Research Associate (EEG Analysis) in the Department of Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Sciences

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences for a post-doc to join the world class academic team in neurodevelopmental disorders. This role involves working as part of an international multidisciplinary team, including university and industry collaborators, to develop EEG analytic pipelines. They will contribute to the deliverables of AIMS-2-TRIALS – the world’s largest grant for autism. They will be responsible for developing new processing pipelines to analyse EEG data at scale from a range of multi-site clinical observational research and drug challenge studies, and clinical trials.

The successful candidate will bridge the gap between psychological/neuroscientific domain expertise and data science. They will also support other researchers and PhD students, develop novel scientific questions in brain development and lead on the analysis of specific aspects of translational science depending on their areas of expertise.

There are two posts available and both will be offered on full-time, fixed term contracts for 2 years.

Key responsibilities

• Develop pre-processing pipelines and task analyses.   
• Write efficient, reusable code that scales to samples with thousands of participants.  
• Work as part of an international team, collaborating with experts in functional imaging, eye tracking, genetics and clinical characterisation.  
• To discover, validate and translate biomarkers in neurodevelopmental cohorts. 
• Publish novel findings in peer-reviewed journals.   
• Identify roadblocks and help to find solutions (with the study leads) 
• To ensure that milestones and deliverables are on time – and that scientific findings are being maximally exploited 
• Writing technical reports of the progress of the study 
• To integrate with the wider Institute and AIMS-2-TRIALS network. 
• To track tasks, deliverables and milestones committed to the EU 

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria  

1.       PhD awarded (or submitted) in psychology, neuroscience or related field. 

2.       Advanced knowledge of EEG data processing and analysis.  

3.       Proven ability to write efficient Matlab code.  

4.       Understanding of EEG acquisition and quality control. 

5.       Familiarity with a variety of EEG tasks and appropriate approaches for analysis. 

6.       Understanding of brain-behaviour relationships in the context of EEG research. 

7.       Excellent time and project management skills.  

8.       Understanding of developmental conditions (e.g. ASD, ADHD) 

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience with large datasets. 

2.       Experience with analysis pipeline development.  

3.       Understanding of biomarker and drug discovery. 

4.       Familiarity with Fieldtrip and EEGLab software.  

Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6. 

Further information

 This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearance.