Research Assistant; Part Time

Research Assistant  (Part Time, Fixed Term)

Brighton, UK

Part time at 0.6 FTE/ 22 hours per week. Requests for flexible working options will be considered (subject to business need).

Fixed Term Contract

This role is central to the Uplift

X project, a funded initiative developing a digital, scalable mental health intervention AI‑platform for remote group therapy with personalized client and clinician applications. The position involves conducting emotion‑inducing tasks while capturing both facial and body recordings to assess participants’ emotional responses. These multimodal data streams will be integrated with physiological measures to validate their predictive power in identifying emotional states.

Key responsibilities include designing and running the experimental protocols, ensuring ethical and methodological rigor throughout the study. The role requires active involvement in participant recruitment, screening, and scheduling. Data management and analysis form a critical component, encompassing preprocessing of facial and physiological recordings, statistical evaluation of physiological signals, and interpretation of findings in relation to emotional outcomes.

Beyond technical execution, the position carries responsibility for synthesizing results into coherent narratives and contributing to the preparation of manuscripts and reports for dissemination. This role will support the validation of innovative AI‑driven tools that aim to transform remote mental health care delivery.

We are seeking a highly motivated researcher with strong expertise in psycho-physiological methods and experimental design. You will bring hands‑on experience in physiological recording techniques, e.g., skin conductance response (SCR), electrocardiography (ECG), and related measures, and be confident in running psycho-physiological studies independently from start to finish.

You should have proven skills in scripting and implementing experimental paradigms, with the ability to adapt tasks to complex research needs. A solid foundation in statistical analysis is essential, enabling you to manage multimodal datasets and extract meaningful insights from facial, body, and physiological recordings.

We are looking for a Psychology graduate with advanced training, ideally holding an MSc or working toward/holding a PhD. You will demonstrate both technical competence and scientific curiosity, with the capacity to contribute to high‑quality publications and collaborative projects. Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work across interdisciplinary teams will be key to your success.

This role is ideal for someone eager to apply their psycho-physiological expertise to cutting‑edge digital mental health research, helping validate innovative AI‑driven tools that aim to transform remote therapy and scalable interventions.

Our Psychology school has a rich history extending over half-a-century, marked from the start by our variety of research and courses. From the ground‑breaking work of scholars such as Stuart Sutherland and Marie Jahoda, we've grown to cover all areas of psychology.

The School was formally established in 2009, bringing together academics across biological, cognitive, developmental, clinical and social psychology into one School. We've now entered the second decade of our existence as one of the largest and most influential academic communities for psychology in the country!

Anchored by our core values of kindness, integrity, inclusion, collaboration and courage, our research and teaching address societal challenges to create a better world.

The School of Psychology is proud to hold a Gold Athena Swan Award.

Our university is situated off the A27, next to the beautiful South Downs where you will enjoy everything that our 150-acre campus has to offer. We are accessible by public transport;
Falmer train station is a five‑minute walk to campus and several bus stops are located within campus. We also have dedicated cycling paths and encourage our staff to use these with our offering of a cycle to work scheme.

Sussex is a renowned,…