Research Assistant/ Associate Informatician - MYO-Guide and AI projects

Salary:

Reserach Assistant: £32,296 - £33,232 per annum

Research Associate: £34,866 - £45,163 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 15 November 2024

The Role

We are seeking to appoint an informatician for the project “Implementing an Artificial Intelligence Module in the web platform MYO-Share”. The project focuses on the development of an Artificial Intelligence system to automatically diagnose patients with different neuromuscular diseases and deploying the model on a web platform. The web platform has already seen some development and is available at www.myoguide.org. The platform serves as an entry point for the project, offering information to collaborators, clinicians and patients. The platform also offers an interface to interact with the diagnosis model, allowing users to send patient data to the server and request a prediction of diagnosis We are seeking to improve and expand the platform with new functionalities. We also aim to bring the platform to a professional level by incorporating industry best practices, ensuring cross-browser and cross-device compatibility.

Your role will involve improving and expanding the web application, help in the research area by contributing with Python code, generate and disseminate visual content for brand promotion, public involvement, and project presentations.

This post is fixed term until 15 November 2026. 

For informal enquiries contact: Prof Jordi Diaz Manera (Jordi.diaz-manera@newcastle.ac.uk)

Find out more about the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre here: https://jwmdrc.org/ 

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/ 

Find out more about our Research Institutes here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/research/institutes/

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of research role profiles.  These profiles set out firstly the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and secondly the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level.

Key Accountabilities

• Although working under the general guidance of an academic or Principal Investigator, the postholder will contribute ideas, including enhancements to the technical or methodological aspects of their studies, thus providing substantial 'added value'
• Develop and carry out the specified project using appropriate techniques and equipment as outlined in the personal requirements
• Determine appropriate methodologies for research, with advice and support where required
• Contribute to grant applications submitted by the PI of the group
• Assess research findings for the need/scope for further investigations
• Contribute to the writing up of the research for publication and dissemination, either through seminar and conference presentations or through publications
• Present research findings, either at conferences or through publications in reputable outlets appropriate to the discipline
• May be involved in the supervision, with guidance, of final year undergraduate research projects and in providing support to postgraduate research students or Research Assistants 
• Will need to work with the support staff and, on occasions, with undergraduate and postgraduate students, and interact intellectually with other academic members of the Institute
• May contribute to events celebrating the public engagement of science/social sciences/humanities
• Develop an awareness of University structures, policies and procedures and relevant issues in the higher education, research, social and political environment

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Ability to work well as part of a team and rapidly acquire new skills
• Detailed demonstrable knowledge in the area of programming and informatics
• Likelihood of advanced skills directly related to the research projects
• Ability to communicate complex information with clarity and to encourage the commitment of others
• Experience of research with clear transferable skills and some experience or awareness of the research environment 
• Presentations at conferences and/or high-quality publications
• Intermediate/Advanced knowledge in Python, backend development (ideally in Django), frontend development, git and github
• Demonstrable experience, either academic, professional or personal, in the points. The applicant may share a github/bitbucket/gitlab profile

Desirable

• Knowledge of graphic design software (photoshop, gimp, inkscape, Adobe Illustrator,)
• Knowledge on cybersecurity applied to web development

Attributes and Behaviour

• Natural programmer, able to solve problems creatively by writing Python programs

Desirable

• Skills in visual content creation for product branding, public and patient involvement activities, project presentations

Qualifications

• Good honours degree (or equivalent) with some subject knowledge in the relevant area (Research Assistant)
• A PhD in the research area required (Research Associate)

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 27729