Research Fellow

We are seeking three Research Postdoctoral Research Fellows to join a major European Research Council funded research programme focused on the neurocognitive decision architecture underpinning the use or rejection of coercive interrogation practices

Location: Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience - Trinity College Dublin

Post status: Fulltime

Hours Of Post: 39

Salary: This appointment will be made on IUA Post-doctoral Researcher Salary Scale (Level 1) at no higher than point 2 of the scale (€46,905 per annum)  

About Trinity:

Trinity is Ireland’s leading university and is ranked 75th in the world (QS World University Rankings 2026). Founded in 1592, the University is steeped in history with a reputation for excellence in education, research, and innovation, which has been inspiring generations of thinkers for over 400 years. Trinity’s Current strategic place Thrive: Trinity College Dublin's Strategic Plan 2025 - 2030Top of Form

The pursuit of excellence through research and scholarship is at the heart of a Trinity education. Our researchers have an outstanding publication record and a strong record of grant success Trinity Research

About the Project: 

This project is funded by the European Research Council Synergy Programme (acronym:  JUSTICE)

These posts will focus on the social and cognitive neuroscience of how groups come to accept, resist, or normalise coercive practices during investigative interviewing. We will explore the neural, psychological, and social mechanisms underlying the decisions people make around coercive interviewing practices, and we will examine these processes in the context of small group interactions. There will also be important opportunities to work collaboratively with our other partners in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands on these projects.

Useful background will be found in Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation by Shane O'Mara

The work will involve:
fNIRS hyperscanning to assay brain function 
investigations of deliberative groups and decision-making under pressure 
a focus on silence, dissent, conformity, responsibility diffusion, and status effects within groups 
multimodal experiments combining neural, behavioural, physiological, and speech data
close collaboration with AI/speech-analysis colleagues on conversational turning points

These are up to five-year positions, with excellent lab facilities, strong ERC support, and an exceptional international network.

We are especially interested in hearing from candidates who are strongest in one area, but genuinely excited to work across several. This is not a narrow single-method role; it is an opportunity to help build a new research domain.

We are especially interested in applicants with strong backgrounds in one or more of the following:

social or cognitive neuroscience 
fNIRS, EEG, or related neurophysiology and/or fMRI/MEG
hyperscanning or group interaction research 
behavioural experiment design 
advanced statistics or signal processing 
speech, language, or multimodal data analysis 
moral cognition, social psychology, or decision science