Job Description

Grade UE07: 41,064- 48,822 per annum (pro rata for part time)

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Full time: 35 hours per week

Fixed Term: 24 months

The Opportunity:

The Psychology Department in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences are seeking a full time, fixed term Post-Doctoral Research Associate. This post is available from 1 st of September 2026.


The successful candidate will work alongside Dr Zachary Horne and other team members as part of an Leverhulme Trust (2025-2028) funded grant 'Weaponised Pasts: The Evolution of Heritage-based Hostility on Social Media'. The PDRA will undertake research focused on the cultural evolution of archaeological information using advanced transmission chain experiments and natural language processing techniques.

Your skills and attributes for success:

PhD (already defended) on a topic related to one or more of the following: psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, cultural evolution, diffusion of information or hostility or to a relevant topic. Evidence of experience undertaking research using advanced statistics. Evidence of ability to build advanced experimental designs in javascript or Python. Evidence of advanced NLP expertise using Python or R. Evidence of experience undertaking experimental research using advanced statistics.

Full job description can be found here

.

Application information:

We ask you to include a current CV,

one

representative publication or preprint demonstrating skills that are relevant to the essential criteria described above, and a cover letter with names of three referees who may be contacted at a later date (please note if you do not wish for anyone to be contacted until after an offer has been made). We invite candidates to use their cover letter to highlight professional and personal experiences that maybe relevant to role.


As a School we acknowledge that people's career paths are rarely linear and welcome applicants to expand on their professional and personal journeys where appropriate.


More information on how to submit your application can be found here .


Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Zachary Horne ( Zachary.Horne@ed.ac.uk ) or to Dr Chiara Bonacchi ( Chiara.Bonacchi@ed.ac.uk ).

As a valued member of our team you can expect:

A competitive salary of

41,064- 48,822

(pro rata for part time)

.

Annual increments through the scale will occur with each year's continuous service. An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community. Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts and family-friendly initiatives. Check out the full list on our

staff benefits page

and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits.

Championing equality, diversity and inclusion:

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.


We particularly welcome applications from eligible candidates from under-represented groups, including racially minoritised individuals and all gender identities.


Prior to any employment commencing with the University, you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab)


The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. This will depend on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant. Please note if the role is offered on a part-time basis, it may result in sponsorship being dependant on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant or the role no longer meeting the Home Office's criteria for sponsorship.

Key dates to note:

The closing date for applications is

January 27

th

, 2026.

Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.




Interviews are expected to be held in February 2026; we aim to give successful candidates 2 weeks' notice ahead of interviews.