Research Fellow in Psychology (ERC-funded Brain2Bee project)

About the Cook Lab (https://jencooklab.com/):

Our work focuses on social cognition including emotional expression, emotion recognition, face perception, biological motion processing, social learning and decision making, imitation and theory of mind. Primarily we use in-house developed computer-based tasks but we also combine these tasks with motion-tracking and use psychopharmacology, genetics and neuroimaging to make inferences about neural, genetic and neurochemical mechanisms. Much of our work relates to the role of dopamine in social cognition and we have a strong active collaboration with a lab that study the genetics of honey bee social behaviour. In addition to investigating social cognition in the general population we work with autistic individuals and people with Parkinson's Disease. This work aims to better understand the psychological and neurochemical mechanisms underpinning differences in social cognitive abilities in these clinical populations.

Our lab provides a vibrant research community comprising seven researchers. We have regular hybrid lab meetings (every two weeks) as well as additional methods meetings (where we learn, together, new analysis techniques). We strongly believe in supporting each other and working through problems together, whilst also having individual projects that we can have ownership over. See our website for more details about us: https://jencooklab.com/people-2/ and our publications: https://jencooklab.com/publications/

About the Research Fellow role:

This 2 year postdoctoral position is part of the ERC-funded Brain2Bee project. As part of this project, which has been running for three years, we have been exploring the genetics of social behaviour in honey bees. The postholder's primary task would be to work on analogous studies of social behaviour in human participants with a particular focus on social networks and genetics. Prior experience in the fields of genetics and/or social network analysis would be an advantage but not a requirement. Candidates must, however, have an interest in genetics and social network analysis and must have sufficient programming skills (e.g. R, MATLAB) to enable them to run complex statistical analyses on large datasets. This position is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under ERC-2017-STG Grant Agreement No 757583.

This position is for 2 years. With a start date of 30th June 2022 (other start dates are possible, please contact j.l.cook@bham.ac.uk to discuss). Ideally the postholder would work full-time. However, we are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including working-from-home and/or part-time working. Throughout the post Dr Cook will also work with you to help you meet personal and professional development goals that can help you in your future career progression.

Summary of Role

• Develop theory and experiments related to social behaviour in human adults
• Analyse and interpret research findings and results
• Contribute to generating funding
• If relevant, contribute to licensing or spin out deals with demonstrated commercial cusses (such as revenues, asset or company sales, IP generated) and/or public understanding of the discipline or similar.

Main Duties/Responsibilities

The responsibilities may include some but not all of the responsibilities outlines below.

• 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 on 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
• Collect research data; this may be through a variety of research methods, such as scientific experimentation, literature reviews, and research interviews*
• Present research outputs, including drafting academic publications or parts thereof, for example at seminars and as posters*
• Provide guidance, as required, to support staff and any students who may be assisting with the research*
• Deal with the problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines

Person Specification

• High level analytical capability
• First degree in area of specialism and normally, a higher degree relevant to research area of equivalent qualifications.
• 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 affectively
• 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 other to avoid conflict of 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

Informal enquires to Dr. Jen Cook, email: j.l.cook@bham.ac.uk