Senior Research Associate (EASY-RES)

Ref; A2951
Senior Research Associate (EASY-RES)
Department: School of Computing and Communications
Salary: £34804 - £40322
Closing Date: 8 March 2020
Contract: Fixed Term

A senior research associate (postdoctoral) position is available to undertake exciting and ambitious research as part of the EU funded H2020 project Enable Ancillary Services bY Renewable Energy Sources (EASY-RES).  The project deals with the challenges to the electricity grid due to renewable sources and heterogeneous contributors. Our research is concerned with the ICT backend for secure and resilient data communication through a programmable ICT infrastructure aligning with advanced networking technologies such as Network Function Virtualisation (NFV). Strong focus exists on the end-to-end (E2E) provision of data processing, analysis and visualisation to support Transmission System Operators (TSOs) and Distribution System Operators (DSOs) function and processes (e.g. accounting, optimisation and control support).

This project involves the following broad themes of research.

• Programmable networking (e.g., using P4) for the support of Smart Grid communication functions.
• Embedded systems development (e.g., Raspberry Pi development) for the support of Smart Grid communication functions.
• Secure communication and analysis of available communication infrastructure 

1. including security and privacy schemes for non-local control data collection and processing and  
2. Privacy-aware Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI) cryptosystem for secure end-to-end data communication. 

You should have a background in computer science, computer engineering, or related areas with past experience on the practical implementation and development of networked/embedded systems and network security protocols. Further, a good understanding of electricity grid operations is beneficial. The outcome of the research must contribute to the project but it is also expected that the results are published in high-quality research papers on the foregoing themes in order to disseminate results. Other research activities have to be undertaken as needed. Please see Job Description for further details.

A PhD or equivalent degree in computer science or a closely-related field is required for this position.  The ideal applicant will have a track record of high-quality publications in areas of relevance to the project and the willingness to undertake ambitious and challenging research.  For more details, please see the detailed Person Specification for this position.

We are committed to family-friendly and flexible working policies on an individual basis, as well as the Athena SWAN Charter, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice undertaken to address gender equality in higher education and research.

The position is fixed term until 30 June 2021 and is available to start as soon as possible. 

Interested candidates should contact Dr. Angelos Marnerides for further inquiries (angelos.marnerides@lancaster.ac.uk). 

We welcome applications from people in all diversity groups.