Research Fellow

We are seeking to appoint a full-time Research Fellow to support the delivery of the UKRI funded 3POProject (Protecting Public Facing Professionals Online). Edinburgh Napier is proud to host the Scottish Institute for Policing Research.

The Project

3PO is a 3-year project funded by UKRI (EPSRC Grant Ref: EP/W032368/1) under the Strategic Priorities Fund. It is part of the REPHRAIN network, which is a Research Centre of Excellence focused on the protection of citizens online. In this context, 3PO takes the unusual and pioneering step to re-focus the theme of protecting citizens online to the law enforcement domain. We aim to better understand the challenges, risks and harms police officers and their families face when they are online and to develop direct, sustainable solutions to protect this group from online harms, to safeguard their physical and mental wellbeing and ultimately to empower their full participation in the online domain. 3PO builds a solid understanding of the specific harms, risks and privacy needs of police officers and their dependants. It has expanded and enriched current conceptualisations of privacy, consent and visibility management towards contexts in which online presences are collectively managed/negotiated within police family and organisational structures. The postholder will enter the project at an exciting stage, during which we will co-create advanced tools, mechanisms and solutions that empower the secure participation of these groups online. It combines five renowned universities and related research centres (CENTRIC/Sheffield Hallam University, University College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and Edinburgh Napier University/SIPR) with police forces and Home Office as active partners.

The Role

The Research Fellow will make a central contribution to the organisation and delivery of the final year of the 3PO project, undertaking qualitative fieldwork with policing partners across the United Kingdom. The role involves planning research activity in collaboration with the research team, analysing data, disseminating findings at conferences, and preparing joint peer-reviewed publications. It will involve managing aspects of the project such as ethical approval, liaising with research partners, and organising stakeholder events. The Research Fellow will be provided mentoring, training and development opportunities, including the opportunity to deliver some specialist teaching where appropriate.

About you

We seek to attract a highly motivated social scientist who is experienced in the use of qualitative methods, analysis and the presentation of data. We believe the post is ideally suited to someone who has recently submitted or is very near submission of their PhD thesis. You will have experience of managing research projects, ideally from ethical approval through to write up and dissemination. You will be organised and work effectively as part of a team, as well as showing initiative to work independently. Excellent interpersonal skills are important to developing positive working relationships, as is an ability to communicate with a wide range of individuals and audiences. We would ideally like to attract a candidate with experience of working in a policing or technology-related academic context. We strongly encourage potential applicants to review the outputs currently available on the website to get a full sense of the project.

The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. This will depend on several factors specific to the successful applicant. Check salary criteria for the visa on www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa. Contact us to discuss individual circumstances on recruitment@napier.ac.uk

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