Top Research Jobs in Edinburgh

Manage a portfolio of approximately 50 research contracts from review and negotiation through approval, signature, handover, and close-down. Responsibilities include due diligence, risk escalation, drafting and negotiating agreements, intellectual property and Trusted Research and Innovation assessments, tender and grant support, stakeholder coordination, contract records, and signing contracts up to £250,000. The role requires strong administration, attention to detail, prioritisation, analytical judgement, and effective use of contract and project management systems.

Assist with an international psychiatry research study involving children with SYNGAP1-related disorder. Responsibilities include remotely supporting families with sleep-monitoring equipment setup, collecting reliable data, troubleshooting technical issues during evenings, contacting participants, providing study information, and coordinating equipment courier logistics. The role also offers opportunities for research development, patient and public involvement, and academic publication.

Conduct basic science research on neurodegeneration and multiple sclerosis, focusing on mitochondrial function and mitochondrial DNA at the single-cell level in animal brain tissue. Collaborate with researchers at University College London and the Dementia Research Institute, contribute to laboratory research, and work with a balance of supervised tasks and independent initiative.

Conduct world-leading interdisciplinary research within the Decisions Cluster of the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, examining how AI and algorithmic technologies transform decision-making. Develop research and funding plans, collaborate across disciplines, contribute to knowledge exchange and the research environment, support postgraduate research students, and undertake academic administration and citizenship activities.

Conduct academic research on DNA methylation, epigenetic marks, and gene regulation within mammalian cells. The role involves using synthetic vector libraries, cellular landing pads, and high-throughput sequencing to investigate transcriptional regulation and cellular phenotypes. The assistant will collaborate with multiple laboratories, contribute to interdisciplinary research projects, and support work toward publication.

Conduct independent and collaborative laboratory research developing magnetic nanoparticles for CNS drug delivery. Responsibilities include nanoparticle synthesis, characterization, surface biofunctionalization with proteins, peptides and targeting ligands, biological evaluation, data analysis, publication, and conference presentation. The role requires a PhD or imminent PhD completion in Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related discipline.

Coordinates the Generation Scotland research programme, managing complex processes involving communication, research ethics, data access applications, documentation, information governance, and finance tracking. The role supports interdisciplinary health data science projects within the University of Edinburgh’s School of Population Health and requires high standards of organization, compliance, and collaboration.

Conduct research on trustworthy agentic AI security, privacy-enhancing technologies, cryptography, formal verification, and agentic systems. Build and implement security stacks that translate user requirements into formal specifications, select or generate cryptographic protocols, and verify their properties using tools such as Lean and ProVerif. Contribute to project deliverables, research publications, datasets, presentations, and dissemination activities while collaborating with investigators and senior researchers.

Conduct interdisciplinary research in physical intelligence, soft sensing, robotics, machine learning, and signal processing. Develop sensing and perception methods enabling robots to understand their body state and physical interactions, integrate them into robotic and mechatronic platforms, and perform extensive experimental validation. Collaborate across sensing, robotics, electronics, and AI while developing new research ideas within an ERC-funded project.

Conduct research on trustworthy agentic AI and security infrastructure spanning cryptography, privacy-enhancing technologies, formal verification, and agentic systems. Help design and implement workflows that translate user requirements into formal specifications, select or generate cryptographic protocols, and verify their properties using tools such as Lean and ProVerif. Contribute to project deliverables, publications, datasets, presentations, and dissemination activities while collaborating with investigators and leading research artefacts as appropriate.

Provides organized administrative support to the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration team, covering public involvement, finance, operations, process improvement, and coordination across universities, collaborators, and members of the public. The role is part-time, fixed-term, and based in Edinburgh. It requires strong written communication, organization, teamwork, flexibility, and a solution-focused approach.

Conduct theoretical and computational research on turbulent mixing and small-scale fluid dynamics in the Arctic Ocean. Develop theoretical models, validate them through idealized numerical simulations using Oceananigans, analyze oceanic observations, and implement parameterization schemes in regional Arctic ocean models. Collaborate with the principal investigator, National Oceanography Centre, and university partners to assess impacts on ocean and climate modeling.

