Grade 7,  £34,304-£40,927 per annum

College of Science and Engineering, School of Informatics           

Fixed-term, Full time (35 hours per week)

Available for 12 months

1 post available

The Institute for Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh, wishes to appoint a Research Associate to support the “Peoplehood ” project. The Peoplehood project is funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, and is focused on co-designing new demonstrator neighbourhoods and place-based, data-enabled services to support independent and healthy living in later life.

The Opportunity:

The Institute for Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh, wishes to appoint a Research Associate to support the “Peoplehood ” project. The Peoplehood project is funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, and is focused on co-designing new demonstrator neighbourhoods and place-based, data-enabled services to support independent and healthy living in later life. The project is led by Blackwood Homes, a leading specialist housing and care provider, and involves a team of 11 industrial and academic partners working at the intersection of care, ageing and data. The University of Edinburgh team are leading on a range of co-design activities across the project, involving people who live in Blackwood’s homes in creating the vision and provision within these new neighbourhoods.

This specific post will focus on a strand of work within the project exploring the informal networks of care that exist within communities. Through co-design and futuring techniques, we seek to re-imagine informal forms of care provided within and across family, community and peer networks, and the types of “value” different people and stakeholders in these networks gain from relational aspects of care. The researcher in this post will lead on co-design and futurng workshops with people living in Blackwood homes, and work with a design technician to prototype and evaluate concepts for new data-driven services that build networks of reciprocity between groups of people. The post-holder will also be responsible for guaranteeing the security of any data that is generated through the project for the duration of the contract.

The post holder will work closely with the Design Informatics project Co-investigators (John Vines and Chris Speed), a Design Technician who will be responsible for prototyping, and the team at Blackwood who will help facilitate engagement with community members.

The post holder should have experience in conducting co-design and participatory design activities, qualitative research including conducting interviews and documenting the co-design research process, and be comfortable with working with a large network of collaborative partners. Experience of using futuring techniques (e.g. design fictions, speculative design) to stimulate discussion amongst publics will be a strength.

Applicants should have a PhD in design, human-computer interaction, interaction design, or a related area of research. They should be able to demonstrate experience in the collection and analysis of qualitative data and in a range of ethnographic and co-design methods. The post holder will have excellent oral and written communication skills, and demonstrable experience of successful project delivery and working as part of a team.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

The following criteria are considered essential to the post:

• A PhD or equivalent professional qualification (or near completion) in design, human-computer interaction, interaction design or a related area of research
• Knowledge of design-related research methods, including participatory design and design futuring techniques
• Experience with implementation of design ideas and concepts into experience prototypes
• Experience with qualitative data collection and analysis
• Prior experience of publishing within Design, Social Sciences and/or Human-Computer Interaction communities
• Ability to disseminate results of research to a variety of audiences through high-quality academic publications, summary reports and oral presentations

The following criteria are considered desirable:

• Experience with ethnography-based methods
• Experience of working in interdisciplinary research environments, or on projects with multiple stakeholders
• Experience of and/or expertise in design for later life and ageing

Feedback is only provided to interviewed candidates.

For informal enquiries please contact: Professor John Vines, john.vines@ed.ac.uk

Please ensure a CV and supporting statement is provided in your application.

Click here for a copy of the full job description.

As a valued member of our team you can expect:

An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. We give you support, nurture your talent and reward success. You will benefit from a competitive reward package and a wide range of staff benefits, which includes a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family friendly initiatives, flexible working and much more. Access our staff benefits page for further information and use our reward calculator to find out the total value of pay and benefits provided.

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.

If invited for interview you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK.  Further information is available on our right to work webpages.

The University is able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role.  If successful, an international applicant requiring sponsorship to work in the UK will need to satisfy the UK Home Office’s English Language requirements and apply for and secure a Skilled Worker Visa.