Research Associate (Insect Behaviour)

Salary: £34,866 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: 09 December 2024

The Role

Your role…. 

We are seeking to appoint a postdoctoral Research Associate (1 FTE for 2.5 years with a start date of 1st February 2025).

Are you interested in finding out how bee cognition is affected by different environments? Do you want to develop measures to investigate cognitive states in wild bees?

The project… 

We are looking for a motivated post-doctoral Research Associate to join our research team. Our group investigates insect vision and cognition in a comparative context, focussing on praying mantises and bumblebees. This project will follow our recent work on emotion-like states in bees and their importance for understanding insect welfare (e.g. Procenko et al 2023 https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.10.06.561175). You will develop new methods for measuring emotion-like states in the field and use them to evaluate how wild bees cope in different environments.

You will be integrated into a vibrant research lab and will be encouraged to develop your independent research skills in a friendly and supportive environment. This project will provide you with the opportunity to develop skills in designing and running behavioural experiments, animal welfare, automated video analysis and data analysis.

We are committed to the professional career development of all team members. You will benefit from a range of excellent development opportunities including training, mentoring and institutional membership of specialist networking groups.

For more information about our team, please click here

This role involves field experiments, and we anticipate considerable time working off the university campus. However, there will plenty of time outside of the field season for related work in the lab. 

This post is fixed term for a period of 31 months, with a start date of 1st February 2025.  

Informal enquiries are very welcome- please contact Vivek Nityananda, Senior Lecturer, Newcastle University at vivek.nityananda@newcastle.ac.uk

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/

Appointment is subject to Occupational Health Pre-Placement check.  You will be contacted by our Occupational Health team to arrange the checks. 

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 others and in time develop own research objectives and proposals for funding 
•    Begin to write, with appropriate support, proposals for individual research funding or, where funders do not permit this, contribute to the writing of collective bids
•    Assess research findings for the need/scope for further investigations
•    Contribute to the writing up of their 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
•    Designing and implementing set-ups and stimuli investigating cognitive biases and reward-related behaviour in wild bees in the field
•    Designing and implementing experiments investigating these behaviours in the field
•    Evaluating behavioural data using video recordings as well as statistical models

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

•    Ability to work well as part of a team and rapidly acquire new skills
•    Detailed subject knowledge in animal behaviour
•    Likelihood of advanced skills directly related to the research projects 
•    High level of analytical and problem-solving capability 
•    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
•    Experience researching animal behaviour
•    Excellent all-round technical skills
Desirable

•    Knowledge of and experience researching insect behaviour, especially bee behaviour
•    Knowledge of and experience researching animal behaviour in the field, ideally with bees or other insects
•    Knowledge of and experience researching stress or animal welfare
•    Data analysis including video data analysis and statistical modelling, especially using R
 

Attributes and Behaviour

•    Capacity to work independently and take the initiative on projects

Desirable

•    Commitment to promoting open science and reproducibility

Qualifications

•    A PhD in in a scientific area involving animal behaviour is required

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: 27717