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[CALL] PhD Studentship, School of Computer Science – Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ref/SCI1324

Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute – Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training in My Life in Data

The Horizon My Life in Data Centre for Doctoral Training will train a community of PhD students with the interdisciplinary skills to address the challenge of digital identity and personal data for the 21st century.
In collaboration with industry and international partners, our students will establish the technologies, applications and principles to enable citizens to construct their digital identities from personal data and effectively manage them to derive economic and social value with an emphasis on:

• Enabling Technologies – realising the enabling technologies of digital identity, from sensing systems that capture personal data, to cloud-based services that maintain our digital footprints online, to the algorithms that interpret them, to the interfaces through which we understand and curate our digital identities.

• Global Impact – exploring the opportunities and challenges of digital identity technologies by designing, deploying and studying prototype products and services ‘in the wild’ across complementary sectors of the digital economy, from the creative industries, to wellbeing, to smart environments.

• People and Society – addressing the ethical, legal and regulatory aspects of digital identity, where the focus will be on consent, trust and ‘privacy by design’ so as to inform regulatory and policy concerning the relationship between identity and community, place and memory, migration, race and ethnicity.

We are interested in students from a wide variety of backgrounds including computer science, engineering, human factors, psychology, sociology, business, geography, social science and the arts, providing they have an excellent first degree and can demonstrate an enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research.

Students will be recruited onto one of three pathways; institutional, international or industry.
Institutional pathway – students will undertake PhDs that address issues and applications that affect wider ‘civil society’, often in partnership with public sector, third sector or community partners.
International pathway – students will undertake an internationally relevant PhD, address cross–cultural themes, exploring emerging markets for digital identity technologies, and be jointly supervised and funded by our international partners. They will spend the first year training at Nottingham, and then spend up to half of their research time (18 months) at one or more international partners.
Industry pathway – students will be co-sponsored by industry partners, undertake industrially relevant PhDs, have an industry supervisor and spend significant time at industry partners. Our current industry partners include: Boots, Broadway, Connected Digital Economy Catapult, DSTL, Experian, Network Rail, Ordnance Survey, Satellite Applications Catapult, Thales, Technicolor and Unilever.

Our students will benefit from:
• A fully-funded four-year PhD programme that integrates a leading-edge research project with research training in interdisciplinary skills.
• A personalised pathway through this programme that enables students to gain a balance of skills across key technology areas, future applications and human and societal issues.
• Training in innovation and ingenuity to equip students for careers in industry, from global companies to start-ups.
• An internship with one of our partners.
• Regular seminars and meetings with industry representatives to develop contacts with future employers.
• An enhanced stipend of £16,000 per annum as well as a personal laptop.
• Supervision from international leaders in the associated disciplines.
• Use of over £3m state-of-the-art facilities including positioning and sensing testbeds and transport simulators.
• Career guidance support tailored to individual needs.
• Office and laboratory space on Nottingham’s award-winning Jubilee Campus.

We have funding for UK/Home/EU/International students. Places are also available for those in receipt of four year independent funding/scholarships.

Further information can be found on the Horizon Doctoral Training Centre website; www.horizon.ac.uk. Informal enquiries may be addressed to Miss E Juggins, tel: 0115 823 2316 or Email: Emma.Juggins@Nottingham.ac.uk

Please do not use the “Apply online” link below.

Application forms are available from Miss E Juggins or downloadable from http://www.horizon.ac.uk/Current-Opportunities and should be returned by email with a detailed CV, copy references and a statement of research interests to Emma.Juggins@Nottingham.ac.uk.  Please quote ref. SCI1324. 

Shortlisting date: 30 January 2014.   Interview date: 26 February 2014.