16 Research Associate positions at University of Manchester, England

Applications are invited for a Research Associate to work on a CRUK-funded research programme. You will have the opportunity to define a research project based on your skills and experience, utilising a unique living biobank of patient-derived ovarian cancer models.

You will join Professor Stephen Taylor’s laboratory which specialises in cell biology and cancer pharmacology, with a focus on ovarian cancer and exploring novel treatments for this disease. Current research themes include: (i) PAR dynamics and DNA replication stress; (ii) SUMO and the tolerance of MYC overexpression; (iii) Taxol and post-mitotic apoptotic responses; and (iv) mechanisms underlying disease-specific chromosome instability. The project will align with these themes and we aim to attract a candidate that brings new skills to the team, e.g. CRISPR screening, proteomics, or in vivo drug sensitivity profiling.

This PDRA position is a key part of a collaborative Innovate UK Smart Grant “NetZeroSoph: Sustainable and Economic Sophorolipid Production for Net Zero Impact”. Based in the Winterburn Research Group at The University of Manchester the PDRA will join a strong, collaborative industry-academia team including Holiferm (https://holiferm.com/) and Evolutor (https://evolutor.bio/). The core aim of NetZeroSoph is to develop, through to pilot scale, biosurfactant production processes with drastically improved environmental and technoeconomic performance. This will be achieved through a combined engineering biology and fermentation process development approach, with success determined via key metrics based on robust techno-economic assessment and life cycle analysis. The development of circular, sustainable biosurfactant fermentation processes is critical to the reimagining of materials manufacturing, with biosurfactants having a key role in the future economy and the transition to net zero. In NetZeroSoph preliminary laboratory work on alternative feedstock utilisation at TRL2/3 will be progressed through to a “translation ready”, scalable process at TRL6, combined with engineering biology to improve yeast strain performance and deliver novel sophorolipid structures with new functionality.

This 7-month fixed term full-time post funded by the Manchester NIHR Biomedical Research Centre creates an opportunity to further your career in kidney “omics”, big data analysis and complex diseases! We are looking for a holder of University PhD degree in computational biology, bioinformatics, statistical genetics an experience in analysis of big data, genetics, transcriptomics and other “omics”. The post holder with contribute to investigations of human transcriptome and epigenome to dissect the molecular underpinnings of hypertension and identify its new diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Excellent programming skills and knowledge of recent developments in omics-based research are essential.

The research associates will join a large research team focusing on development of ceramics for high temperature application, which include applications in aeroengine, defence, and nuclear applications. This project will involve close collaboration with external partners including industry and research organisations. The research will be focused on processing and characterisation of ceramics, ceramic matrix composites and coatings. In addition, extensive characterisation of the materials will be carried out including microstructure, mechanical properties and residual stresses in the materials.

This unique Research Associate position is available for a material scientist to work in a multidisciplinary environment with particle physicists to develop the applications of 2D materials to photon sensors to increase sensitivity to short-wavelength light produced in noble element scintillation.

You should have, or be working towards, a PhD or equivalent in materials science, physics, nanotechnology or equivalent. Expertise in 2-D materials fabrication in a clean-room setting is essential. You should be capable of working under your own initiative and leading a small research team, so excellent communication and organisation skills are also required. 

You will design, develop and implement 2-D materials such as graphene or metasurfaces for applications to photon sensors to increase their sensitivity to short, vacuum ultraviolet, wavelengths. You will work predominantly in the clean rooms of the National Graphene Institute and in the Particle Physics Group laboratory in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The University of Manchester invites applications from outstanding candidates for the position of Research Associate to carry out a project on pharmacy workforce. The post will be available immediately and will be tenable until 31 March 2026. Funding is available to undertake this post on a full-time basis.

The successful applicant will join the Centre for Pharmacy Workforce Studies (CPWS) in collaboration with the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) and will work on a research project developing pharmacist personas. The post-holder will also be expected to work on other pharmacy workforce-related projects underway within the centres.

The Division is seeking to appoint a health economist with knowledge or experience in the design and use of economic evaluation of healthcare interventions using regression methods and/or decision-modelling. The appointed grade will depend on previous experience.  

Applications are welcomed for a Research Associate who will be a member of the Training and User Support team of the UKDS, based at the Cathie Marsh Institute (CMI).

