Job Description

UE08 £42,149 - £50,296

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science/School of History, Classics and Archaeology and Edinburgh Future Institutes/ Archaeology    

Full time, 35 hours per week

5 year tenure track contract

CHANCELLOR’S FELLOWSHIP

5 year tenure track 
Grade 8 appointments. Exceptionally, an appointment at Grade 9 might be made.

Applications are sought for a Chancellor’s Fellowship in Text and Data Mining. This will be a joint appointment in the Edinburgh Futures Institute and the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, and will make a major contribution to the University’s Data Driven Innovation programme, in the areas of research, teaching and impact. 

Context 

The Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) is a global centre for multi-disciplinary, challenge-based Data Driven Innovation (DDI) research, teaching and engagement. Its distinctiveness stems from an approach which combines multi-disciplinarity with co-production – working with industry, governments and communities (at home and abroad) to build a portfolio of activity that has demonstrable ethical, social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts. This approach recognises that almost all of the biggest challenges facing societies globally, such as climate volatility, political discontent, economic upheaval and technological change are complex and multi-level in orientation. EFI seeks to address these challenges with insight and innovation developed from bringing the arts, humanities and the social sciences together with data science, engineering, the natural sciences and medicine.  

EFI  has responsibility for delivering six major programmes linked to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal: a multi-million pound investment by the UK and Scottish Government, aiming to attract inward investment, support skills development and entrepreneurship, with the aim of securing economic prosperity for all. The focus of EFI’s programmes are: creative industries; tourism and festivals; financial services (including fintech); public services; the ethics of data and artificial intelligence; and future infrastructure.  

The Institute is appointing a cohort of Chancellor’s Fellows over 2020/21 and 2021/22 to help drive research and innovation and support the development and delivery of its portfolio of postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. To support cross-University collaboration, each of these posts will be located in one of the University’s 21 Schools.

The School of History, Classics and Archaeology is part of the College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. It is co-located in a completely refurbished 'A' listed building designed by the distinguished Scottish architect, Sir Robert Rowand Anderson in the nineteenth century, with state of the art facilities for staff and students. The School combines the expertise of the departments of History, Classics and Archaeology along with the Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History, the Edinburgh Centre for Global History and the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Though each department has its own areas of special concern, there are many activities and interests in common and important synergies between disciplines. There is a full programme of seminars and conferences, and close links are also maintained with subjects in other Schools.

We are one of the largest, most distinguished and most highly ranked centres for the study of the human past in Europe, with over 140 teaching, research and administrative staff. Teaching is provided to around 1500 undergraduate and over 300 postgraduate students drawn from some 40 countries. Around 600 of our students are from outside the UK, reflecting the School's high international reputation.

The Opportunity

To support the next generation of academic research and innovation leaders in interdisciplinary thinking and data sciences and drive the outcomes of the City Deal, EFI appointed 5 new Chancellor’s Fellows in Data Driven Innovation in 2018.  To complement this, a further 5 Chancellor’s Fellows are to be recruited in strategic themes for EFI in 2020/21 and 2021/22. These prestigious awards are aimed at early career individuals of the highest potential and attainment who have begun to establish a reputation for the outstanding research at the forefront of their discipline and who have a commitment to learning and teaching at university level.  Candidates already holding an externally-funded Fellowship are welcome to transfer this to Edinburgh if the sponsor permits.  International candidates are welcome and will be supported through the process of visa application if required.

The present post, held jointly between the Edinburgh Futures Institute and the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, will focus on  data mining in relation to history and archaeology, expanding the thematic area within HCA and providing doctoral supervision within the School, teaching and supervising on EFI Masters programmes and courses, and helping to develop interdisciplinary, industry and public sector links across both EFI and HCA..  It is envisaged that the successful candidate will contribute to the development of the Data Driven Initiative, with the aim of creating new and socially beneficial partnerships. The Data Driven Initiative is part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal: https://www.ed.ac.uk/local/city-region-deal/about-data-driven-innovation

The research and expertise of the candidate may also contribute to the developing research theme in the Cultural and Creative Economies. This theme involves work in gaming, music, the visual arts, film, and graphic design. The theme also includes areas such as tourism, festivals, the exploration of the cultural heritage of Scotland and other countries.

Chancellor’s Fellows Scheme

The details of the scheme are as follows:

• Five year full-time tenure-track appointment
• These fellowships are intended to support candidates at the start of their independent academic careers. Subject to satisfactory review at the end of year 3, the post holder will then move to a standard University academic open-ended contract. 
• A remit to interdisciplinarity, notably engagement with others across the Data Driven Innovation (DDI) Programme and elsewhere with a focus on data-enabled research of the highest quality
• International or UK recruits
• During the first two years of the appointment, the role will focus more on research than teaching (current expectations are, approximately, 60% research, 30% teaching, 10% citizenship activities). Thereafter the post holder will progressively move towards the normal balance of teaching, research and administration for an academic role so that by the end of the five-year period they will have a normal academic balance of duties (that is, 40% research, 40% teaching, 20% citizenship activities). 
• The assessment at 3 years will assess all academic capabilities (research, teaching, innovation, engagement with external stakeholders, leadership)
• The post holder will be given substantial mentoring and development support through and beyond the Fellowship to help them gain grants, fellowships and industry engagement funding

Your skills and attributes for success: 

• A strong commitment to engagement with industry/public sector/third sector and to translation of research
• An establishing/established reputation for the highest quality research and innovation at the forefront of the discipline(s), including attracting external funding, and publishing high quality research that is creating impact
• A commitment to high quality, innovative and creative teaching, including project-led and hybrid approaches

• Expertise in analysing both material and textual sources through manual and automated text and data mining tools
• Ambitious plans for interdisciplinary grant applications, leading collaborative and applied research within the expanding field of text and data mining

As a valued member of our team you can expect:

An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. We give you support, nurture your talent and reward success. You will benefit from a competitive reward package and a wide range of staff benefits, which includes a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family friendly initiatives, flexible working and much more. Access our staff benefits page for further information and use our reward calculator to find out the total value of pay and benefits provided.

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality. 

Interviews will be held shortly after the closing date.

If invited for interview you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK.  Further information is available on our right to work webpages.

The University is able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role.  If successful, an international applicant requiring sponsorship to work in the UK will need to satisfy the UK Home Office’s English Language requirements and apply for and secure a Tier 2/Skilled Worker Visa.