Ref Number
B02-10958
Professional Expertise
Research and Research Support
Department
School of Life & Medical Sciences (B02)
Location
London
Working Pattern
Full time
Salary
£36,433-£41,833
Contract Type
Fixed-term
Working Type
Hybrid
Available for Secondment
No
Closing Date
06-Aug-2026
UCL, based in Bloomsbury, is a welcoming, inclusive university situated at the heart of one of the world’s greatest cities. UCL is a top-ranked university in the UK for research in psychology, psychiatry & neuroscience. The post will be based within the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (www.ucl.ac.uk/pals) in the Faculty of Brain Sciences. The Division houses a number of research departments, one of which is the Department of Linguistics – known for its world class research in theoretical and experimental approaches to language. The postholder will be affiliated with both the Linguistics department and the cross-departmental Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL).
DCAL is the leading research centre in the field of Deafness, Cognition and Language in Europe. It is a bilingual centre which brings together leading deaf and hearing researchers in the fields of linguistics, psychology and neuroscience. DCAL researchers study language – its origins, structure, use, development, processes and relationship with cognition, using the unique perspective of deafness and deaf communication.
“SignGPT” is a new 5-year project which brings DCAL together with the Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey, and the Visual Geometry Group at the University of Oxford. The project, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), aims to leverage annotated sign language data from the British Sign Language (BSL) Corpus (http://www.bslcorpusproject.org) and other sources to build tools to allow spoken language to be automatically translated into photo-realistic sign language and video of sign language to be translated into spoken language.
This is an exciting opportunity to work with the UCL/DCAL component of “SignGPT” – led by Prof Kearsy Cormier and Prof Bencie Woll. The team works closely with other other collaborators on the project – Lead PI Prof Richard Bowden (University of Surrey) and Prof Andrew Zisserman (University of Oxford) and their teams.
The postholder will conduct annotations of BSL data to be used for training a machine learning system for tool creation and translation and to check and correct annotations and translations from the annotation tools. They will also help organise the user community workshops, post news items online, and contribute to writing up of the project findings along with project team. The post holder will receive training, support and mentoring as appropriate to the role.
The appointment will be made at Grade 6B. The position is offered for 36 months in the first instance with the possibility of an extension. We will consider applications to work on a part-time basis or job-share wherever possible.
The start-date is negotiable, but we would like the postholder in position as soon as possible.
This role does not meet the eligibility requirements for a Skilled Worker Visa certificate of sponsorship under UK Visas and Immigration legislation. Therefore, UCL will not be able to sponsor individuals who require right to work in the UK to carry out this role.
This appointment is subject to UCL Terms and Conditions of Service for Research and Professional Services Staff. Please visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/conditions-service-research-teaching-and-professional-services-staff for more information.
You will hold or progressing toward a postgraduate degree in a relevant subject area (e.g. linguistics, applied linguistics, psychology) and have fluent skills in British Sign Language (BSL). You will be based at UCL DCAL and will work closely with other project members at DCAL. You will also liaise regularly with researchers at Surrey and Oxford who will be doing the main technical work.
Further Details
The advert will close on 6 August 2026 at 23:59 GMT. A Job Description and Person Specification can be accessed at the bottom of this page.
If you have any queries about the role, please contact [email protected]. If you need reasonable adjustments or a more accessible format to apply for this job online or have any queries about the application process, please contact PALS HR at [email protected].
The UCL Ways of Working supports colleagues to be successful and happy at UCL through sharing expectations around how we work – please visit www.ucl.ac.uk/ways-of-working to find out more.
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:
- 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
- Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme
- Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
- Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
- Immigration loan
- Relocation scheme for certain posts
- On-Site nursery
- On-site gym
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
- Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
- Discounted medical insurance
Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits to find out more.
As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.
We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.
These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.
DCAL particularly encourages applications from deaf people for all posts.
Athena Swan Status Statement
- Our department holds an Athena SWAN Silver award, in recognition of our commitment and demonstrable impact in advancing gender equality.
You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/
