Job Description

Senior Research Scientist, Social Sciences & Technology Horizontal Technology Programme The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A.STAR), Singapore has set up a new Social Sciences and Techno Senior Research Scientist, Social Sciences & Technology Horizontal Technology Programme The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A.STAR), Singapore has set up a new Social Sciences and Technology Horizontal Technology Programme. The Programme, to be hosted in the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), will focus on integrating social scientific principles with other disciplines, leveraging on technology, and channeling efforts towards impactful, translational research. Our key research domains include: Health and wellbeing: Examining the social and psychological determinants of health and well-being, such as health disparities, effects of modern societies and technology on health attitudes and behaviours, or application of technology for health communication/intervention. Social sensing: Measuring psychological or behavioural variables such as attitudes, personality or identity, and/or examining their implications for socially-relevant outcomes such as trust, cohesion, and misinformation susceptibility. Education: Using social and behavioural science or technological innovations to improve learning, motivation, cognitive flexibility, or social-emotional competencies, whether in the context of adult skill training or classroom-based teaching. Urban sustainability and solutions: Integrating cognitive and behavioural effects to better model urban decision making and dynamics and ultimately improve urban environments and enhance residents' quality of life (e.g., enable seniors to better age in place). The Programme is seeking experienced candidates in the area of social sciences or socially-focused computational sciences with clear relevance to the above research domains. Selected candidates will be entrusted to define, lead and conduct innovative research, aimed at developing and deploying scientifically-informed solutions to societal issues. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to excel in a fast-paced environment through developing unique or unconventional capabilities that integrate knowledge in the social sciences with computational approaches. Suitable candidates should meet the following criteria: A PhD in possible disciplines include, but are not limited to: social psychology, cognitive psychology, quantitative psychology / psychometrics, computational social science, behaviourally-orientated computation (e.g. mobile sensing, behavioural modelling or analytics, activity recognition) Post-PhD work experience initiating and leading research programmes, whether in academia or industry A compelling scientific track record and experience, commensurate with career stage The ability to contribute to one or more of the four research domains listed above The following characteristics would be highly desirable in a candidate: Demonstrated ability, experience, and prior success in initiating, leading, and completing competitively funded research programmes. Experience working across disciplines (especially collaborations between social and computational sciences) and / or developing solutions to applied societal problems. Willingness to undertake hands-on development work in rapid prototyping of solutions and development of proofs-of-concept systems. A.STAR is a catalyst, enabler and convenor of significant research initiatives among the research community in Singapore and beyond. Through open innovation, we collaborate with our partners in both the public and private sectors, and bring science and technology to benefit the economy and society.