Research Associate

Grade UE07: £ per annum, pro rata.

Part time: 12 hours per week

Fixed Term: For 6 months

The School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, invites applications for a research associate for the project “UK Co-Benefits Atlas” to help with user-centered design and co-design of an interactive and visual web data-platform to visualize and communicate data around socio-economic co-benefits of C02-emission reduction in the UK.

The Opportunity:

The main task of the job is to coordinate and run the stakeholder engagement with future Atlas stakeholders partner institutions and to lead the co-design focus groups. The goal is to a) better understand the needs for communicating co-benefits data and b) to design respective visualisation and user interface designs for the atlas. The job is embedded into an interdisciplinary team including a software engineer as well as researchers in visualization, HCI, and co-benefits. 

The UK Co-Benefits Atlas project is a new project by researchers from Design Informatics/VisHub lab, the School of Informatics, the University of St. Andrews and the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute.

Current research from the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI), using a model developed for the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), finds that for every 1£ spent on climate change mitigation in the UK there are as much as 14£ of social benefits in the form of improved public health, better urban connectivity, and increased productivity. Here, we ask the question, How can we communicate these findings to inform and accelerate climate action?

To address this question, this project we will co-create an interactive web-based data interface—the UK Co-Benefits Atlas (UKCBA). UKCBA will make co-benefits data and analyses more accessible, understandable, and useful for businesses, investors, researchers, third sector organisations and policymakers across Scotland and the wider UK. Compared to traditional static reports and research papers, visualization atlases are a novel and comprehensive means that provide interactive visualisations, in-depth analyses, and contextual explanations to explore data in a structured and accessible way; for examples, see https://vis-atlas.github.io]. 

Tasks and responsibilities

• Organise co-creation focus groups with industry and public sector stakeholders
• Conduct interviews with stakeholders
• Perform qualitative data analysis on interview and focus group results 
• Plan and run usability evaluations with partners
• Help design graphical atlas interface, interactions, and visualisations 

This post is advertised as part-time (7-10 hours per week), however, we are open to flexible working patterns. We are also open to considering requests for hybrid working (on a non-contractual basis) that combines a mix of remote and regular on-campus working. 

Your skills and attributes for success: 

• Degree in appropriate field
• PhD (or near completion)
• Strong interest in co-benefits and data analysis 
• Interview and questionnaire design
• Qualitative data analysis 
• Workshop organisation, facilitation and qualitative data collection 
• Visualization / UI design / graphics design

Advert information