Postdoctoral Research Associate

Durham, North East England, United Kingdom Durham University Working at Durham University

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The Project

Reimagining Pathways into Environmental Science through Showcasing Technical Careers' is a 29- month project at Durham University funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The project aims to empower young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds into a technical career in environmental science. Part of the NERC 'Opening up the Environment 2026' work programme, the project seeks to lead and influence opportunities to enable a technical career. It collaborates with environmental science partners to develop opportunities for young people to consider a career in environmental science. It will evaluate and embed learnings from the project that will influence T Level policy and curriculum development. The project has workstreams around the promotion of technical careers, T Level placements, and policy and partnerships between regional Further Education colleges and environmental science industrial partners.

The PDRA role is an exciting opportunity to make an important contribution to enhancing this project through providing expertise in evaluation and policy influence through the project's workstreams. Working alongside another research and innovation associate, the PDRA will shape the approach to evaluation of the workstreams and theory of change development and work with the Project Team to embed policy insights into Technical and T Level environmental science opportunities that will be disseminated to stakeholders including Further Education Colleges, regional industrial and business partners and national technical organisations.

The project team are also committed to supporting your development through excellent opportunities to develop your career in an exciting and progressive institution. Alongside working as part of the project team, you will have the opportunity to continue to develop your career within your home discipline as part of our world-leading academic departments. You will have an appropriate departmental affiliation and opportunities to take part in departmental activities. Durham University is committed to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and many of our departments hold an Athena SWAN Bronze or Silver award. Athena SWAN is a national initiative that recognises the advancement of gender equality, representation, progression and success for all in academia.

The Role

The postholder will be embedded in the project team and will have access to a home academic discipline within the University. The post-holder's line manager will be Helen Cramman, Associate Professor in the School of Education and Head of Researcher Development and Co-Lead. On a day-to-day basis they will be working collaboratively across the project team and the Project Advisory Group. The team includes PL: Neil Tunstall (Department of Geography) the co-leads: Beth Upex (Department of Archaeology), Andrew Moss (Research and Innovation Services), Johanna Thren (Department of Anthropology), Lorraine Coghill (Faculty of Science), Sophie Edwards (Department of Earth Sciences), Sophie Laidler (Department of Archaeology), Tim Hawkins (Department of Biosciences), a project manager and 3 research assistants. We are a cross-departmental and cross-faculty team and will be based in a collaborative space. We also offer the opportunity for flexible hybrid working subject to the business delivery requirements of the project.

Key Responsibilities

The successful applicant will be expected to:

• To understand and convey material of a specialist or highly technical nature to the team or group of people through presentations and discussions that leads to the presentation of research papers in conferences and publications.
• To work with the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder and other colleagues in the research group, as appropriate, to identify areas for research, develop new research methods and extend the research portfolio.
• To liaise with research colleagues and make internal and external contacts to develop knowledge and understanding to form relationships for future research collaboration.
• To conduct research and embed evaluation design principles into the workstreams across the NERCOUTE2026 project
• To enable the evaluation-design and intervention of NERCOUTE 2026 including exploring the implementation and impact of environmental science focussed:
  • Newly created processes for T Level placements at Durham University and industry partners
  • Resources and networks created between the project and Further Education college curriculum leads
  • The University Environmental Science Technical Champions network
  • Policy interventions with local and national technical-skills stakeholders
• To participate in meetings of the NERCOUTE2026 project team, including preparing reports on progress.
• To prepare and deliver presentations on research outputs/activities to audiences which may include: research sponsors, academic and non-academic audiences.
• To publish high quality outputs, including papers for submission to peer reviewed journals and papers for presentation at conferences and workshops under the direction of the Project Lead.
• To assist with the development and delivery of research objectives and proposals.
• To deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines by discussing with the Project Lead and offering creative or innovative solutions.
• To plan and manage own research activity, research resources in collaboration with others and contribute to the planning of research projects.
• To contribute to liaison with other NERCOUTE2026 projects across the UK to promote collaboration across the research culture field and develop knowledge and understanding to form relationships for future research collaboration.
• To contribute to fostering a collegial and respectful working environment which is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect.
• To engage in wider citizenship to support the department and wider discipline.
• To engage in continuing professional development by