We are recruiting for a Senior Researcher (Collective Intelligence)

We are looking for an experienced Senior Researcher interested in cutting edge methods that combine participation and digital technology.  This is a great opportunity for a creative researcher who can work as part of a dynamic, multidisciplinary team to turn insights from research into real-world applications. You will have strong traditional research skills and experience of leading projects. You will lead our work on citizen science and support wider research into other CI methods such as participatory AI.

About Nesta

We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet. 

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation. 

The Role

Nesta’s Centre for Collective Intelligence Design is seeking a Senior Researcher who has experience of managing complex research programmes and a strong foundational understanding of a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The function of research in our team is to turn insights about collective intelligence from research into practice using a mixture of traditional and applied research. This role will suit a self-starter with a curious and open mindset, who is comfortable carrying out research in an emerging field.

We are seeking a Senior Researcher who has experience of managing complex research programmes and a strong foundational understanding of a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The function of research in our team is to turn insights about collective intelligence from research into practice using a mixture of traditional and applied research. This role will suit a self-starter with a curious and open mindset, who is comfortable carrying out research in an emerging field.

As the Senior Researcher, you will work on the day-to-day delivery and research of two new European projects for CCID. The first project, which you will lead, focuses on enhancing the impact of citizen science projects through reviews of existing evidence, horizon scanning and policy engagement. In the second project you will support research and dissemination activities about how AI can enhance collective decision making in the fields of medical diagnostics and climate services. We are seeking candidates with an existing understanding of the field of citizen science, participatory methods that use digital technology or related topics such as digital social innovation. In addition to research skills, the candidate will be expected to represent CCID in multi-partner consortiums, working closely with external partners.

You will be responsible for:

• Leading the research and policy engagement activities for an EU project about enabling citizen science, focusing on identifying the opportunities for increasing the impact of citizen science projects through policy instruments and/or project design. 

• Supporting research into the relationship between human and machine intelligence, including participatory design of AI. 

• Evidence synthesis using a variety of traditional qualitative research methods which may include literature review, interviews, horizon scanning, crowdsourcing, design workshops or quantitative techniques.

• Writing, reviewing and editing reports and other research outputs such as blogs, case studies and toolkits.

• Communication and dissemination work, which may include leading on new and creative ways to communicate ideas to different audiences through written content and representing CCID at external and internal events.

• Contributing to practical projects where we use real-world experiments and evaluation to generate evidence about how to best design for collective intelligence. This is likely to involve participatory research. 

• Keeping up with the latest research and practice across different collective intelligence methods, especially citizen science, and working with the Principal Researcher and CI Product Design Lead to proactively suggest how we can use these insights to improve our own research and design projects.

• Work with the Principal Researcher and the wider team to expand our methodological toolbox, particularly building skills in digital methods that make use of novel, citizen-generated data.

• Building on past CCID research (e.g.Collective Crisis Intelligence, Smarter Together: CI for Sustainable Development, Future of Minds and Machines) to evolve our expertise and understanding of CI design. 

• Day to day project management, including project planning, budget management, liaising with partners and managing contracts, preparing agendas and coordinating updates.

• Leading the planning and delivery of events from small workshops and roundtables to conferences. This will include operational tasks, workshop/event design and content curation.

• Supporting other activities as required, e.g. contributing to business development, including identifying new opportunities and proposal writing.

Experience and skills (Essential)

Subject expertise

• Demonstrable experience with at least one collective intelligence method, citizen science strongly preferred (or e.g. crowdmapping, crowdsourcing, online and in-person deliberation, peer-2-peer networks, crowd forecasting, etc) and an interest in learning about others.

• A basic understanding of data science and AI and how these can be used to complement or enhance collective intelligence. An interest in building this knowledge. 

Research skills

• Ability to deliver rapid reviews of existing evidence, case study analysis and horizon scanning and critically assess evidence to identify new opportunities or gaps.

• Experience with designing and delivering research studies, robust hypothesis-driven experiments and evaluation to measure a project’s impact/success. 

• Demonstrable experience of a range of traditional qualitative research and analysis skills including surveys, focus groups, interviews. Candidates with experience of quantitative analysis, online and digital research methods are preferred. 

Project management and teamwork

• Experience with delivering complex projects that involve significant relationship management with multiple partners and/or clients.

• Excellent time management, and able to manage multiple projects and competing priorities

• Experience of navigating complexity and uncertainty, and adapting personal style for a variety of cultural contexts and organisations

• Experience of using online project management and collaboration tools (e.g. Miro, Airtable) 

• Personal commitment to the principles of data justice, diversity & inclusion and community empowerment 

Communicating and influencing

• Excellent communication and presentation skills, including an ability to communicate complex concepts, strategies and interdependencies effectively to a wide range of audiences 

• Experience of working with policy makers, e.g. through roundtables, writing policy briefs and policy design 

Experience and skills (Desirable)

Subject expertise

• Previous experience researching or working on projects related to climate change or the environment. 

Research skills

• Knowledge and demonstrable experience of quantitative research skills, including statistical data analysis.

• An understanding of using digital methods and tools for research (e.g. wikisurveys, mini-surveys, online deliberation tools) and a desire to develop these skills.

Project management

• Experience of working in a multidisciplinary design team and familiarity with agile methodologies.

What we offer

Salary: circa £45k plus array of benefits, including health cash plans, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more  

Location: This role is based in Central London, Blackfriars, with a hybrid working arrangement

Term: Permanent   

Hours: This is a full-time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do. 

Reports to: Principal Researcher

Making an application 

To apply for this role, please submit your application before 8:00am on the 13th of June 2022. 

Interviews will take place w/c 20th of June 2022

At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results.

We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.

This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.

We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.

Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.