About the role
Are you excited about how open data can change the world for the better and itching to tackle the big technical issues that stand in the way?
The ODI is offering two fully-funded PhD studentships (up to £25k + allowances) that will enable you to do exactly that.
As a successful candidate you will:
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conduct your research within the framework of the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Training Network WDAqua, a network of 15 PhD students across Europe tackling various aspects of the topic “answering questions with web data”
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be employed by, and spend most of your time at, the Open Data Institute, where you will research and write a dissertation leading to a PhD that will be awarded by the University of Southampton
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be co-supervised by internationally recognised researchers in the fields of open data, linked data, semantic web and web science: Dr Tom Heath (ODI), Dr Elena Simperl (University of Southampton)
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receive a full scholarship and a support grant each year to attend conferences, summer schools, and other events related to your research
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engage with other researchers and participate in the outstanding web science and data science training programme offered by the WDAqua project, including internships at other partners in the project
The projects
Topics for a PhD dissertation should be oriented to one of the following projects:
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Creating summaries for discovery of big and open data – whether data is considered ‘big’ due to volume, variety, or velocity, scale can make it hard for potential data consumers to find data that meets their information needs. The research challenges in this project centre around how to create data summaries that bridge the gap between user needs and the raw data itself.
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Licence-, price-, and privacy-driven data selection and integration – what happens when meeting a user’s information need requires integration of data with different licensing, pricing, and privacy constraints? The research challenges in this project centre around how we resolve these scenarios at Web scale to find optimal solutions, and indeed what an optimal solution looks like.
About you – technical skills, knowledge, experience and interpersonal skills
To be successful in the role you must have the following:
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a Bachelors or Masters degree in computer science or a related discipline; some experience in legal and economic aspects would be a strong advantage for the second project
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demonstrable knowledge and understanding of open data and web technologies
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a strong enthusiasm for and some demonstrable experience of conducting independent research
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extensive programming/software development experience, according to best practices and preferably with agile methodologies
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the ability to clearly formulate and communicate your ideas to a range of different audiences; proficiency in spoken and written English
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the passion, drive, and vision to sustain you through a 3-year PhD
Specifics of the position
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The studentship is available to support three years’ full-time work, subject to satisfactory progress. A mobility allowance of approx £400/month and, if applicable, a family allowance of approx £150/month are also provided.
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To be eligible for this position you must satisfy the mobility requirements of Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions. According to these guidelines, at the time of recruitment the candidate “must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.)” in the UK “for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date. Compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account.”
Location: London, UK
Application deadline: Monday 24 August 2015
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