Do you have an interest in working with museum collection data?
We are looking to recruit a highly motivated individual interested in pursuing an innovative developmental research project. This is a fixed-term contract research fellowship based at the Science Museum in London, which will run for up to 36 months.
As Lead Researcher you will be working with curators and historians of industrial history looking into the benefits of using computational techniques to bring together museum collections and other digital heritage content.
This research will be undertaken as part of the AHRC-funded 36-month “Congruence Engine” project which directly brings together researchers from the Science Museum Group, four universities and five other heritage organisations. It has nine other heritage organisations, large and small, as formal partners, along with Manchester Digital Laboratory (MadLab) and Wikimedia UK.
You will be actively involved with all aspects of the project, working with the project investigators and partners to explore the methods and tools most effective for facilitating the historical research, proposing new methodologies and developing prototypes and demonstrators to showcase the benefits of linking museum collections.
Joining us you are likely to have a background in data processing, analysis and management and have an active interest in data science and cultural heritage content related to science and technology. You will have an interest in working with museum collection data and the possibilities afforded by linking collections with large, public knowledge graphs (e.g. Wikidata) and external data sources.
You will possess experience using one or more of the following techniques: machine learning (natural language processing), named entity recognition and entity linking. Crucially you will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and a positive approach to working collaboratively with researchers from multiple backgrounds and levels of technical know-how.
The Science Museum Group (SMG) is here to inspire futures. As the world’s leading group of science museums, we share our unparalleled collection spanning science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine with over five million visitors each year. Joining us as an employee, you will have the opportunity to develop your career in a world-class museum group. We know work/life balance and wellbeing is crucial to our colleagues, so we currently offer up to 25 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays; BUPA medical and dental care; employee assistance programme; enhanced contributory pension; enhanced occupational sick, maternity, paternity and adoption leave and career breaks.
‘Open for All’ is one of the Science Museum Group’s five core values and sets out our important aspiration to be a place for everyone. As a national museum group, we have an ability to reach a wide and diverse population of audiences, colleagues and partners through our geography and scale.
We are working hard to understand our organisation better and to foster a culture that recognises and values different backgrounds, mindsets, skills, experience, knowledge and expertise. By having greater diversity, we believe that we will be a stronger and better organisation and ultimately will be able to inspire more futures. We therefore welcome applications from those who bring difference.
Does this appeal to you? If so, click here to view the Vacancy Information Pack which provides you with details of the role and the application process.