Job Description

Applications are invited for the above fixed-term, full-time post working in the School of Human and Behavioural Sciences. We seek a Research Officer to work on specific research projects in the domains of language and literacy and to provide School-wide support for research, led by the Director of Research.

Specific duties for this role will be:

• To work on several projects with Professor Manon Jones and her team. These project encompass laboratory based (eye-tracking, event-related potentials) language studies as well as assisting in the management of the study protocol and analysis of data connected to two randomised controlled trials examining the effectiveness of the RILL literacy programme with primary-aged children (rillresearch.org). This component of the post will be 3.5 days per week.

• To gather information and data pertaining to research for the School executive and to assist PhD students/PIs with specific technical and programming skills, either through small tutorial work or one-to-one sessions. This component of the post will be 1.5 days per week.

We expect that this individual will take part in all aspects of the research process including participant recruitment, data management, and supervision of junior staff. Also contribution to manuscripts and publications, where appropriate. The individual will communicate regularly with the Director of Research for the School, who is also the principle investigator of the RILL research project.

Candidates should be educated to PhD (or near completion) in Psychology or a closely related discipline with experience relevant to the role and have substantial experience in managing and analysing data in R or an equivalent statistics package. Excellent programming skills and technical expertise are also highly desirable. Experience of working in language research is desirable, so too working with data from longitudinal studies / RCTs.

This role will be located on campus at Bangor.

Applications will also be considered to carry out this role on a part-time or job share basis.

The successful candidate will be expected to commence on or before 1st October 2023.

Interview date: 20.09.2023

Committed To Equal Opportunities.

Overview

College of Human Sciences

The successful applicant will be a Research Officer within the College of Human Sciences.

School of Human and Behavioural Sciences

The School of HBS has a long-standing reputation for expertise in Psychology research, particularly in the domain of language.

The Project

The School of Human and Behavioural Sciences is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to work on several school-wide research efforts as well as specific lab- and school-based projects (in the lab of Professor Manon Jones, ReadingBrain and RILL project).

Specific projects include assisting in data management and analysis on the RILL project (RILL: www.rillresearch.org), a school-based intervention designed and run by a team of researchers and teachers at the School of Human and Behavioural Sciences, and the Miles Dyslexia Centre (www.dyslexia.bangor.ac.uk), currently funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Welsh Government. Also, several associated experimental studies involving eye-tracking and event related potentials (ERPs).

Purpose of the Job

The post is divided into specific research work connected to the RILL project, and contribution to School-wide research activity, including the collection of information for the School of HBS executive team and providing programming / statistics / technical help to the larger research student and staff body. There will be opportunity for the RO to contribute to all aspects of the research process whilst working in Prof Jones\xe2\x80\x99 lab.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Seeking and collating information pertaining to research activity in the School including grant submissions and successes, research outputs, and impact activity.

• Gathering comparative data nationally where required.

• Presenting the above information to the Director of Research / School executive on occasion.

• Providing small tutorials and workshops or one-one sessions with School PGR and PIs to help small programming / statistics / technical issues arising.

• Taking primary responsibility, where necessary, for programming eye-tracking and event related potentials studies, including methodological innovation. Preparing stimuli, ensuring open science practices are met, analysing data and drafting sections of manuscripts.

• Responsibility for participant recruitment and testing in the labs.

• On the RILL trial data, assisting in managing the data and conducting appropriate analyses.

• Reasonable administration of the research projects. Coordinate and participate in project meetings to meet aims and objectives. Organise data files and general admin.

• Assist in the general dissemination of outputs, if required by the larger project team, through relevant scientific and public press and conferences and working with partners to disseminate results to educational practitioners and government bodies. Write up the results in scientific articles, write final reports, discussing and sharing results with grant holders.

• Be in very regular contact with the larger research group to update on progress, trouble shoot problems and so on.

• Other duties and responsibilities specific to the role include advising and collaborating with Masters\xe2\x80\x99 and PhD students within the research programme, contribute to the undergraduate programme third year dissertation supervision, actively participate in specific College activities such as HBS seminars etc., gain external funding, if desired.

Other Duties and Responsibilities

• The post holder will be expected to participate in performance review and developmental activities.

• The post holder will be expected to comply with the University equal opportunities policies, Dignity at Work and Study Policy and the University\xe2\x80\x99s Welsh Language Policy and the Welsh Language Standards.

• The post holder has a general and legal duty of care in relation to health, safety and wellbeing and must take all reasonable steps to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for him/her self and for other members of staff, students and visitors affected by his/her actions or inactions. The post holder is also required to comply with all applicable health and safety policies, procedures and risk assessments.

• The post holder must comply with relevant legal and financial policies and procedures and and be aware of their responsibilities in terms of the legal requirements of their posts.

Person Specification

Qualifications/Training

Essential

• PhD (or near completion) in Psychology or a closely related discipline with experience relevant to the role.

Experience/Knowledge

Essential

• Experience of conducting laboratory based work including eye-tracking and event related potential experiments with demonstrated excellence in experimental design.

• Knowledge of cognitive neuroscience designs for language research.
• Proven track record of conference presentations.
• Experience of undertaking cutting-edge methods for quantitative analysis.
• Ability to pull data from internal and external sources, independently, and to collate and present the information effectively.

Desirable

• Knowledge of reading research and dyslexia.

• Knowledge of research designs and analyses relating to RCTs and longitudinal design.

Skills/Abilities

Essential

• Strong proficiency in relevant programming languages, particularly R but also Mplus.

• Demonstrate excellent verbal and written skills, and the ability to communicate clearly with the rest of the team.
• Demonstrate the ability to prioritise workload and work to deadlines.

Desirable

• Demonstrate proven project management skills.

• Demonstrate ability to work as part of a team.

Other Desirable

• Ability to communicate through the medium of Welsh.

General

The University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds. We strive to develop a workforce from all sections of the community regardless of sex, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age. We promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language through our progressive Welsh Language Policy. We comply with the Welsh Language Standards and are committed to equality of opportunity. You are welcome to apply for any job in English or Welsh and all applications submitted will be treated equally.

We are a member of Advance HE\'s Athena SWAN Gender Equality charter and hold a Bronze award in recognition of our commitment to and progress towards gender equality within the University\'s policies, practices, and culture. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

All members of staff have a duty to ensure their actions are in line with the overall environmental aims of the University and minimise their environmental impact.

All offers are made subject to proof of eligibility to work in the UK and receipt of satisfactory references.

We have a legal responsibility to ensure that you have the right to work in the UK before you can start working for us. When you apply for this post you will be required to explain the basis upon which you believe you will able to live and work in the UK legally on the commencement date of the role should your application be successful. If you do not have the right to work freely in any position in the UK already, any offer of employment we will make to you will be subject to you obtaining a right to work visa. The following link provides information on the various visa routes into employment and the eligibility requirements (including switching visa status where permissible) . If you are successful in your application we will discuss visa options with you at the time of making the offer of employment.

Candidates should also note that they may be required to apply for an ATAS certificate (Academic Approval Technology Scheme) from the Counter-Proliferation and Arms Control Centre of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office before being able to apply for a visa - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academic-technology-approval-scheme

Please note that, in the event of applications being received from candidates on the University\'s Redeployment Register with a reasonable skills match to the post specification, these applicants will be given prior consideration.

Bangor University