Research Associate

Cardiff Babylab is looking for two full-time Research Associates to join our team, which will be funded by UKRI. Our research examines infants and toddlers everyday experiences, with a particular focus on how attentional and motor development shapes the ways in which young children engage with, adapt to, shape, and learn from their everyday environments. We combine naturalistic and controlled approaches, using methods such as head-mounted cameras, screen-based and head-mounted eye-tracking, standardised behavioural assessments, observational measures, and computational analyses.

Our team brings together expertise from developmental psychology, computer science, and applied research. We study both typically developing infants and toddlers and young children with developmental conditions, with a particular programme of research focused on Down syndrome.

Responsibilities

The postholders will contribute to a range of ongoing projects investigating early development across naturalistic and controlled settings. The precise balance of activities can be tailored to the successful candidates backgrounds and interests. There will also be opportunities to work with existing datasets and to take an active role in developing analyses, publications, and conference presentations.

Typical responsibilities may include:

Working with naturalistic audio and video data alongside other developmental measures
Developing and implementing data processing and analysis workflows, including machine learning tools
Using computational modelling to create mechanistic accounts of early development
Supervising and training research assistants and students involved in data collection and annotation
Supporting data collection
Contributing to data management, documentation, and research governance
Participating in lab meetings and wider scientific activities
Leading or contributing to publications, conference presentations, and other research outputs

We are particularly interested in candidates whose expertise complements our work in developmental science, naturalistic measurement, behavioural methods, computational approaches, and multimodal data analysis. These roles offer substantial scope for candidates to develop their own research profile while contributing to the broader scientific programme of the Cardiff Babylab.

Research Environment

These positions offer an opportunity to join an active and collaborative developmental science environment and to gain experience working across complementary methodological approaches and research populations.

The successful candidate will be based at the Cardiff Babylab within the Cardiff University Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS). CUCHDS provides access to advanced facilities for developmental research, including state-of-the-art eye-tracking, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and magnetoencephalography using optically pumped magnetometers (OPM-MEG).

Candidates may also have opportunities to engage with the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), one of the largest and most technologically advanced imaging centres in Europe. Both CUCHDS and CUBRIC are part of Cardiff University s School of Psychology, which has a strong international reputation for research in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience and was ranked 6th in the UK for research power in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

The successful candidate will join a supportive, collaborative, and intellectually vibrant community that values curiosity, innovation, and rigorous scientific practice. We strongly encourage applications from researchers from underrepresented backgrounds and are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.

If you are motivated by big theoretical questions, excited by rich multimodal data, and eager to help shape a new, process-based science of development, we would love to hear from you.

Application Process

For informal enquiries, contact Dr. Hana D Souza (DSouzaH@cardiff.ac.uk).

These positions are full-time, 35 hours per week and fixed term for 12 months or until 14th May 2028, whichever is soonest.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age. We especially welcome and encourage applications from those who identify as LGBT +, Ethnic Minority or those with disabilities. In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

Cardiff University is a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions we will evaluate applicants on the quality of their research, not publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which the research is published. More information is available at: Responsible research assessment - Research - Cardiff University

Applications may be submitted in Welsh, and an application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application submitted in English.