Kew Research Fellow - Digital Revolution

Details

Reference number

346541

Salary

£39,066

Salary per annum

GBP

Job grade

Higher Executive Officer

Contract type

Fixed term

Length of employment

4 years

Business area

RBGK - Science

Type of role

Science

Working pattern

Full-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

• Location

• About the job

• Benefits

• Things you need to know

• Apply and further information

Location

Kew Gardens

About the job

Job summary

We are seeking applications from promising early-career scientists and data scientists with interesting, innovative, and viable research ideas for the Future Leader Fellowship.

The Future Leader Fellowship provides a unique opportunity for early-career researchers to develop their scientific portfolio and skills in a vibrant research environment, working with colleagues in Kew Science to make substantial contributions to challenges facing humanity.

Kew offers five Future Leader Fellowships each year, aligned across our Research Priorities. This Fellowship is within the Digital Revolution Priority. The successful candidate will be based at Kew.

Job description

Our flagship Future Leader Fellowship programme enables the brightest and most innovative young scientists to develop research projects in their field of expertise while gaining the necessary leadership and professional skills for the next stage of their careers.

Line managed by a senior researcher, the candidate will be benefit from opportunities for development that include but are not limited to - training workshops on topics from grant writing to research impact, a mentorship programme, bi-annual meetings with the Director of Science, and other chances for researcher-led training. They will also be able to apply for secondment and research funding internally and are encouraged to use this funding to travel for their research.

The Fellowship aims to provide early career researchers with an internationally outstanding level of training and professional development, empowering them to become established as independent research leaders in their discipline by the end of the Fellowship. This Fellowship is offered as a four-year research post based at Kew Gardens.

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (RBG Kew) holds a wealth of data about plants and fungi. Within Kews Science Strategy 2021-2025, Digital Revolution has been identified as a priority, putting the management and use of our digital assets at the heart of our scientific agenda.

This Future Leader Fellowship should support the delivery of Kews Science Strategy 2021-2025, and in particular the initiatives identified for the Digital Revolution priority including Digitisation of Kews collections, Knowledge Integration and Knowledge Sharing.

Person specification

The Future Leader Fellow appointed to this priority will be data literate and able to develop and deliver a research plan which harnesses Kews data to address real world challenges, such as the protection of the environment and the promotion of human health and welfare.

The successful candidate will be able to present a research plan demonstrating a proficiency in novel approaches applied to digital texts and images, integration of multi-modal data of diverse provenance, or detect hidden patterns in reference data to support classification, predictive modelling, and hypothesis generation. This may include using techniques such as automated segmentation image analysis, metadata combination including images, trend and modelling analysis from grounded data and the exploration of future image-based methodologies. Research areas could also include machine learning in Optical character recognition (OCR) and automated transcription of handwriting in multiple worldwide languages.

Please note that this post is suitable for students of any relevant subject, a biosciences qualification is not a requirement, although successful candidates will be data proficient and able to publish biodiversity impact papers and DOI datasets linked to data methodologies and analysis.

Benefits

Our fantastic benefits package includes opportunities for continuous learning, a generous annual leave entitlement, flexible working to help you maintain a healthy work-life balance, an Employee Assistance Programme and other wellbeing support such as cycle to work scheme and discounted gym membership. We also offer a competitive pension, an employee discount scheme and free entry into a wide range of national museums and galleries, as well access to our own beautiful gardens at Kew and Wakehurst.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To apply for this role please submit your application through the Kew Gardens website

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service