Research Fellow

Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range £35,880 to £45,163 with potential progression once in post to £47,874

Contract Type: Fixed Term contract up to September 2027

Background

We are recruiting a Research Fellow (Grade 7) for the SMARTWATER project (https://www.smart-water.org.uk/), a NERC Large grant involving multiple UK institutions and a US partner. The position will be split between maintaining water quality monitoring stations (including In-Situ, Proteus, TriOS and Xylem in-situ sensors) in our local catchments (travel required) and using data science approaches for analysis of high frequency datasets. The SMARTWATER project aims to use high-frequency sensing to diagnose locations of pollution hot spots and hot moments and assess their impact on water quality. 

Main Duties

• Maintenance and data quality assurance from sensor network
• Use of analytical software for time series data analysis
• Collation of existing hydrological datasets
• Related lab work
• Develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research, with assistance of a mentor if required
• Contribute to writing bids for research funding
• Analyse and interpret data
• Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding
• Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc
• Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline
• Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods 
• Undertake management/administration arising from research
• Contribute to Departmental/School research-related activities and research-related administration
• Contribute to enterprise, business development and/or public engagement activities of manifest benefit to the College and the University, often under supervision of a project leader

Person Specification

• Degree in area of specialism and normally, a PhD (or near to completion) relevant to research area or equivalent qualifications
• High level analytical capability
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly
• Fluency in relevant models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones
• Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively
• Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes
• Contribute to the planning and organising of the research programme and/or specific research project
• Co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly
• Experience using in-situ water sensors, their maintenance and calibration
• Experience in lab-based techniques for physical parameter measurements (Fluorescence, TOC/TN)
• Ability to clean high-frequency data and create graphical plots
• Desirable - experience with R-Shiny to create apps
• Demonstrable technical knowledge of/experience in analysis of high-frequency data

Informal enquiries can be made to  Liam Kelleher - Project Coordinator, email: l.kelleher@bham.ac.uk, Stefan Krause - Project Lead, email: s.krause@bham.ac.uk, or Suman Hira - Project Administration, email: s.hira@bham.ac.uk 

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment
We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.

Closes: 04/03/2025

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