Funded PhD Position - ISEY and Leverhulme Trust

European Commission; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 22,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading research institute is offering a funded PhD position focusing on understanding how young brains track screen media and information. The project promises a competitive grant covering tuition and maintenance, with mentoring from renowned supervisors across multiple institutions. Ideal for candidates with a strong analytical background in neuroimaging and data analytics.

Benefits

Access to additional funding for research training

Support for conference attendance and fieldwork

Qualifications

• Experience of collecting neuroimaging and/or wearable data from infants/children is desirable.
• Experience of advanced data analytics is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Collecting and analyzing EEG, fNIRS, and home wearable recordings from babies and children.
• Leveraging techniques to measure how young brains track information content in real-time.

Skills

Advanced data analytics

Coding in Matlab

Coding in Python

Neuroimaging data collection

Wearable data collection

Education

Relevant Bachelor's degree

Job description

Organisation/Company UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON Research Field Educational sciences Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) First Stage Researcher (R1) Country United Kingdom Application Deadline 17 Aug 2025 - 00:00 (UTC) Type of Contract Other Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Location

Stratford Campus

Salary

The studentship will cover full tuition fees at the Home (UK-based) student rate and a maintenance grant for 3 years, at the rate of £21,237 pa.

Post Type

Full Time

Closing Date

Sunday 17 August 2025

Reference

PHD002-25

A funded PhD position is available on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Description below:

The density of information content in screen media – i.e., the light, volume and pitch changes from which we extract meaning – has increased continuously since we have been producing it. Our brains work by generating and testing predictions – but younger brains, which are messy and inefficient, are presumably less good at ‘keeping up’ with fast-paced information. What happens when information is presented ‘too fast’ for our brains to keep up with? Curiously, this question has received virtually no research. We propose to leverage state-of-the-art techniques to measure how young brains track information content within screen media in real-time.

The project will involve collecting and analysing EEG, fNIRS and home wearable recordings from babies and children. Experience of advanced data analytics, including if possible experience of coding in Matlab and/or Python, is highly desirable. Experience of collecting neuroimaging and/or wearables data from infants/children is also desirable.

The project will be based at the Institute for the Science of Early Years (www.isey.org ) in London, UK. Supervision will be by Prof Sam Wass (www.profsamwass.com ) (UEL, UK), with Prof Davidson (UEL, UK), Prof Rachel Barr (Georgetown, US) and Dr Sarah Jessen (Lübeck, Germany) as co-supervisors. The PhDs will start in Sept 25 or Jan 26.

Funding Notes

The studentship will cover full tuition fees at the Home (UK-based) student rate and a maintenance grant for 3 years, at the rate of £21,237 pa.The Studentship also comes with access to additional funding in the form of a research training support grant which is available to fund conference attendance, fieldwork, secondments, etc.

For more information, and details of how to apply, please contact the ISEY technical director, Muhammad Ehatisham Ul [e-mail] .