Recruiting 2x three-year postdoctoral researchers and 1-2 PhD students

3-Year Postdoctoral Researchers (deadline: 15 January 2025)

These two postdoctoral positions are full-time and fixed-term for 36 months with the possibility of renewal thereafter. The first appointment should expect to start immediately, whilst the second should commence in Summer 2025. You will be based in Oxford as your normal place of work with the possibility of hybrid work within the UK only.

We are looking for candidates interested in developing their own research questions in alignment with the interests and skills present in the research team. We are particularly interested in investigating how modern privacy-enhancing technologies (e.g. based upon synthetic data or using formal differential privacy guarantees) impact research integrity and reproducibility. This is an exciting line of research with potential to not only improve how researchers access crucial sensitive data around the world, but also build tools for them to understand if the anonymised data they receive is “good enough” to conduct rigorous research.

The selected candidate will be provided significant resources, including generous opportunities for international training and conference attendance, IT equipment, as well as access to dedicated computing cluster environment—with the ability to shape future computing resource acquision. This post is funded by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, a flexible long-term public funding scheme that provides autonomy and flexibility to focus on research that matters. There are opportunities to collaborate with partners providing unique fine-grained access to healthcare data, as well as colleagues in Machine Learning, Human-Computing Interactions, Social Sciences, and Public Health.

Requirements

Applicants should hold, or be close to completion of, PhD/DPhil with research experience in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, or related fields.
The ideal candidate should be organised, highly motivated, creative, and interested to work as part as a collective. A strong track record of first-author publications is expected from applicants.

We are primarily looking for candidates able to conduct critical evidence-based investigations into privacy technologies, and will work to train, support, and nurture the right candidate. That said, prior experience in one of the following broad areas are advantageous:

Evaluating robustness of anonymization techniques and privacy-enhancing technologies against membership attacks, inference attacks, or reconstruction attacks and/or
Fairness, accountability, and transparency in Machine Learning and/or
Machine Learning research for tabular data or language modeling, and/or
Statistical Learning and Bayesian statistics (e.g. experience with variational autoencoders or diffusion models) and/or
Human-Computer Interaction (e.g. experience conducting large-scale user studies) and/or
Computational Social Science (experience conducting large-scale empirical research at the intersection of Computer Science and Social Sciences).

Application process

Applications are expected to open by Friday 20 December 2024 on the OII website and will close on 15 January 2025.

If you would like to discuss this role please contact Dr Luc Rocher at x (at) y where x=luc.rocher and y=oii.ox.ac.uk.

If you are eager to contribute to groundbreaking research, and have the skills and experience we are looking for, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity. You will be required to upload a supporting statement, setting out how you meet the selection criteria, curriculum vitae, and the names and contact details of two referees as part of your online application.

DPhil (PhD) Students (deadline: 9 January 2025)

We are recruiting 1–2 motivated students to start a PhD (called a DPhil at Oxford) in Fall 2025. Projects are defined in close collaboration with the student, but could tackle, for example: critical looks at the use and impact of privacy-enhancing technologies on academic research and society, the impact of AI and algorithms on digital platforms and data sharing, and the use and misuse of machine learning for social good. As a general rule, we are interested in human-centred and critical approaches to study data-centric technology, algorithm auditing, and privacy engineering.

We are first looking for candidates with a background in applied mathematics, computer science and HCI, and complex systems to critically explore the harms of technology, answer novel questions with the potential to change how people, policymakers, and civil society engage with technology, and co-design better digital futures.

Diversity

The Oxford Internet Institute is committed to enhancing diversity and promoting equality of opportunity amongst all our staff and students. We particularly encourage applicants of all backgrounds and ages to apply, in particular women, disabled, BAME, LGBTQIA+ candidates as well as candidates from working-class backgrounds who face difficulties accessing academia, and we will do our best to support your application. oSTEM and Queer in AI have been running a financial aid support scheme to help cover admission costs (as well as application reviews!), which will hopefully run this year too.

Logistics

The OII uses a centralised application system on which the full application (CV, research statement, transcripts, and recommendation letters) needs to be submitted by the deadline (please select Dr. Luc Rocher as the “proposed supervisor”). The departmental deadline will be early January 2025 for final applications. Interested candidates are, however, strongly encouraged to contact Luc in fall 2024 to discuss proposal, funding, and research direction.

Inquiries

If you have any additional query, please send an email titled ‘OII DPhil Supervision FIRSTNAME LASTNAME’ at x@y with x=luc.rocher and y=oii.ox.ac.uk. In your email, please attach your CV and briefly:

introduce yourself,
suggest how our research interests complement each other,
suggest 2-3 areas of research you’d be interested to work on. While your research can and will change over time, do note that the OII and scholarship committees will decide to admit you based on your research proposal, so you need a clear proposal by January 2025.

Please see the following pages for advice on how to send emails to faculty and writing a CV (as well as sample CVs).

Additional Researcher positions

If you want to propose joining the team on an externally-funded postdoctoral scholarship, please get in touch.

Funding available to applicants of all nationalities, regardless of their UK residency status:

EU Marie-Curie (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF) (with some mobility restrictions)
EPSRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship (might not be renewed in 2025)
Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship
Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship
Branco Weiss Fellowship (multidisciplinary, with a focus on societal impact)

For applicants based in the UK or with a UK degree:

ESRC postdoctoral fellowships (less than 12months after PhD) * Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships (also open to EEA applicants)

For applicants based abroad:

JSPS Overseas Research Fellowship (Japan)
Canon Foundation Fellowship (Japan)
US-UK Fulbright Scholars Fellowship (USA)
NWO Rubicon Fellowship (NL)
SNSF Early Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship (CH)
FNRS Mobility World (BE) (with ongoing BE position)
A number of other countries have similar schemes, please check with your national research council.

Like other UK universities, Oxford uses a Full Economic Cost (FEC) recovery model, ensuring that the full costs of research, not only salary, are covered. Funding that only covers salary, or covers it partially (like the Leverhulme fellowships), might be feasible at OII. Please get in touch to discuss—it might mean that you need to apply as a visiting scholar with an affiliation to your home institution.

Prospective Visitors and Internships

The Oxford Internet Institute welcome applications from academic scholars and PhD students who wish to spend 3-6 months at Oxford. The Academic Visitor programme has restarted and we have a very limited number of places so please contact Luc in advance if you would like to visit and collaborate.

More information on the OII page of the Visitor Programme.