The Alan Turing Institute is the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. The Institute is named in honour of the scientist Alan Turing and its mission is to make great leaps in data science and artificial intelligence research in order to change the world for the better.
The Alan Turing Institute has been awarded a grant by Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) to lead the Analytics Hub for the EDoN initiative. Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) is the largest initiative in the world that will collect, share and analyse clinical and digital health data to detect diseases like Alzheimer's. Ultimately, this approach would be used by doctors to give an earlier and much more accurate diagnosis of dementia diseases.
The Alan Turing Institute is leading the EDoN Analytics Hub. Our responsibility is to perform the analyses that will allow EDoN to make sense of the data collected in the project. It is composed of data scientists and is responsible for using retrospective and prospective data to develop, validate and refine machine learning "fingerprint" models that can detect the diseases that cause dementia at their earliest stage. The Analytics Hub team will collaborate with members of the Clinical and Digital Hubs to inspire future investigations and to answer questions relevant to the clinical context. The Analytics Hub will work closely with the Coordination team to ensure that EDoN delivers insights that are "more than the sum of their parts".
The Tools, Practices and Systems (TPS) programme at the Turing represents a cross-cutting set of initiatives which seek to build open source infrastructure that is accessible to all, and to empower a global, decentralised network of people who connect data with domain experts.
The Turing Way is an open source community-driven guide to reproducible, ethical, inclusive and collaborative data science. The project goal is to provide all the information that data scientists in academia, industry, government and the third sector need at the start of their projects to ensure that they are easy to reproduce and reuse at the end.
We are recruiting a Senior Community Manager to lead on open science and reproducibility within the EDoN Initative who will work to embed the expertise in the TPS, Turing Way and broader open source communities in the EDoN consortium to ensure that this investment delivers FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) outputs that are greater than the sum of their parts.
ROLE PURPOSE
The Senior Community Manager for EDoN will create, nurture and protect the conditions required for successful technical communication across the distributed EDoN team. We anticipate that the postholder will need to embody core values of compassion, stewardship, and collaboration, in addition to their commitment to equity and inclusion as described in the Turing’s "Rules of the Game" (see below).
Reproducibility is multifaceted and can feel difficult to achieve for people with a variety of technical backgrounds. The ideal candidate for EDoN’s Senior Community Manager will treat all members of the consortia with compassion. They will support people to share and promote the skills that they already have, understand the experiences of people from a range of diverse backgrounds, and identify what they need to effectively work together. EDoN can only achieve its ambitious goals if it is delivered by domain experts working together. The postholder will be integral in facilitating new connections and maintaining professional connections between the EDoN hubs.
As a steward of their community, EDoN’s Senior Community Manager will see how individual pieces fit together as a whole. They will surface implicit knowledge and make information explicit so that everyone who wants to can participate. They will guide EDoN team members to see how their individual skills can take the project forwards, identify gaps in team members' expertise, and organise "just in time" training to facilitate communication across the consortium. For example, ensuring that everyone understands - to the extent that they need to - data standards, computational reproducibility, open source project management on GitHub, linting and code review, statistical reporting guidelines, and responsible research and innovation practices. They will work closely with the EDoN Analytics Hub data wranglers who are using their skills in data import, harmonisation and quality control to prepare a standardised research-ready dataset within a secure research environment (SRE). We are currently investigating data use agreements for multiple cohorts including the National Alzheimer Coordinating Centre (NACC), predictors of COgnitive DECline in attenders of memory clinic (CODEC), and Swedish BioFINDER Study II.
EDoN’s Senior Community Manager will collaborate with experts in the Turing community and beyond. We do not expect the applicants to already have all the skills within the scope of The Turing Way project. Rather that they will develop new expertise and grow in the role. They will be an active contributor to The Turing Way, acting as a bi-directional conduit to implement best practices for reproducible, ethical, inclusive and collaborative data science. They will also participate in the Tools, Practices and Systems community, particularly connecting with experts in secure data analysis, community-led data standard development such as the Brain Imaging Data Structure, and the development of responsible research and innovation practices. We expect that success in the role will also require close collaboration with other communities such as the Turing's Health and Medical Sciences Programme, Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS), UK Dementia Research Institute, and Deep Dementia Phenotyping Network among others.
The postholder will join a machine learning postdoctoral researcher and two specialised data wranglers in the EDoN Analytics Hub team, along with senior investigators Prof Richard Everson, Dr Ann-Marie Mallon and Dr Kirstie Whitaker. They will work closely with Dr Malvika Sharan, The Turing Way community manager, and the EDoN Coordination team led by Dr Rafael Jimenez. We anticipate that the Analytics Hub team will quickly grow and will collaborate with analysts from cohorts contributing to the EDoN initiative. Dr Kirstie Whitaker will be their line manager.
DUTIES AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY
Essential
Desirable
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
If you are interested in this opportunity, please click the apply button below. You will need to register on the applicant portal and complete the application form including your CV and covering letter. If you have questions about the role or would like to apply using a different format, please contact them on 020 3862 3575 or 0203 862 3340, or email [email protected].
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 8th August 2021 at 23.59
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
This full time post is offered on a fixed term basis for two years. The annual salary is £46,690-£52,000 plus excellent benefits, including flexible working and family friendly policies, https://www.turing.ac.uk/work-turing/why-work-turing/employee-benefits.
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
The Alan Turing Institute is committed to creating an environment where diversity is valued and everyone is treated fairly. In accordance with the Equality Act, we welcome applications from anyone who meets the specific criteria of the post regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Reasonable adjustments to the interview process will be made for any candidates with a disability.
Please note all offers of employment are subject to obtaining and retaining the right to work in the UK and satisfactory pre-employment security screening which includes a DBS Check.
Full details on the pre-employment screening process can be requested from [email protected].