Postdoctoral Research Associate​/Fellow - Science and Technology Studies

The starting salary will be from £34,610 up to £39,906 for PDRA and from £43,482 for PDRF, depending on knowledge, skills and experience.

This full time, ERC funded post is available January 2027 to 31 December 2031. The successful applicant will conduct outstanding, international quality research on the ethics of AI and military decision-making. They will produce outstanding publications in the course of the research with a view to consolidating their academic career and establishing themselves as an expert in the field.

The Faculty is seeking either a Postdoctoral Research Associate or Fellow with expertise in Science and Technology Studies (STS), sociology of science, or a closely related field to work with Professor Anthony King (Principal Investigator) on his ERC Advanced Grant project GENERAL-AI:
Artificial Intelligence and Military Decision-Making.

Applicants must have lived continuously in the UK for at least 5 years and be a national of a NATO member state in order to be eligible to obtain and maintain the required security clearance level for the role. Applications from candidates that do not meet the criteria will not be considered.

Appointment will be conditional upon the successful completion of security vetting.

GENERAL-AI is a five‑year European Research Council Advanced Grant investigating how artificial intelligence is transforming military decision‑making. The project challenges speculative accounts of AI taking over military command by examining what AI can actually do, how military commanders and their staffs use AI in practice, and the ethical implications of its use in war.

Focusing on AI‑enabled high‑intensity land warfare, the project combines the sociology of science and technology, ethnographic research, and philosophy and ethics. It investigates the development of military AI by leading technology companies, its use within NATO and European military headquarters, and the legal and ethical frameworks governing its application.

The project will provide a detailed empirical account of the relationship between AI and human decision‑making, while developing new theoretical perspectives on how AI is changing cognition, organisations and military command. Its findings will contribute both to academic debates about AI and to contemporary European security and defence policy.

GENERAL AI consists of three work packages:
Work Package 1 examines the technology itself exploring the development and character of AI Decision Support Systems through engagement with the relevant tech companies. Work Package 2 explores the process of decision‑making inside military headquarters. Work Package 3 will examine the ethics of military decision making with AI. This post refers to Work Package 1.

The successful candidate will undertake research for Work Package 1 (WP1), AI Technology, investigating the development, adaptation and application of artificial intelligence for military purposes.

GENERAL-AI is deliberately empirical. Rather than projecting hypothetical future developments of AI, the project examines the capabilities and limitations of contemporary AI and how it is being developed and adapted for military use. WP1 will therefore investigate how AI technologies are produced, how they acquire particular military functions, and how human expertise and organisational practices shape their development.

• conduct a programme of documentary and qualitative research into the development of contemporary AI and its military applications;
• survey relevant academic and technical literature in order to establish the current capabilities, limitations and…