Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Law (PROBabLE Futures)

About the role

The candidate will work in the Department of Law within the research team of the PROBabLE Futures Keystone Project. The project involves working alongside our law enforcement, third sector and commercial partners, will develop a framework to understand the implications of uncertainty and to build confidence in future Probabilistic AI in law enforcement, with the interests of justice and responsibility at its heart. The project is a UKRI-funded Responsible AI UK Keystone project and includes academic Co-Is in a number of disciplines, law enforcement and commercial partners. To learn more about the PROBabLE Futures Keystone Project, please see here - PROBabLE Futures Northumbria Website

About the team 

This Research Project is being delivered within the Northumbria Law School. Northumbria Law School is one of the largest law schools in the UK. It ranked fifth for staff returned to REF2021 and 7th when measured by research power. Its wide-ranging research interests are focussed around three research groupings: Northumbria Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies;  Law in Emerging Contexts: Space, Global Sustainable Futures; and Technology and Law and Society. Its long-term record for innovation and excellence in legal education is exemplified by its multi award winning Student Law office. For further information, please see here - Northumbria Law Website. 

About you

Applicants should hold a PhD in law or equivalent experience and have demonstrable specialist expert knowledge in law and technology, and legal, ethical and operational issues raised by the use of AI in law enforcement and the public sector.

General Duties and Responsibilities include:

• Undertake, with appropriate support and guidance, individual and collaborative research projects, including analysis of literature, case-law, regulatory and policy documentation, undertaking travel to conduct interviews, investigations and workshops, resulting in excellent outputs of sufficient volume, quality, and impact that is internationally excellent in originality, significance and rigour to meet the terms of the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise. 
• The role-holder will have specific responsibility for work packages that include mapping the AI law enforcement ecosystem, researching lessons from history and law enforcement AI of the future, carrying out a comparative exercise with other European jurisdictions, and contributing to the development of the project framework, and to project communications and outputs.
• Where applicable, identify research funding opportunities and develop appropriate applications to secure funding for personal and joint research or scholarly activities. 
• Disseminate, with appropriate support and guidance, the results of research and scholarly activity through publications, development of learning materials, presentations at conferences or exhibiting work at appropriate events and via the media, etc. 
• Develop links with external organisations and to contribute to partner and funder engagement activities. In particular, there is an expectation that the role holder engage with RAI UK sandpit research projects and other group activities.
• Participate in wider research group activities, where appropriate.

This role is a fixed term role until 31 March 2028. We are happy to consider part-time job share arrangements.

Further information is available in the person specification.

If you would like an informal discussion about the role, contact Professor Marion Oswald (marion.oswald@northumbria.ac.uk).

To apply for click 'Apply'. Your application should include a covering letter and a CV.

We welcome applications from the UK and across the world. Visit our web pages for details about Relocation Assistance.

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