Postdoctoral Research Associate

**Postdoctoral Research Associate** **(**Job Number**:24001881**)**

Department of Psychology

Grade 7: - £37,999 per annum

Fixed Term - Full Time

**Contract Duration**: 2 years 10 months

**Contracted Hours per Week**: 35

**Working Arrangements**: TBC

**Closing Date**: 04-Nov-2024, 5:59:00 PM

**Working at Durham University**

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting - Durham is a university like no other.

As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career. The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.

We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it’s also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.

Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential.

Our Purpose and Values

We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Join Us? - Information Page

**The Department**

Founded in 1952, the Department of Psychology is consistently ranked as one of the very best in the UK with an outstanding reputation for excellence in teaching, research and student employability. The department is committed to creating and maintaining a research environment that spans the entire breadth of psychology. Currently the department’s research falls within three groupings: Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Science, and Quantitative Social Psychology.

The department is extremely well-equipped for research, including facilities for fMRI, TMS, tDCS, EEG/ERP, VR, eye movement tracking, and biophysiological recording. The department also has a motion capture lab for analysis of visuomotor action and experiments in immersive VR, a ‘bar’ lab for naturalistic studies in health psychology, and setups for psychophysics including an echo-attenuated chamber.

In 2022, the Department received its third Athena SWAN Silver Award recognising our commitment to advancing women's careers in STEM academia and reflecting the supportive and positive environment within the Department.

**The Role**

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position in cross-cultural developmental psychology with a particular emphasis on examining the role of formal education and cognitive development (e.g., executive functions) on the development of innovation and creativity across cultures. This ESRC and NSF funded research project, _Learning to Innovate: Development and Diversity_, is led by Dr Bruce Rawlings (Durham University) in collaboration with Prof. Cristine Legare (University of Texas at Austin), alongside a wider international collaboration team. The project will investigate the cognitive processes and educational experiences that support the development of innovation in children across eight geographically and educationally diverse populations. The successful applicant will be based in Durham (UK), and will collect experimental, observational, and survey data, as well as measures of school quality, in Durham, under the supervision of the PI (Bruce Rawlings). Data collection and coding will be supported by research assistants, students, and a project coordinator, also based in Durham. Successful applicants will also oversee data collection at the international field sites by working with international collaborators and local researchers, including Prof Cristine Legare and her team as Co-I on the grant. They will oversee data coding, analysis, and dissemination of results which will include data from all locations.
- Observational and/or survey data collection
- Working with children, including in schools/educational contexts
- Team management
- Cross-cultural research, especially multi-sited collaborations
- Advanced statistical analysis skills, including handling mulit-site data.

**Key responsibilities**:

- To understand and convey material of a specialist or highly technical nature to the team or group of people through presentations and discussions that leads to the presentation of research papers in conferences and publications.
- To prepare and deliver presentations on res