The CMI team leads on the delivery of training events, on-demand training materials, helpdesk support and other training initiatives to provide data literacy training and knowledge exchange activities, particularly around the use of microdata (census microdata and government survey data) in research, learning and teaching across a range of disciplines.

You will also be a member of the UKDS Census Co-ordination Team which co-ordinates the promotion and more effective use of census microdata, flow data, boundary data and aggregate data. The Census Co-ordination Team includes Jisc who provide access to the aggregate data (tables), EDINA who provide supporting geographical products such as boundaries, UCL who hold the origin-destination data and CMI who lead on the census microdata. You will lead on co-ordinating training activities across the Census Co-ordination Team.

Applications are invited for a Research Associate to work with investigators at the Discovery Research Platform for Cell-Matrix Biology in Multiscale Imaging.

The extracellular matrix is a complex network of fibrillar proteins, glycoproteins and secreted factors that form complex assemblies essential for tissue structure and function. Most components of the extracellular matrix are large, insoluble multicomponent complexes which are extensively post-translationally modified. Within the Manchester Cell Matrix Centre, we have expertise in imaging all hierarchies of matrix, from high resolution structures of individual matrix proteins to tissue-level imaging. One of our research themes is to now integrate these imaging approaches to visualise matrix across scales. Therefore, the aim of this project is to integrate the imaging from the molecular to the tissue scale. Working with research groups across the Platform and with Facilities (Electron Microscopy, Bioimaging, eBiC and National X-ray Computed Tomography), you will develop 3D imaging approaches (eg cryo-electron tomography of adhesion complexes and correlated microCT and SBF-SEM of tissues) which will be applied to matrix samples, and to integrate these data from different length scales.

The Particle Physics group at the University of Manchester has a vacancy for a Postdoctoral Research Associate working on detector R&D for FASER upgrades and the Forward Physics Facility, with focus on applications of silicon tracking detectors. FASER (ForwArd Search ExpeRiment) is a small experiment at the LHC designed to study the interactions of high energy neutrinos and to provide world-leading sensitivity to the discovery of new light and weakly coupled particles. It is located 480 m from the ATLAS interaction point on the collision axis line-of-sight and is shielded by 100 m of concrete and rock. The Forward Physics Facility (FPF) is a proposed experimental cavern that could be built for the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). It would host several experiments, including the proposed FASER upgrade FASER2, that would be able to probe neutrinos and dark matter unlike any other existing experimental facility. The Manchester FASER group plays a leading role in the operation of the current FASER tracking detector and analysis of neutrino interactions using the electronic components of the FASER detector.

A Research Associate position is available at the University of Manchester to work on the UKRI/EPSRC funded project ad-ASSTRA: Towards A Sustainable Space Technology Roadmapping Architecture (6-months) and the University of Manchester funded project Visions of, and steps towards, an Environmentally Sustainable Space Future (6-months). You will be working with Dr Ciara McGrath, the Principal Investigator (PI) for the projects, collaborators at the MIT Astrodynamics, Space Robotics, and Controls Lab (ARCLab), and the interdisciplinary team at the University of Manchester.

A Postgraduate Research Associate position is available at the University of Manchester funded by an ESA project to develop a satellite-based atomic oxygen sensor. Under the guidance of Dr Peter Roberts, the UoM-PI for the project, this role will focus on the development of QCM-based sensing of atomic oxygen on satellites. In this role, you will develop performance models for the sensor, design a proof-of-concept article for testing, and will support the experimental de-risking activities at the ESTEC LEOX Facility.  

Applications are invited for a 4 year postdoctoral position available as part of the ERC Advanced Project “eTALK: embodied Thought for Abstract Language Knowledge”. The project will develop and test a novel cognitive developmental architecture utilising the latest generative deep learning models and developmental robotics methods for human-robot interaction experiments on the learning of concrete and abstract words via grounding transfer. Three case studies have been strategically planned to show the breadth and robustness of the proposed approach: (i) abstract word grounding for perceptual, motor and affective concepts, (ii) number word learning, and (iii) function words for demonstrative (deictic) prepositions, words about time and fuzzy quantifiers. This project is also link to the other ongoing grants on cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction at the Cognitive Robotics Lab.