Research Fellow in Computational Neuroscience

As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade 8, salary £50,253.

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed Term Contract until April 2028 (with likely extension to July 2028)

The School of Psychology, alongside the Institute for Data and AI (IDAI), and the Centre for Human Brain Health (CHBH), all at the University of Birmingham, invites applications for a Research Fellow/postdoc (Grade 8) with a strong background in Computational Neuroscience.

This is a 2-year position funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) as part of a grant to investigate approaches for combatting the spread of misinformation. The project uses cutting-edge brain mapping techniques to observe, in real time, how individuals from varied backgrounds respond to trustworthy and false digital content. These data are then used to build an AI system that helps individuals recognise when they are at risk of uncritically accepting or rejecting information and help them activate their reflective and critical thinking skills.

The post-holder will lead the neuroscience components of this interdisciplinary project, investigating how the brain’s Default Mode Network processes misinformation. Specific responsibilities include: designing and conducting fMRI studies at the Centre for Human Brain Health (CHBH); identifying scalable psychophysiological markers of critical thinking; contributing to community co-design activities; supporting the translation of neurocognitive findings into the project's AI platform.

The role requires expertise in cognitive neuroscience, fMRI methodology, and ideally experience with belief updating or social cognition paradigms.

Key Responsibilities:

• Conduct innovative research in Computational Neuroscience, contributing to the advancement of state-of-the-art methods and tools.
• Pursue personal research including developing research ideas and winning support, including financial support.
• Plan, publish and execute high-quality research.
• Project-manage research activities and supervise other research staff.
• Present findings in high-quality publications and conference proceedings.
• Actively manage equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
• Contribute to supervising PhD students.

Person Specification:

• PhD in Psychology, Neuroscience, or a related field.
• Extensive research experience and scholarship in cognitive neuroscience and fMRI.
• Experience with identifying and recording scalable psychophysiological markers and/or translation of neurocognitive findings into computational models,
• Ideally experience with belief updating and/or social cognition paradigms.
• Extensive experience of applying and/or developing and devising successful models, techniques and methods.
• Extensive programming experience in Python / R / Matlab.
• Extensive experience in advanced statistical methods and data visualisation techniques.
• Extensive experience and achievement in knowledge transfer, enterprise and similar activity.
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, and procedures are applied.
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.

Informal enquiries can be made to Jennifer Cook, email j.l.cook@bham.ac.uk.

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

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We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working

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