Research Fellow in Computational Climate Politics

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge?  Do you have a background in computational social science (incl. mathematical modelling of social dynamic and processes) and an interest in climate politics?  Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading research-intensive Universities? 

The University of Leeds is one of the top 75 universities in the world.  We have a truly global community, with more than 39,000 students from 170 different countries and over 9,000 staff of 100 different nationalities.  Established in 1904, we have a strong tradition of academic excellence, reflected in first-class student education, along with world-leading research that has a real impact around the globe. 

As a Research Fellow in Computational Climate Politics you will work on the UKRI FLF project “Understanding normative change to address the climate emergency”. This is a 4+3 grant, with generous funding for research and professional development of the PI (Dr Viktoria Spaiser) and their team. You will start your fellowship for the last year of the first phase of the award (first four years), with a focus on consolidating gathered results and developing an agent-based model from the gathered results. You will also be involved in a range of engagement and impact activities that are scheduled for the fourth year of the award. Moreover, you will be able to contribute to developing the extension application for the second phase of the award (three years). Given the success rate of extension applications so far, there is a very high likelihood of an extension of the award. Your position will then be extended for another year. In this first extension year, we will experiment with generating in-silico social network data using LLMs to investigate social tipping processes. At the end of the second year of the fellowship a further extension of the fellowship can be considered. Throughout your research fellowship funding is available for professional development, e.g. for attending summer schools or for developing skills and your professional profile.   

What we offer in return

• 26 days holiday plus approx.16 Bank Holidays/days that the University is closed by custom (including Christmas) – That’s 42 days a year!
• Generous pension scheme options plus life assurance
• Health and Wellbeing: Discounted staff membership options at The Edge, our state-of-the-art Campus gym, with a pool, sauna, climbing wall, cycle circuit, and sports halls.
• Personal Development: Access to courses run by our Organisational Development & Professional Learning team.
• Access to on-site childcare, shopping discounts and travel schemes are also available.
• And much more!   

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact: 

Dr Viktoria Spaiser,  Associate Professor in Sustainability Research and Computational Social Science, PI 

Email: v.spaiser@leeds.ac.uk 

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