Senior Research Associate

Lancaster University; Lancaster; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational institution in England is seeking a Senior Research Associate to contribute to the CELIA project, focusing on language analysis for EU+ migration authorities. This full-time role requires a PhD in a relevant field and offers an agile working opportunity between on and off campus. The ideal candidate will have experience in language technologies and data visualization, contributing to innovative approaches in speech science.

Qualifications

• Experience with large datasets of speech recordings.
• Demonstrable experience with language technologies.
• Ability to meet project deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Adapt and test automatic accent/dialect classification technology.
• Generate results and data visualizations.
• Evaluate system performance collaboratively.
• Contribute to project reports and academic outputs.

Skills

Learning and testing new methods

Data visualization

Project management

Programming (Python)

Education

PhD in speech science, linguistics, or related discipline

Job description

Overview

Job Purpose

Linguistics and English Language within the School of Social Sciences at Lancaster University is seeking to appoint a Senior Research Associate to work on a subproject of the Common European Language Indication and Analysis (CELIA) project. The EU-funded CELIA project aims to innovate, optimise and improve the language analysis procedures that EU+ migration authorities use when investigating asylum seekers’ identities and countries of origin.

In close collaboration with colleagues at the University of York, the Lancaster-led subproject specifically contributes towards the methodological development and testing of automatic and semi-automatic language indications for Arabic language variants. The subproject turns to solutions in linguistics, speech science and speech technology to feed into this strand of the CELIA project. In line with the guiding principles of the CELIA project, the specific methods in focus promote explainability, transparency and use of reliable gold-standard training data.

Key Responsibilities

• Adapt and test existing automatic accent/dialect classification technology
• Generate results and data visualisations to reflect system performance under different conditions
• Collaborate with the project team to objectively evaluate system performance
• Contribute to the development of project reports and academic outputs

Person specification / Qualifications

It is not expected that the postholder will be already familiar with automatic accent/dialect classification systems, but they will have demonstrable experience in learning, using and testing new methods and language technologies. In addition, the postholder will have demonstrated that they can meet project deadlines and report results through a range of presentation modes (e.g., oral presentations, written reports and publications).

The postholder will have a PhD in speech science, speech technology, linguistics, data science, computer science or related discipline. Ideally, they will have experience in working with large datasets of speech recordings or language through programming with a language like Python or similar.

Additional information

A parallel post is also being advertised at the University of York for a researcher with specialisms in Arabic.

The successful applicant will be in post by 1st December 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter. The post is full-time and fixed term for 24 months. The role will be based at our Bailrigg campus in Lancaster, but agile working may be possible in this role, providing the opportunity for the postholder to split their working time between on and off campus.

Lancaster University is highly ranked and research-led and situated near the historic city of Lancaster. The North West of England offers high standards of living, beautiful countryside, including the Lake District, and excellent national and international transport connectivity. For more information, see Jobs - Lancaster University.