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About the Role

We are seeking to appoint a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate to join the 'Creators & Consumers' project, an innovative research programme examining perpetration and policing responses to deepfake-enabled violence against women and girls (VAWG). 

The role is based within the School of Policing in the Faculty of Business and Law and the Centre for Protecting Women Online (CPWO), a Research England-funded centre dedicated to addressing technology-facilitated harms against women and girls. The successful candidate will work closely with Dr Hannah Guy and Dr Nelli Stavropoulou across the CPWO's Policing and Human Behaviour research streams. 

Funded through the Open Societal Challenge, the Creators & Consumers: Perpetration and Policing Responses to Deepfake-Enabled Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) project (https://societal-challenges.open.ac.uk/challenges/creators-consumers-perpetration-and-policing-responses-to-deepfakeenabled-violence-against-women-girls-vawg/558) is among the first UK-based empirical studies to examine how deepfake-enabled abuse is perpetrated, identified, recorded, and investigated. Working in partnership with police forces and other stakeholders, the project aims to generate new evidence on perpetration dynamics, investigative practices, and data recording processes, while developing practical resources to support improved responses to this emerging form of harm. 

The successful candidate will contribute to a range of research activities, including qualitative data collection and analysis, impact evaluation, and the development of practitioner-facing resources. The role offers an exciting opportunity to work on a high-profile interdisciplinary project with strong potential for real-world impact across policing, safeguarding, and violence prevention. 

The CPWO's work is delivered through five interwoven Work Streams. Please visit our Centre website (https://cpwo.open.ac.uk/) and LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/centre-for-protecting-women-online/) for further details.  

Please note the funding for this project is time bound and therefore, whilst we can be flexible with the start date of the contract (1st September 2026), we would like someone to start as soon as possible. 

Key Responsibilities

The person appointed will be expected to contribute to the sustained research delivery of the 'Creators & Consumers' project. The main responsibilities of the role include: 

• Support the organisation, management, and secure storage of project data in accordance with ethical, legal, and institutional requirements. 

• Support the collection, preparation, and analysis of relevant data across the lifecycle of the project, including police case data, interview data, and ethnographic materials. 

• Undertake ethnographic observation and conduct semi-structured interviews with policing contacts. 

• Contribute to the development and implementation of research procedures, including data collection, documentation, and analysis processes. 

• Conduct targeted literature reviews and evidence searches to support project activities, identify emerging developments in the field, and inform data analysis, reporting, and resource development. 

• Support the synthesis, interpretation, and reporting of findings, including the production of analytical reports, practitioner-facing outputs, and academic publications. 

• Contribute to the translation of research findings into practical outputs, including a practitioner toolkit and graphic novel proposal. 

• Support the design, delivery, and evaluation of stakeholder engagement, impact, and knowledge exchange activities, including workshops, feedback collection, and evaluation reporting. 

• Liaise with project partners and external stakeholders, including police forces and other collaborators, to support effective project delivery. 

• Work closely with all Open Societal Challenge team members to support and enhance project delivery, ensuring continuity across work packages and project milestones. 

• Contribute to wider dissemination and impact activities arising from the project. 

About You

Essential Criteria:

• A completed PhD ('completed' is defined as having the certificate in hand at the point of application, not submitted your thesis awaiting amendments) in Policing, Criminology, Sociology, Psychology, Cybercrime, Digital Harms, Violence Against Women and Girls, Social Policy, or another relevant discipline.  

• Knowledge of and familiarity with one or more of the following areas: technology-facilitated violence against women and girls (TFVAWG), online harms, image-based abuse, cybercrime, digital victimisation, policing, violence against women and girls, or related fields. 

• Expertise in qualitative research, including sensitive data analysis, ethnographic methods and semi-structured interviews. 

• Understanding of the ethical considerations associated with conducting research on sensitive topics and working with sensitive datasets. 

• Evidence of research dissemination through academic publications, reports, presentations, or other outputs, commensurate with career stage. 

• Experience in data management and IT software usage for research design and analysis (e.g. NVivo or similar). 

• Experience in conducting evaluations and producing evaluative reports.  

• Communication skills commensurate with the role and the ability to translate research findings into accessible, public-facing, or practitioner-facing outputs. 

• Experience of working with a range of stakeholders, research collaborators, and external partners. 

• The ability to work collaboratively as part of an interdisciplinary team. 

• The ability to plan, organise, and prioritise own work effectively. 

• The ability to adapt to changing project requirements and respond flexibly to emerging research needs within the scope and direction set by project leads. 

Desirable Criteria: 

• Experience in conducting research with policing organisations, criminal justice agencies, or other public-sector stakeholders. 

• Experience of research relating to technology-facilitated abuse, online harms, cybercrime, deepfakes, or violence against women and girls. 

• Experience of developing research-informed resources (e.g. Toolkit and Learning resources for training purposes).  

• Experience of co-designing knowledge exchange workshops and supporting stakeholder engagement.  

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Working Location: It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes Office, it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be once per month on average. Full-time working based from our Milton Keynes site is also supported if this is preferred by the candidate.  Expenses associated with travel to our Milton Keynes site are not reimbursable. 

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews are likely to be held in early August 2026.

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role, please submit the following documents:

• CV
• Supporting statement of up to 1000 words clearly demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.