Overview
You will join the University of Glasgow as a Research Assistant / Associate and contribute to/make a leading contribution to the EU Climinvest project, which aims to develop technology to support the assessment and creation of bankable and sustainable climate investments. Working with Information Retrieval experts Prof Iadh Ounis, Prof Craig Macdonald and Dr Richard McCreadie, the postholder will be exploring the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in developing AI agents for the risk and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) assessment of sustainability-focused green investment projects. The postholder will also develop innovative search and recommendation solutions to support banks, investment firms and other stakeholders find suitable exemplars to use as templates for future climate projects. The successful candidate will also contribute to the formulation and submission of research publications and research proposals as well as help manage and direct this complex and challenging project as opportunities allow.
Main Duties And Responsibilities
* Plan and conduct assigned research individually or jointly in accordance with the project deliverables and project/group/School/College research strategy.
* Document research output including analysis and interpretation of all data, maintaining records and databases, drafting technical/progress reports and papers as appropriate.
* Develop and enhance your research profile and reputation and that of The University of Glasgow/School/Research Group, including contributing to publications of international quality in high profile/quality refereed journals, enhancing the research impact in terms of economic/societal benefit, and gathering indicators of esteem.
* Contribute to the presentation of work at international and national conferences, at internal and external seminars, colloquia and workshops to develop and enhance our research profile.
* Contribute to the identification of potential funding sources and to assist in the development of proposals to secure funding from internal and external bodies to support future research.
* Collaborate with colleagues and participate in team/group meetings/seminars/workshops across the research Group/School/College/University and wider community.
* Contribute to the organisation, supervision, mentoring and training of undergraduate and/or postgraduate students and less experienced members of the project team to ensure their effective development.
* Perform administrative tasks related to the activities of the research group and School, including Budgets/Expenditure.
* Carry out modest Teaching activities (e.g demonstrating etc) and associated admin as assigned by the Head of School and in consultation with Principal Investigator.
* Keep up to date with current knowledge and recent advances in the field/discipline.
* Engage in continuing professional development activities as appropriate.
* Undertake any other duties of equivalent standing as assigned by the Head of School/Director of Research Institute.
* Contribute to the enhancement of the University’s international profile in line with the University’s Strategic Plan, World Changers Welcome.
For Appointment At Grade 7
* Perform the above duties with a higher degree of independence, leadership and responsibility, particularly in relation to planning, funding, collaborating and publishing research, and mentoring colleagues.
* Establish and sustain a track record of independent and joint published research to establish and maintain your expert reputation in the subject area.
* Survey the research literature and environment, understand the research challenges associated with the project and subject area, and develop/implement a suitable research strategy.
Knowledge & Qualifications
Essential
* A1 SCQF Level 10 (Honours degree) in a relevant subject or a cognate discipline, or equivalent.
* A2 Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of Information Retrieval, Recommender Systems, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence (applied to text or financial data).
* A3 A comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge of the wider subject area or subject specialism in Information Retrieval, Recommender Systems, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence.
* A4 Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge in Large Language Models, Agentic Artificial Intelligence, and/or research in Conversational Search, Conversational Recommendation, Question Answering or related applications.
For Appointment At Grade 7
* A5 Normally Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 12 (PhD) plus track record of emerging independence within a research/professional environment, or alternatively possess professional qualifications and experience equivalent to PhD level plus the requisite experience.
Desirable
* B1 An awarded (or recently submitted or near completion) PhD in subject specialism or equivalent.
Skills
* C1 Knowledge of specialist IT software (eg. PyTerrier, SKLearn, Keras, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Docker, Openshift) as appropriate.
* C2 Research creativity and cross-discipline collaborative ability as appropriate.
* C3 Excellent communication skills (oral and written), including public presentations and ability to communicate complex data/concepts clearly and concisely.
* C4 Excellent interpersonal skills including team working and a collegiate approach.
* C5 Appropriate workload/time/project/budget/people management skills
* C6 Extensive IT and data analysis/interpretation skills as appropriate.
* C7 Self-motivation, initiative and independent thought/working.
* C8 Problem solving skills including a flexible and pragmatic approach.
Experience
* E1 Sufficient relevant research experience (or equivalent) appropriate to an early career researcher.
* E2 Experience of empirical research in information retrieval, artificial intelligence and machine learning, gained in a leading research environment.
* E3 Experience of conducting systematic reviews in relevant area.
* E4 Experience of scientific writing.
* E5 Proven ability to deliver quality outputs in a timely and efficient manner.
* E6 Evidence of an emerging track record of publications in a relevant field.
For Appointment At Grade 7
* E7 Sufficient depth of relevant research experience, normally including sufficient postdoctoral experience in Information Retrieval, Recommender Systems, Machine Learning and/or Artificial Intelligence, appropriate to an early career researcher.
* E8 A strong track record of presentation and publication of research results in quality publications/conferences (e.g. CORE A* or CORE A ranked conferences) such as ACM SIGIR, ACL, EMNLP, ICML, AAAI, NeurIPS.
* E9 Experience of making distinct contributions to identifying and pursuing research funding (or equivalent business development) applications.
* E10 Experience of planning and progressing work activities within professional guidelines or organisational policy, applying initiative and independent judgement.
* E11 Proven commitment to supporting the career development of colleagues and to other forms of collegiality appropriate to the career stage, including some experience of research project supervision.
* E12 Commitment to open research, as appropriate to the discipline, through open data, open code, open educational resources and practices that support replication.
Desirable
* F1 Experience in Financial Technology or Green Technology Applications
* F2 Experience of participating in activities that translate research into impact to benefit the economy and wider society.
Closing date
Closing date: 11 September 2025
Terms & Conditions
Salary will be Grade6/7, £33,951 - £37,694 / £41,064 - £46,049 per annum
This post is full time and has funding available for up to 2 years.
The University of Glasgow has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK. If you require a Skilled Worker visa to work in the UK, you will be required to meet the eligibility requirements of the visa route to be assigned a Certificate of Sponsorship.
Please note that this post may be eligible to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker visa route if tradeable points can be used under the Skilled Worker visa rules. For more information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.
Benefits
* 1 A warm welcoming and engaging organisational culture, where your talents are developed and nurtured, and success is celebrated and shared.
* 2 An excellent employment package with generous terms and conditions including 41 days of leave for full time staff, pension - pensions handbook https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/payandpensions/pensions/, benefits and discount packages.
* 3 A flexible approach to working.
* 4 A commitment to support your health and wellbeing, including a free 6-month UofG Sport membership for all new staff joining the University https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/staff/healthwellbeing/.
Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of our values. Applications are particularly welcome from across our communities and in particular people from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community, and other protected characteristics who are under-represented within the University. Read more on how the University promotes and embeds all aspects of equality and diversity within our community https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/.
We endorse the principles of Athena Swan https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/athenaswan/ and hold bronze, silver and gold awards across the University.
We are investing in our organisation, and we will invest in you too. Please visit our website https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/jobs/ for more information.
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