Research Associate

Job Purpose

To make a leading contribution to the UKRI-funded Land Use for Net Zero project "RESPECT" (PI - Professor Jill Robbie), as one of a team of PDRAs, based mainly at the University of Glasgow. The position is based in Glasgow, under the supervision of Professor Adrian Bass and Professors Graham Ferrier and Jens Subke (both at the University of Stirling).

The postdoctoral appointee will be central to the project team and will work with the Principal and Co-Investigators, Project Partners and another PDRA, to produce the scientific (datasets, research papers and reports, and conference/workshop presentations) and the societal impact deliverables. The successful candidate will be mentored to develop personal scientific skills and has access to training opportunities at the Universities of Stirling and Glasgow. The successful candidate will also be expected to contribute to the formulation and submission of research publications and research proposals as well as help manage and direct this complex and challenging project as opportunities allow. This position will be located in Work Package 3: to contribute to the development of a spatial decision support tool for landowners, the Peatland Triage Tool.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

1. Take a leading role in the planning and conduct of assigned research individually or jointly in accordance with the aims of the Work Package. In particular, the Post Doctoral Research Associate will:
- Contribute to the design, development and implementation of the Peatland Triage Tool
- Assist in the development of novel machine learning, geospatial, AI, reasoning and decision-making capabilities for tasks such as domain expert knowledge encapsulation
- Assist implementation of a co-creation project approach with stakeholders/end-users
- Assist in effectively communicating with external project partners in the UK
- Support the collection, synthesis and statistical evaluation of data from all the WPs relevant to project goals
- Aid the interaction between project partners in developing functionality of PTT

2. Document research outputs including analysis and interpretation of all data, maintaining records and databases, drafting technical/progress reports and papers as appropriate.

3. Presentation of work at international and national conferences, at internal and external seminars, colloquia and workshops to develop and enhance our research profile.

4. Establish and maintain your research profile and reputation and that of The University of Glasgow and the project, including establishing and sustaining a track record of independent and joint publications of international quality in high profile/quality refereed journals, enhancing the research impact in terms of economic/societal/environmental benefit, and gathering indicators of esteem.

5. Collaborate with colleagues and participate in activities of the research project/University and broader LUNZ research consortium.

6. Assist in organising team/group meetings/seminars/workshops with colleagues and project partners, and other research activities to enhance the wider knowledge, outputs and culture of the project.

7. Perform administrative tasks related to the activities of the research group and School, including Budgets/Expenditure.

8. Keep up to date with current knowledge and recent advances in the field/discipline.

9. Engage in personal, professional and career development, to enhance both specialist and transferable skills in accordance with desired career trajectory.

10. Undertake any other reasonable duties as required by Supervisors and Leads of the Work Package.

11. Contribute to the enhancement of the University's international profile in line with the University Strategy, World Changing Glasgow 2025.

Knowledge and Qualifications

Essential:
- Normally Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 12 (PhD) in a relevant field, such as Computer Science, Environmental Science, or a closely related discipline; or alternatively possess the equivalent in professional qualifications and experience, with experience of personal development in a similar or related role(s).
- A comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge of current issues and future directions within the wider subject area or subject specialism of Computer Science, Environmental Science or a closely related discipline.

Skills

Essential:
- Proven ability to deliver quality outputs in a timely and efficient manner.
- A track record of presentation and publication of research results in quality journals/conferences.
- Ability to demonstrate a degree of independence as illustrated by identification of project objectives from assessment of the literature, design and analysis of experiments and drafting of papers.

Desirable:
- Backend development using Python (FastAPI/Django/Flask), or similar technologies.
- Authentication and user management systems.
- Cloud deployment (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or DigitalOcean).
- Use of Dockers and Kubernetes for containerised deployment.

Experience

Essential:
- Sufficient depth of relevant research experience, normally including sufficient postdoctoral experience in developing geospatial web applications; GIS technologies including GeoJSON, WMS, WFS, Vector Tiles, and raster data; software development using GDAL, Python, React or Angular, and/or Leaflet/Mapbox.
- Ability and experience of a flexible and creative approach to problem-solving, experimental design, evaluation using benchmark datasets, and the development of reproducible and scalable solutions.
- Experience of project-specific techniques such as software development, geospatial web applications and GIS technologies.
- Experience of the processing and analysis of spatial datasets and the development of digital environmental systems with spatial component.
- Experience in undertaking independent research.
- Experience of making distinct contributions to research and academic activities.

Desirable:
- Experience of working in land management and/or environmental monitoring projects.
- Experience in image analysis and machine learning.
- Experience of working with non-academic stakeholders.
- Experience working in interdisciplinary research teams.

Terms and Conditions

Salary will be Grade 7, £41,885 - £46,970 per annum. This post is full time (35 hours per week) and fixed term for up to 12 months in the first instance.

Benefits include 41 days of leave for full time staff, pension, benefits and discount packages, a flexible approach to working, a commitment to support your health and wellbeing including a free 6-month UofG Sport membership for all new staff joining the University.

All applicants must have the right to live and work in the UK or be eligible to obtain permission to work in the UK. This role may be eligible for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. For research and academic roles, the Global Talent visa route may also be considered.

For enquiries, please contact Professor Graham Ferrier ([email protected]) and/or Professor Jens-Arne Subke ([email protected]).