Conduct academic research developing optical elastography technologies for measuring the mechanical properties of living cells, organoids, and tissues. Responsibilities include fabricating and characterising soft gels, performing biomechanical and optical measurements, assembling and testing prototypes, analysing research data, preparing reports, and supporting dissemination and collaboration with academic and industry partners.

Conduct experimental research developing optical elastography technologies for measuring mechanical properties of living cells and tissues. Apply optical interferometry, quantitative phase imaging, and computational analysis; develop scripts, integrate and validate prototypes, guide a Research Assistant, and contribute to publications, presentations, partnerships, intellectual property, commercialization, and funding activities.

Coordinates drug research seminars, knowledge-exchange and research-collaboration events, plus an annual conference. The role engages drug policy stakeholders, including people with lived and living experience of drug use, and supports research activity within the University of Edinburgh. It is a part-time, fixed-term position with hybrid working potentially available.

Conduct frontier applied research on efficient AI model architectures, including sparse attention, long-context memory, selective computation, dynamic inference, reasoning, and continual adaptation. Formulate research questions, design rigorous experiments at meaningful scales, develop efficient implementations, publish findings, contribute to open-source tools and models, mentor researchers, and help direct the research stream.

Leads the College of Medicine and Health research support team, overseeing pre-award support, research development, proposal drafting, budgeting, compliance, due diligence, grant setup, and contract negotiation. The role manages approximately 25 professionals, develops research-support processes, monitors performance, leads strategic partnerships, supports complex agreements, and promotes staff development, equality, and continuous service improvement across the University.

Leads process excellence, operational performance, capability development, organizational change, KPI governance, and continuous improvement across clinical research operations. The role standardizes SO&E methods, strengthens onboarding and competency frameworks, coaches delivery teams, interprets performance analytics, integrates quality and compliance controls, and manages operational readiness and performance for project support teams. Requires extensive process excellence or organizational change experience in a clinical research or CRO environment.

Conduct research on morpho-syntactic variation and change in historical Scots, and develop methods for annotating parsed corpora and treebanks. The researcher will contribute to the ESRC-funded INTSAYT project, developing new research ideas, approaches, concepts, and techniques alongside the project’s Co-Investigator. This is a full-time, three-year fixed-term postdoctoral position at the University of Edinburgh.

Leads the global Gas and LNG research team, hiring and developing analysts, managing resources and delivery schedules, maintaining research quality, and supporting cross-functional transformation. The role partners with senior stakeholders across regions and functions, ensures timely supply-demand, cost, and price forecasting, and uses energy-market expertise to challenge analysis and improve team performance.

Supports multidisciplinary research on decarbonisation strategies in cancer care. Responsibilities include developing and conducting a scoping review, designing search strategies, screening and analysing evidence, extracting data, piloting qualitative interviews, supporting research prioritisation, disseminating findings, drafting publications, assisting project management, and contributing to grant applications and team development.

Conduct postdoctoral research on DNA methylation, epigenetic marks, and gene regulation. Use sequencing-based functional genomics assays, including TT-seq, CUT&RUN, and Nanopore sequencing, alongside synthetic landing-pad approaches in human embryonic stem cell models. Collaborate across multidisciplinary laboratories, analyze molecular and computational data, independently advance research projects, and contribute to publications.

Develops, validates, and supports R Shiny applications and reusable programming utilities for clinical trial review, data visualization, statistical reporting, quality control, and regulatory submissions. Uses R, SAS, and Python while collaborating with biostatisticians, statistical programmers, data management, clinical operations, and IT. Ensures solutions meet GxP, Computer Software Assurance, testing, scalability, performance, and company standards.

Supports clinical data science and management activities for clinical trials, including database development, eCRF and edit-check planning, user acceptance testing, external data coordination, risk assessment, documentation, study metrics, budget oversight, and compliance with SOPs. The role also coordinates data team activities, manages timelines, and communicates with internal teams and external vendors.

Conducts clinical trial site qualification, initiation, monitoring, management, and close-out activities in compliance with protocols, ICH-GCP, regulations, and SOPs. Reviews source documents, clinical data, informed consent, investigational product handling, and essential trial files. Supports recruitment, query resolution, audit readiness, site training, and study timelines. Serves as a liaison with investigators, sponsors, and project teams, with regular UK travel and potential chart abstraction responsibilities for real-world studies.