Research Associate

Job title:

Research Associate

Company

University of Glasgow

Job description

Job PurposeTo make a leading contribution to the Participatory Harm Auditing Workbenches and Methodologies (PHAWM) project. Working with Information Retrieval experts Prof Iadh Ounis, Prof Craig Macdonald and Dr Graham McDonald, the post holder will be responsible for carrying out research and developing workbenches for the auditing of AI-driven information retrieval approaches in information seeking & search settings. The PHAWM project seeks to support diverse stakeholders without a background in AI, such as domain experts, regulators, decision subjects and end-users, to undertake audits of predictive and generative AI, either individually or collectively. To enable stakeholders to carry out an audit, the project will produce workbenches that support them in assessing the quality and potential harms of AI. The participatory audits will be embedded in methodologies that guide how and when these audits are carried out and by whom. The PHAWM project is led by Responsible AI expert, Prof Simone Stumpf, at the University of Glasgow. The project brings together a consortium of 7 academic institutions and 24 partner organisations, to ensure that AI is safe and trustworthy. https://phawm.org/.The successful candidate will work on a specific PHAWM use case focussing on understanding and measuring harm within a search context. They will also actively collaborate with the larger PHAWM consortium on other AI use cases. The successful candidate will also be expected to contribute to the formulation and submission of research publications and research proposals as well as assist in managing and directing this complex and challenging project as opportunities allow.Main Duties and Responsibilities1. Take a leading role in the planning and conduct of assigned research individually or jointly in accordance with the project deliverables and project/group/School/College research strategy.2. Document research output including analysis and interpretation of all data, maintaining records and databases, drafting technical/progress reports and papers as appropriate.3. Establish and maintain your research profile and reputation and that of The University of Glasgow/ School/ Research Group, including establishing and sustaining a track record of independent and joint publications of international quality in high profile/quality refereed publications, enhancing the research impact in terms of economic/societal benefit, and gathering indicators of esteem.4. Survey the research literature and environment, understand the research challenges associated with the project & subject area, & develop/implement a suitable research strategy.5. Presentation of work at international and national conferences, at internal and external seminars, colloquia and workshops to develop and enhance our research profile.6. Take a leading role in the identification of potential funding sources and to assist in the development of proposals to secure funding from internal and external bodies to support future research.7. Take a leading role in developing and maintaining collaborations with colleagues across the research group/School/College/University and wider community (e.g. Academic and Industrial Partners).8. Take a leading role in team/group meetings/seminars/workshops and School research group activities to enhance the wider knowledge, outputs and culture of the School/College.9. Take the lead in the organisation, supervision, mentoring and training of undergraduate and/or postgraduate students and less experienced members of the project team to ensure their effective development.10. Perform administrative tasks related to the activities of the research group and School, including Budgets/Expenditure.11. Make a leading contribution to Teaching activities (e.g. demonstrating etc) and associated admin as assigned by the Head of School and in consultation with Principal Investigator.12. Keep up to date with current knowledge and recent advances in the field/discipline.13. Engage in personal, professional and career development, to enhance both specialist and transferable skills in accordance with desired career trajectory.14. Undertake any other reasonable duties as required by the Head of School/Director of Research Institute.15. Contribute to the enhancement of the University’s international profile in line with the University Strategic Plan, World Changers Together.Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills and ExperienceQualificationsEssential:A1. Normally Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 12 (PhD) with at least 2 years’ post-doctoral experience in a similar or related role(s), or alternatively possess the equivalent in professional qualifications and experience.Knowledge, Skills and ExperienceEssential:C.1 A comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge of current issues and future directions in Information Retrieval, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence.C2. Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge in Responsible AI and/or research in Fairness, Bias, Accountability, Transparency or Explainability in Information Retrieval systems or related applications (e.g. Recommender Systems).C.3 Knowledge of specialist IT software (eg. PyTerrier, SKLearn, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Docker, Openshift) as appropriate.C.4 Experience of empirical research in information retrieval, artificial intelligence and machine learning, gained in a leading research environment.C.5 Knowledge of project-specific technical models, equipment or techniques.C.6 Sufficient depth of relevant research experience, normally including sufficient postdoctoral experience in Information Retrieval, Machine Learning and/or Artificial Intelligence, appropriate to an early career researcher.Desirable:D1. Knowledge of HCI principles and techniques.ExperienceEssential:E1. Proven ability to deliver quality outputs in a timely and efficient mannerE2. A track record of presentation and publication of research results in quality publications/conferences (e.g. CORE A* or CORE A ranked conferences) such as ACM SIGIR, ACM CIKM, ACM FAccT, ICML, AAAI, NeurIPS.E3. Proven experience of working in an interdisciplinary environment.E4. Experience of making a leading contribution in academic activitiesE5. Ability to demonstrate a degree of independence as illustrated by identification of project objectives from assessment of the literature, design & analysis of experiments & drafting of papers.E6. Experience in undertaking independent researchE7. Commitment to open research, as appropriate to the discipline, through open data, open code, open educational resources and practices that support replication.E8. Proven commitment to supporting the career development of colleagues and to other forms of collegiality appropriate to the career stage.Desirable:F1. Experience of developing user-focused interactive information retrieval technologies.Closing date: 26 March 2025Terms and ConditionsSalary will be Grade 7, £40,247 – £45,163 per annum.This post is full time and fixed term for up to 24 monthsThe University of Glasgow has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK. If you require a Skilled Worker visa to work in the UK, you will be required to meet the eligibility requirements of the visa route to be assigned a Certificate of Sponsorship.Please note that this post may be eligible to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker visa route if tradeable points can be used under the Skilled Worker visa rules. For more information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.

Expected salary

£40247 – 45163 per year

Location

Glasgow

Job date

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 05:21:30 GMT

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