Research Associate

About the role

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to join a NERC funded project to develop novel bacteriophage-based tools for microbial source tracking. The project is a collaboration between the Universities of Bath, Brighton, Sheffield and the Environment Agency and the successful candidate will join a highly supportive and collegiate team working across these institutions. This role, based at the University of Bath, will focus on the analysis of viral metagenomic data to identify human gut associated bacteriophage sequences that can be exploited to monitor water quality. In particular the role will involve:

• Supporting the development of methods for generating viral metagenomes from wastewater samples
• Analysis of metagenomes and identification of bacteriophage signatures with high diagnostic potential for feacal pollution
• Development of algorithms and pipelines to detect faecal pollution in water samples based on viral metagenome analysis
• Supporting the validation of new source tracking tools and evaluating performance against existing methods. 

About you

Applicants must have a PhD (or be close to completion/have equivalent experience) in relevant disciplines, and experience with analysis of bacterial and bacteriophage sequence data. Experience in microbial ecology and/or environmental microbiology related to pollution and management of surface waters is also desirable but not essential. 

Further information

This role is offered on a full time (36.5 hours per week) fixed term basis with a proposed start date of July 2026 for a duration of 24 months. 

For an informal discussion regarding the role please contact Brian Jones at bvj20@bath.ac.uk.

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equity and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader; autism friendly university, committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff. 

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