Research Associate

This research programme addresses a fundamental question: How do exploration and learning self-organise in the first years of life?

We integrate naturalistic and experimental approaches to examine exploration as a core engine of adaptive development. Infants are conceptualised as active agents who shape their own learning by sampling information, reducing uncertainty, and updating predictions.

We are building an ambitious multimodal infant dataset integrating:

• Head-mounted cameras
• Screen-based and head-mounted eye tracking
• Inertial and other body sensors
• Audio and environmental measures
• fNIRS neuroimaging
• Computational and quantitative modelling

These converging methods allow us to trace exploration moment by moment, linking behavioural organisation to environmental complexity and neural dynamics.

This post will focus primarily on computational modelling of infant behaviour and experience, using approaches from machine learning, unsupervised learning, dynamical systems, information theory, or related quantitative methods.

The goal is to contribute to a mechanistic account of how infants adapt to complex environments.

This role is particularly well suited to candidates seeking to build an independent research profile in developmental science, computational cognitive science, or cognitive neuroscience. The successful candidate will take intellectual leadership in advanced quantitative analysis and theoretical development, with scope to initiate new directions and establish an independent trajectory within the programme.

Research Environment

You will be based in the Early Learning and Neurodevelopment (ELAN) lab within the Cardiff University Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS). Facilities include state-of-the-art eye tracking, functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and magnetoencephalography with optically pumped magnetometers (OPM-MEG). The centre has strong links to the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), one of the largest and most technologically advanced imaging centres in Europe. Both sit within Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, ranked 6th in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

You will join a supportive, collaborative, and intellectually vibrant community that values curiosity, innovation, and rigorous scientific practice. We strongly encourage applications from researchers from underrepresented backgrounds and are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.

 If you are motivated by big theoretical questions, excited by rich multimodal data, and eager to help shape a new, process-based science of development, we would love to hear from you.

For informal enquiries, contact Dr Dean D’Souza (DSouzaD2@cardiff.ac.uk).

This position is full-time (35 hours per week) and fixed term for 12 months or until 14 April 2028 (whichever is soonest).

Salary: £41,064 - £46,049 per annum (Grade 6). Appointments to roles at Cardiff University are usually made at bottom of scale unless in exceptional circumstances.  Please note that it is not expected that we will appoint above Grade 6.32, currently £41,064 per annum. 

Cardiff University offers many excellent benefits, including 45 days annual leave (incl. bank holidays), local pension scheme, a cycle to work scheme and other travel initiatives, annual increments within the pay scale, and more. It's an exciting and vibrant place to work with many different challenges and is a proud Living Wage supporter.

Closing date: Wednesday, 7 October 2026

£41,064 to £46,049 per annum (Grade 6)