Research Associate

The Department of Psychology and the Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour at the University of Bath is seeking a Research Associate.

About the role

You will be working with the Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB) Leadership team: co-Directors Professor Laura Smith in the Department of Psychology and Professor Adam Joinson in the School of Management, and Deputy Directors Professor David Galbreath and Dr Olivia Brown. 

The IDSB is due to launch in September 2024, with the aim of solving global security challenges through world-leading, interdisciplinary, socio-technical research. It leverages and combines the University of Bath’s unique expertise in behavioural and management science, international relations and policy and computer and data science. It creates a single ‘front door’ for interdisciplinary academic research and collaboration with industry and government within the following themes:

• Human, economic and organisational aspects of cyber security 
• Global politics of cyberspace
• Online safety and harms 
• Behavioural science, digital data, national security and defence 
• Trust, identity, privacy, security and emerging and future technologies 

In this specific role, you will support academics from multiple disciplines at the University in designing and conducting research studies that contribute towards our understanding of digital security and behaviour. This will help us to understand how humans interact with digital technologies. You will also be involved with synthesising and disseminating outputs from relevant work as part of a wider programme of research of the Institute for use by policymakers and regulators. 

The core and aligned members of the Institute participate in several major initiatives, including potentially leading projects as part of the ESRC Digital Security by Design Social Science Hub+ (Discribe Hub+), the AI4CI hub, and REPHRAIN - a UKRI national research centre focusing on interdisciplinary research relating to privacy and online safety. 

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year.

This role is offered on a full time (36.5 hours per week) fixed term basis with an expected duration of 36 months. 

About you

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who is: 

• A social scientist, with a background in a relevant discipline (Psychology Social Science, or related)
• Comfortable using a range of qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Proficient in programming/scripting languages. This might include experience using R and/or Python
• You will ideally have experience utilising large datasets, alongside conducting experimental and naturalistic studies. 

For informal discussions about the role please contact: Professor Laura GE Smith ls487@bath.ac.uk or Professor Adam Joinson aj266@bath.ac.uk

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