Area
Social Sciences
Location
University Park
Salary
£35,116 to £46,735 per annum pro-rata depending on skills and experience. Salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance.
Closing Date
Sunday 31 August 2025
Reference
SOC213825
In 2025, the University of Nottingham and King’s College London will launch the new Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War, funded by the Leverhulme Trust for up to £10 million over ten years. For more information please see the announcement of this initiative.
The Centre will be the first overarching and integrative attempt to understand the relationships between slavery and war. Structured around four interconnected research strands—(Re)conceptualising, Understanding, Forecasting and Tackling—the Centre’s programme aims for far-reaching insights that transform global responses to modern slavery in conflict settings.
This attempt requires a large, interdisciplinary team working within a cross-cutting framework to connect vast amounts of data and answer many fundamental questions with innovative methodological approaches. The Centre will reshape knowledge of how slavery in war can be analysed, forecasted and tackled, shaping in the process a new interdisciplinary field of study and a step-change towards the global goal of eliminating forced labour, modern slavery, and human trafficking.
This role is one of seven new roles being recruited into the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham as part of the new Centre, alongside further role recruitment at King’s College London . At Nottingham, the roles are:
Research Fellow in Slavery and War (Concepts and Theories)
Research Fellow in Slavery and War (Comparative Contexts)
Research Fellow in Slavery and War (Trends and Indicators)
Research Fellow in Slavery and War (Geospatial and Data Science)
Research Fellow in Slavery and War (Forecasting and Data Science)
Research Fellow in Slavery and War (Laws and Justice)
Research Fellow in Slavery and War (Governance and Interventions)
The Centre’s early-career researchers (ECRs) are at its core and pivotal to its work. The role-holder will be part of the Centre’s inaugural ECR cohort. As well as being embedded in one of the Centre’s four research strands, with mentorship from strand co-leads, the role-holder will be part of the Centre’s central ECR cohort, with support from a cohort director / Centre deputy director and access to a Centre-wide ECR development programme—for example, co-writing workshops, methods training, joint stakeholder sessions, and work-in-progress presentations. The Centre's ECRs will work as teams on specific projects. The role-holder will also collaborate with ECRs based at King’s College London within this Centre. There will be opportunities for mobility between the Nottingham and King’s sites.
This is a full-time role (36.25 hours per week), available as a fixed-term post commencing by November 1, 2025 (date to be negotiated) and ending August 31, 2028, with potential for continuation. Job share arrangements may be considered. Requests for secondment from internal candidates may be considered on the basis that prior agreement has been sought from both your current line manager and the manager of your substantive post, if you are already undertaking a secondment role.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an on-campus interview day at the University of Nottingham, to be scheduled for a day between September 15 and September 25. Interview invitations will be made in the week commencing September 1. The interview day will include opportunities to meet with current ECRs based in the Rights Lab, informational sessions, and a campus tour, as well as your formal interview, and a recruitment task.
Further details:
View Additional Information (this will open a new window)
Our University is a supportive, inclusive, caring and positive community. We warmly welcome those of different cultures, ethnicities and beliefs – indeed this very diversity is vital to our success, it is fundamental to our values and enriches life on campus. We welcome applications from UK, Europe and from across the globe. For more information on the support we offer our international colleagues, see our Moving to Nottingham pages.
The Centre is based on University Park campus . Part of the University since 1929, the campus is 300 acres and is widely regarded as one of the largest and most attractive in the country. The campus is conveniently located only two miles from the city centre: Nottingham is an eclectic, friendly and diverse city with an award-winning transport system and direct trains to London (90 mins).
For successful international applicants, we provide financial support for your visa and the immigration health surcharge, plus an interest-free loan to help cover the cost of immigration-related expenses for any dependents accompanying you to the UK. For more information please see the webpage on Financial support for visas and the immigration health surcharge .
For international researchers, the role is eligible for applications for UKRI endorsement for a Global Talent Visa. Please see the government’s guidance here .
About the role:
The role holder will conduct primary and secondary research and contribute to the development of new approaches, methodologies, and techniques appropriate to the research. Specific projects will be identified in line with the role-holder’s expertise and skills, as well as Centre need. The role-holder will have the opportunity to use their initiative and creativity to identify areas for research, develop research methods and extend their research portfolio within the thematic area of slavery in war.
About the team:
This role is based in the University’s Rights Lab. The Rights Lab is the world’s largest, leading group of modern slavery researchers. Our challenge-led, team-based approach to research fosters interdisciplinary collaboration. We are committed to ensuring our work is relevant, timely, responsive, accessible, and actionable. With King’s College London, the Rights Lab is launching the new Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War. This collaboration combines the complementary strengths of both institutions: KCL’s School of Security Studies, the world’s largest academic community dedicated to the study of war and security, and Nottingham’s Rights Lab, the global leader in modern slavery research. Together, these institutions will form a powerful interdisciplinary partnership that builds a new research field of slavery in war and a new generation of field-leading early-career researchers.
About you:
Candidates should have a PhD in a relevant field and experience or demonstrable interest in working as part of a research team. You will be at a relatively early stage of your academic careers. Funder (Leverhulme Trust) guidelines on the definition of ‘early career researcher’ for its own, separate fellowship scheme include: you have not yet held a full-time permanent academic post; you hold a doctorate by the time you take up the role; and you have not held postdoctoral positions to pursue your own independent research for more than three years. These guidelines are helpful indications of the Centre’s expectations of candidate career stage.
Here are some examples of the expertise we are seeking; however, this list is not exhaustive:
Ability to foster a collaborative, team-based research culture
A track record of publication on relevant topics
Experience working across and with multiple disciplines
Knowledge of research methods, research design, explanation, and understanding.
What we offer:
A friendly, diverse, and supportive working environment;
A vibrant on-campus research environment, supported by expectations that our team is based within the Rights Lab and dedicated Leverhulme Centre space in Highfield House on University Park for at least 60% of the working week (e.g. minimum three days for full time roles) and university expectations of residence within an hour’s travel time;
Generous holiday entitlement of 30 days annually (or pro rata) plus standard bank holidays and five university closure days, including closure between Christmas and New Year;
A University reward scheme that grants bonuses of numerous values for excellent work;
A commitment to staff development through the provision of training, continued support, and career progression opportunities;
Access to a range of benefits and rewards, including fitness and health facilities, staff discounts, travel schemes and many more. To find out more about what we can offer you, follow the link to our benefits website .
What next:
This role is 36.25 hpw and is available from November 1, 2025 to August 31, 2028 as a fixed term contract.
Further information is available in the role profile. To apply for this vacancy please click ‘Apply Now’ to complete your details.
Please contact Professor Zoe Trodd (
[email protected] ) if you have further questions about this role. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.
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Further details:
- Job Description/Role Profile
Our university is a supportive, inclusive, caring and positive community. We welcome those of different cultures, ethnicities and beliefs – indeed this very diversity is vital to our success, it is fundamental to our values and enriches life on campus. Visit our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion website.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2) employer . Increasing the diversity of our community is extremely important to us and we are committed to the aims of Disability Confident Scheme.
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Discover our benefits, visit Your Benefits website.
We welcome applications from UK, Europe and worldwide and aim to make your move to the UK as smooth as possible. Visit the Moving to Nottingham page for details.
Your application will be considered on an equal basis, subject to the relevant permission to work in the UK as set out by UK Visas & Immigration .
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