Job Reference
421_24_DIR_CSS_R1
Position
PhD researcher Digital Media and Politics - Computational Social Sciences (R1)
Data de tancament
Dissabte, 31 Agost, 2024
Reference: 421_24_DIR_CSS_R1
Job title: PhD researcher Digital Media and Politics - Computational Social Sciences (R1)
About BSC
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
Context And Mission
The Computational Social Science and Humanities program envisions preparing the social sciences and humanities for the era of data, artificial intelligence (AI), and Exascale supercomputing. Our mission is to foster collaboration between social scientists and computer scientists, making high-performance computing (HPC) accessible to all researchers in the field. Through innovative approaches, we aim to apply social science research to contribute valuable insights for informed policymaking.
In our pursuit, we focus on a wide range of key societal research areas such as Population changes and living arrangements, Democratic Quality, Social Media and the Information Environment, Social-Ecology, Education and Labor Market, Law technologies, Social Innovation, and History and Cultural Heritage. Employing a mixed of complex statistical models, AI/Machine Learning, Large Language Models (LLMs), Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), Social Network Analysis (SNA), among others, our advanced computational methods are applied to diverse datasets from official statistics, surveys, social media, news, laws, historical archives, current data archives, citizens' volunteered data, government and industry data.
As a PhD researcher in the area of Social Media and Politics, you will contribute cutting-edge research on social media and public opinion by use of novel computational methods, and will report to Dr Laia Castro, Professor of Political Science BSC-UB, and Dr Mercè Crosas, Head of the Computational Social Science and Humanities Programme at BSC.
In our pursuit, we focus on a wide range of key societal research areas such as Population changes and living arrangements, Democratic Quality, Social Media and the Information Environment, Social-Ecology, Education and Labor Market, Law technologies, Social Innovation, and History and Cultural Heritage. Employing a mixed of complex statistical models, AI/Machine Learning, Large Language Models (LLMs), Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), Social Network Analysis (SNA), among others, our advanced computational methods are applied to diverse datasets from official statistics, surveys, social media, news, laws, historical archives, current data archives, citizens' volunteered data, government and industry data.
As a PhD researcher in the area of Social Media and Politics, you will contribute cutting-edge research on social media and public opinion by use of novel computational methods, and will report to Dr Laia Castro, Professor of Political Science BSC-UB, and Dr Mercè Crosas, Head of the Computational Social Science and Humanities Programme at BSC.
Key Duties
- Conducting literature reviews and contributing to conceptual and theoretical development of research on the impact of digital media use on political attitudes, cognitions and behaviors
- Assistance in planning and execution of data collection and analysis.
- Acquiring knowledge on computational methods, such as supervised machine learning models for text analysis and social network analysis
- Co-authoring and leading research papers as part of the doctoral dissertation.
- Assistance in writing grant proposal applications
- Taking active part in BSC research environment and take advantage of its interdisciplinary work and networks
- Communication of projects’ results in conferences and workshops
- Occasionally, assistance in organizing expert workshops, conferences and seminars.
Requirements
-
Education
- Master’s degree within the domain of the Social Sciences (Economy, Political Science, Communication Studies or a related discipline).
- Or equivalent professional experience.
-
Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Familiarity with quantitative empirical analysis.
- Some programming experience with e.g. R, Python and eagerness to work in multiple languages and code
- Eagerness to travel internationally to engage with relevant scientific communities
- Training in causal inference, econometrics, political analysis, and research design will be considered
-
Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Previous experience in assisting research projects on digital media and politics will be a plus
- Some experience in analyzing large datasets from different sources (e.g. survey, social media)
- Previous experience with international collaboration
- Excellent presentation and written skills in English
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Competences
- A scientific mindset, proactive and with the ability to multi-task and the capacity of working independently
- Interest in research collaboration across disciplines
- A team player and a kind colleague
Conditions
- The position will be located at BSC within the Directors Department
- We offer a full-time contract (37.5h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
- Duration: Predoctoral contract - 1 year renewable
- Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
- Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
- Starting date: 01/09/2024
Applications procedure and process
All applications must be made through BSC website and contain:
A full CV in English including contact details
A Cover Letter with a statement of interest in English, including two contacts for further references - Applications without this document will not be considered
In accordance with the OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for every vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will start the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. A profile questionnaire as well as a technical exercise may be required during the process.
The panel will make a final decision and all candidates who had contacts with them will receive a feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.
At BSC we are seeking continuous improvement in our recruitment processes, for any suggestions or feedback/complaints about our Recruitment Processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
For more information follow this link
In accordance with the OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for every vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will start the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. A profile questionnaire as well as a technical exercise may be required during the process.
The panel will make a final decision and all candidates who had contacts with them will receive a feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.
At BSC we are seeking continuous improvement in our recruitment processes, for any suggestions or feedback/complaints about our Recruitment Processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
For more information follow this link
Deadline
The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.
OTM-R principles for selection processes
BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc.
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link