Research Assistant

About the Opportunity

This role is based at One Portsoken, Portsoken Street, London E1 8PH (Hybrid role). Hybrid working is available by arrangement with the Principal Investigator, with a minimum of three days per week on-site to support close collaboration with the wider project team.

Term: Full-time for 3 years starting 4th of January 2027

Salary Range: £43,555 - £46,195 per annum, depending on experience

Benefits: The university supports staff maintaining a good work/life balance, offering flexible working and parental leave opportunities, an Employee Assistance Programme as well as optional private medical insurance, season ticket loans and a cycle to work scheme. Tuition fee remission is also available. Employees are automatically enrolled in the University’s pension scheme with a minimum 4% contribution. They may also join the Salary Sacrifice plan to make additional tax efficient pension contributions. The University matches 4% as standard, rising to 8% maximum for higher contributions. Employees can tailor their contributions with support from an appointed independent financial advisor.

Direct Reports: None – this is an individual contributor role with no line-management responsibilities.

Reports to: Prof István Z. Kiss (Principal Investigator) and Dr Andreia Sofia Teixeira (Co-Investigator)

The role: Help build the next generation of epidemic-behaviour models. This is a rare opportunity to join a pioneering, three-year Leverhulme Trust-funded project that reimagines how epidemic models capture real human behaviour, bringing together mathematical epidemiology, agent-based modelling, and contemporary social and health psychology to fundamentally rethink how we predict and respond to disease outbreaks. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the limits of epidemic models that treat human behaviour as an afterthought. This project, "Rethinking Epidemic Models: Integrating Human Behaviour and Psychology", moves beyond simplistic rational-choice or imitation-based assumptions to build models grounded in how people make decisions, through their social identities, group norms, and personal risk judgements.

Why join us: Work at the leading edge of a genuinely new field, designing and building an agent-based modelling (ABM) platform that couples disease transmission with psychologically-grounded behavioural rules – work that will directly shape how future pandemics are modelled and managed. Join a truly international, multi-institutional, interdisciplinary team: Professor István Kiss and Dr Andreia Sofia Teixeira at the Network Science Institute, NU London, Professor John Drury at the University of Sussex, and Dr Marijn Stok at Utrecht University/RIVM. Help build genuinely open science: you will develop and prepare for public release an open-source ABM platform, with your code and methods used and cited well beyond the life of the project. Publish in leading interdisciplinary journals and present your work both to network science and psychology audiences and to the multi-agent systems and AI community.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design and develop a comprehensive agent-based modelling (ABM) platform that integrates disease transmission dynamics with psychologically-grounded behavioural rules, incorporating multi-layered decision-making.
• Conduct model parametrisation and systematic sensitivity analyses to identify the behavioural-epidemic feedback mechanisms with the greatest impact on epidemic severity.
• Estimate unobservable behavioural parameters using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) and implement time-series cross-validation to test the models’ predictive performance.
• Perform comparative analyses against traditional epidemic models to quantify the performance gains from incorporating psychological realism.
• Prepare the ABM platform’s code and documentation for open-source public release.
• Work closely with the project’s PhD student to integrate psychologically-grounded behavioural modules into the ABM framework.
• Contribute to the extraction and integration of behavioural and epidemiological data from international datasets and historical outbreaks.
• Lead and co-author peer-reviewed publications and present findings at interdisciplinary conferences.
• Participate in regular project meetings and research visits across institutions to ensure effective cross-institutional collaboration.

Person specification criteria:

To undertake this role, the following should apply:

• Proven experience in agent-based modelling (ABM) and/or computational or mathematical modelling of infectious disease spread.
• Experience translating theoretical or conceptual constructs into computational rules or algorithms.
• Experience with statistical/computational inference methods such as Approximate Bayesian Computation.
• Strong programming skills (e.g. Python, R, or C++) and experience developing and documenting research software.
• Sound understanding of mathematical epidemiology and network science.
• Ability to critically engage with concepts from social and health psychology.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• A PhD (or near completion) in a relevant quantitative discipline.
• Highly self-motivated and able to work independently as well as collaboratively.
• Good organisational and time-management skills.
• A collaborative, open-science mindset.

Additional Information:

Informal enquiries may be made to Prof István Zoltán Kiss or Dr Andreia Sofia Teixeira. However, all applications must be made in accordance with the application process specified.

Interviews are expected to commence w/c 28th of September 2026.

We welcome applications from all underrepresented groups, including the Global Majority. Applications are welcome from all sections of the community and will be judged on merit alone.

Our organisation acknowledges the duty of care to safeguard, protect and promote the welfare of our students and staff, and is committed to ensuring safeguarding practice reflects statutory responsibilities.

If you are offered a role, you must adhere to the above policies. All employees must undergo at least a basic DBS check.

The University may be able to provide skilled worker visa sponsorship for this position, depending on individual circumstances.

The bright and modern campus offers award winning, contemporary facilities for students and staff.