UK Acoustics Network Plus – Early Career appointment opportunities

Closing Date
19 March 2021

The Early Career SIG of the UK Acoustics Network Plus (UKAN+) will have its own management structure mirroring that of UKAN+: a small Executive Board and four Grand Challenge Champions. It will report directly to the UKAN+ Annual Assembly and have representation on the UKAN+ executive board. An early career member will be in the leadership group of every Special Interest Group (SIG) in the Network. We are therefore seeking applications for four Early Career Grand Challenge Champion appointments and fourteen Early Career SIG Coordinator appointments. Currently, these SIGS comprise Acoustic/Ultrasonic Non-Destructive Evaluation, Communication and Room Acoustics, Mathematical Analysis in Acoustics, Physical Acoustics, Acoustic Sensors, Animal Bio-acoustics, Vibro-acoustics, Aero-acoustics, Computational Acoustics, Acoustic Metamaterials, Biomedical Acoustics, Noise and Soundscape, Hearing and Underwater Acoustics.

The successful applicants will benefit from training and funding opportunities, exciting social events, and networking with potential employers and people at the highest levels of Acoustics in academia and industry. The nominees should consider themselves to be early in their career. However, there are no restrictions on age. The nominee could expect to contribute one to two hours of their time in an average week. These are appointments for a one year term, with the possibility of an extension.

 

Early Career SIG Coordinators

Early Career SIG Coordinators will work with SIG Leaders to coordinate SIG activities, facilitate exploratory research, and promote Acoustics in the UK and Europe. The appointees will gain invaluable networking opportunities with people at the highest levels of Acoustics in the UK, both in academia and industry, leadership experience, and an opportunity to influence and facilitate the provision of pilot research funding and training.

In our Early Career SIG coordinator appointments, we are seeking individuals with experience and interest in the area of the SIG, whether in academia or industry, an interest in promoting acoustics to the wider population, and an interest in working with the Institute of Acoustics (IoA) to achieve this goal. The main objective of this role is to facilitate exploratory research, and specifically to help early career members across the SIGs to connect with one another, develop research proposals and apply for UKAN+ funding. If in academia, the nominee may be in the final year of postgraduate study, or within three years of completing postgraduate study.

 

Early Career Grand Challenge Champions

Early Career Grand Challenge Champions will help UKAN+ to develop a new roadmap for acoustics research in the UK related to the Grand Challenges, using the results from UKAN+ exploratory projects to develop full-scale, high-quality applications to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and other funders. The appointees will benefit from a position on the Early Career SIG Executive Board and the opportunity to shape the future of Acoustics in the UK. The appointees will work with the general Grand Challenge leads: Profs. Abigail Bristow and Antonino Filippone (Future of Mobility), Prof. Stephen Dance and Assoc. Prof. Christian Sumner (Healthy Ageing), Drs. Paul Lepper and Olga Umnova (Clean Growth) and Profs. Mark Plumbley and Alan Hunter (artificial intelligence or AI and Data).

In our Early Career Grand Challenge Champions, we are seeking individuals who have experience in research relating to the challenge themes: clean growth, healthy ageing, future of mobility, or AI and data. The nominee should ideally be from an academic background or, if from a private company, the nominee should have no conflict of interest in sharing research ideas and proposals. Experience in academic-industrial collaboration and in holding a leadership position is desirable, as is experience in writing and reviewing research grants.

 

Public Engagement Champions

Please see the post here. The deadline for these roles has been extended until the 30th April 2021.

 

To apply

To apply for these positions, click here for SIG coordinator roles and here for grand challenge champion roles. We welcome expressions of interest from all suitably qualified persons and particularly those who are currently under-represented at this level, including female applicants and those from minority ethnic backgrounds.

If you have any informal enquiries about these roles, please contact Dr. Simone Graetzer at earlycareersgroup@acoustics.ac.uk.