Postdoctoral Research Associate Full-time

Postdoctoral Research Associate

The University of Oxford is a stimulating work environment which enjoys an international reputation as a world-class centre of excellence. Our research plays a key role in tackling many global challenges, from reducing our carbon emissions to developing vaccines during a pandemic.

We are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity to join STARPOL (Socio-Spatial Thermal justice, A new analytics model for navigating polycrises), a new £1.18m UKRI funded project led by an interdisciplinary team examining psychological, architectural, genetic, and engineering determinants of thermal injustice in housing. The project is led by University of Strathclyde together with Universities of Oxford, Bath, and Edinburgh and involves working with internationally leading experts in experimental/environmental psychology, architecture, design, engineering, law and genetics as well as leading industry experts across sectors. The post is based on at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford but would involve close collaboration with the other institutions and occasional travel to Strathclyde, Bath, and Edinburgh.

The post is fixed-term for 2 years and is offered on a full-time basis working 37.5 hours per week with a start date of 1 July 2026 or as soon as possible after. Located in the new, purpose-built Life and Mind Building a multidisciplinary research and teaching facility.

The aim of STARPOL is to co-develop a new transformative interdisciplinary thermal justice design model that combines for the first time architectural, psychological, engineering, legal and genetic knowledge on domestic thermal comfort. Despite established research, policy, metrics and models on thermal comfort, evidence of thermal injustice in housing is growing, with links being made to rising chronic health conditions, hospital admissions and in some instances tragically death. With combined interconnected climate change, cost of living, public health and housing (poly)crises, the challenge is not only a housing issue – it is a design, biological, architectural, legal and psychological problem. Without addressing this problem through interdisciplinary approaches, the continued impacts on society especially NHS are significant.

As a Research Associate, you will play a lead role in relation to a design and delivery of Work packages led by the University of Oxford supported by the Work Package led by University of Strathclyde involving qualitative data collection methods and liaising closely with practising architects, biomedical engineers, and, on occasion, engineers across the UK.

We would like to hear from you if you already have a PhD in experimental/environmental psychology and/or applied crossmodal research. Along with the ability to design largescale studies to collect and/or analyse and understand quantitative (and possibly also qualitative) data sets and information. An emerging publication record, and research interests that align with the applied multisensory themes of the project, namely, experimental and/or environmental psychology, multisensory perception research, are also required.

To be successful in this role you will have an understanding of interdisciplinary research methods, possibly with developed knowledge and engagement in thermal comfort research in buildings, with an understanding of how to apply theory as well as an interest in momentary psychological evaluation and the scraping of online sources of data using the latest in sentiment analysis techniques. Along with the ability to work collaboratively and flexibly with a range of disciplines including architecture, design, biomedical engineering, and legal anthropology. Also required is extensive experience in designing and conducting experimental research, and evaluating both qualitative and quantitative research findings. You should also have experience of successfully working in research-intensive environments and preferably on research projects that involve some form of industry collaboration. Prior experience working with interdisciplinary research methods is also highly desirable.

As an employer, we genuinely care about our employees' wellbeing and this is reflected in the range of benefits that we offer including: an excellent contributory pension scheme, 38 days annual leave, a comprehensive range of childcare services, family leave schemes, cycle loan scheme, discounted bus travel and season ticket travel loans, membership to a variety of social and sports clubs.

Applications for this vacancy are to be made online. You will be required to upload a supporting statement addressing the selection criteria, your CV, and the contact details of two referees as part of your application. The closing date for applications is midday on 29 May 2026 and only applications received by this date will be considered.