A proven track record of producing high-quality academic, technical or policy outputs.

Interview date: To be confirmed

For informal enquiries:  please contact Professor Suresh Perinpanayagam on suresh.perin@york.ac.uk or the PET Admin Team on pet-admin@york.ac.uk.

The University strives to be diverse and inclusive  – a place where we can ALL be ourselves.

We particularly encourage applications from people who identify as Black, Asian or from a Minority Ethnic background, who are underrepresented at the University. 

We offer family friendly, flexible working arrangements, with forums and inclusive facilities to support our staff. #EqualityatYork

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