Successful applicants will be hosted in the Smart Dublin team working at Dublin City Council and will get exposure to the smart city work programme.
As part of the Smart Dublin initiative, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Adapt centre is working on two projects to create more inclusive, sustainable and citizen-focused services in Dublin.
The Digital Twin and Smart D8 projects will explore how data can be used to address social and environmental issues. They will both be two years long and researchers are needed to help further the projects.
Jamie Cudden, smart city lead from Dublin City Council, and Prof Aphra Kerr, co-PI at the Adapt centre and professor in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University, told SiliconRepublic.com about the researcher roles available.
They said the Smart D8 programme is seeking a smart city ecosystem manager. “The successful candidate will coordinate the development of a vision for developing the Smart D8 district as a world-class ‘smart health and community wellbeing’ testbed that offers the opportunity for R&D with the ability to test products and services locally.”
Meanwhile, the Digital Twin project is looking for a digital twin and smart city lead. “The core research objective is to identify potential new models for engagement with digital twin technologies and to develop and trial proof-of-concept engagements to optimise the proposed models,” they said.
“This programme of engaged research will generate new data around the interaction between Digital Twin and stakeholders and citizens, providing insights and new knowledge relating to the Digital Twin programme and to collaborative engagement with the community.”
What candidates need to know
Cudden and Kerr said both roles would need strong project management skills and experience, an understanding of current smart technology trends, and experience running and evaluating public engagement or living lab activities.
“Candidates should have a postgraduate degree in a relevant discipline or field, and knowledge of technology ethics and good data management practices.”
They added that relationship management and experience of engaging different audiences – both technical and non-technical – would be very important. Depending on the role researchers apply for, knowledge of smart cities, smart health community wellbeing technologies and digital twin technologies would be required as well.
“These are really unique roles as the researchers will be hosted in the Smart Dublin team working in Dublin City Council. Successful researchers will get exposure to the smart city work programme, which is delivering a wide range of projects in partnership with some of the world’s biggest tech companies such as Google, Mastercard, Bentley Systems, Virgin Media as well as working with highly innovative SMEs and start-ups, academia and local communities,” said Cudden and Kerr.
“There is a real opportunity to shape the future direction of the city and help to ensure that the application of technology is delivering real benefits for citizens and communities.”
As well as exposure to smart city technologies, researchers will also have access to mentorship, support, training and expertise from the Adapt centre during the project.
“As an Adapt researcher, you will have access to a network of 85 global experts and more than 250 staff as well as a wide multidisciplinary ecosystem across eight leading Irish universities,” said Cudden and Kerr. “We can influence and inform your work, share our networks and collaborate with you to increase your impact, and accelerate your career opportunities.”
Applications must be made via the Maynooth University recruitment portal. Informal queries can also be made to info@adaptcentre.ie with the job title in subject line.
For researchers who don’t quite fit the criteria for these two roles, the Adapt centre has a wide variety of research projects for which recruitment regularly takes place. All positions are posted on the careers section of Adapt’s website.
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