Advanced notice: Research On Research Institute seeks postdocs

29 August 2022

RoRi is looking for postdoctoral researchers to work on empirical research on research and metascience projects for the next five years. ~~We anticipate opening applications for these positions in late October 2022.~~

Update Dec 2022: RoRI Director James Wilsdon is moving to UCL. This introduces some delays to postdoc positions, but we still anticipate to be hiring in 2023.

RoRI brings together scholars, research funders and publishers to coordinate research on all aspects of research funding, evaluation, quality and publication.

RoRI is now funded for a second phase (2022-2027) and is looking for a postdoctoral research associate with a background in experiment design, quantitative analysis, and/or metascience (research on research) to drive forward RoRI research. This post would be based at the University of Sheffield, working across all RoRI projects but based in the Department of Psychology.

This post would suit someone who wants to make a contribution to this exciting and growing area of research, helping to better understand a number of important questions, such as how research projects are selected, how robust research findings are produced, and how they can be effectively disseminated. We want to know how to improve the research ecosystem, managing the various biases that affect research evaluation and conduct.

The appointed researcher will join a diverse and friendly team. In joining the University of Sheffield community, various resources will be available to the researcher, including those relating to additional training, mentoring, and support throughout the duration of the post. Our ambition will be to support the postdoctoral researcher to build skills, experience, and collaborations to launch a successful career in either metaresearch or research policy.

The postdoc will have opportunity to creatively input to projects and develop independent funding applications such as fellowship proposals, as well as lead authorship on project outputs including journal publications. There will be opportunities for travel and research visits with our international partners. The postdoc will also have the chance to present research to academic audiences at conferences, as well as other meetings involving RoRI stakeholders.

We expect to be able to advertise this position in late October 2022, aiming for a January 2023 start and ending 2027. The University supports hybrid working, with an expectation that you would be on campus two days a week, with flexibility around this.

We welcome applicants from diverse intellectual and demographic backgrounds. Our team is strongly committed to work-life balance and we will support you to manage your time and not expect you to work outside of your paid hours.

The University of Sheffield is a member of the Russell Group of research intensive universities, has one of the largest researcher communities in the UK and has been recognised as one of the top employers in the UK for LGBT+ workplace equality.