Research Assistant

Salary: £33,002.00 - £34,610.00  per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 02 March 2026

The Role

The Research Assistant (RA) will play a central role in delivering this project. Working closely with the Principal Investigator, the RA will lead day-to-day experimental activity, including the recruitment and testing of participants, operation of surface EMG recording systems, and collection of high-quality datasets. They will be responsible for initial data processing coding and data analysis, contribute actively to interpretation of results, and take the lead on drafting research outputs, thus solid foundations in movement neuroscience are essential here. The role offers strong opportunities to develop advanced skills in human neurophysiology, signal analysis, and experimental design, as well as experience of transparent and reproducible research practices. Support for career development will be provided throughout, including close mentoring, opportunities to co-author publications, and engagement with interdisciplinary collaborators.

This project aims to improve how muscle signals can be used to control external devices, with a focus on making such systems faster to learn, more reliable, and easier to use alongside natural movement. Using laboratory-based surface EMG recordings from healthy volunteers, the research will compare different ways of mapping muscle activity to simple cursor-control tasks, measuring performance using well-established metrics of speed, accuracy, and stability. The work will also test whether incorporating information about rhythmic muscle activity can improve control compared with simpler approaches. This data will help to inform future development of practical myoelectric interfaces for research and real-world applications.

This post is full time, fixed term for a period of 6 Months

For informal enquiries contact: Dr Demetris Soteropoulos ([email protected])

Find out more about the Faculty of Medical Sciences here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/  

Find out more about our Research Institutes here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-sciences/research/institutes/

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of research role profiles.  These profiles set out firstly the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and secondly the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level.

Key Accountabilities

• Contribution to the research programme of the School/Institute under the clear guidance of a member of an academic staff or Principal Investigator


• Use initiative and creativity to analyse and interpret research data and draw conclusions on the outcomes


• Co-ordinate own work with that of others, deal with problems which may affect the achievement of research objectives and contribute to the planning of the project(s)


• Present information on research progress and outcomes to a Principal Investigator or groups overseeing the research project


• Write up results from own research activity and provide input into the research project’s dissemination, in whatever form (report, papers, chapters, book)


• Work to deadlines and manage, with support, competing priorities


• Ensure that personal knowledge in relevant fields of study is kept up to date


• Use research resources (including, where required, laboratories, workshops and specialist equipment) as appropriate


• Maintain academic standards and freedom, and work in accordance with university policies (e.g. equal opportunities, health and safety policies)


• Possible supervision and demonstration duties within undergraduate laboratories and example classes or in teaching small seminar classes


• Undertake relevant training and development activities to develop capacity for taking on wider responsibilities


• Develop, with advice, an awareness of own professional development needs and a personal development strategy

The Person (Essential)

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Some subject knowledge in the relevant area


• Good level of analytical skills and the ability to communicate complex information clearly, both orally and through the written word


• The ability to work collaboratively with colleagues


• The ability to use personal initiative and creativity to solve research problems


• Experience with using electrophysiological stimulation techniques in human participants, including but not limited to, transcranial magnetic stimulation (and use of Brainsight neuro-navigation) and peripheral nerve stimulation


• Experience with using electrophysiological recording techniques in human participants, including but not limited to surface electromyography as well as motor unit recordings from limb muscles


• Experienced in using Spike2 data acquisition software to record electrophysiological data


• Experienced in coding for and running behavioral experiments with human participants and in writing custom code for data analysis in Matlab


• Experience with recruiting and screening for study volunteers


• Experience with composing Ethics applications for human experiments

Attributes and Behaviour

• Demonstrable ability to work cooperatively as part of a team, including participating in research meetings but also the ability to work independently on own initiative and to meet deadlines

Qualifications

• Honours degree (or equivalent) with some subject knowledge in movement neuroscience


• May possess (or be working towards) a higher research degree

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 29041