Profession university research assistant

University research assistants conduct academic research for the university or college they are employed in. They may assist professors they are affiliated with, their supervisor, in their research or develop their own in the related field of that professor.

Personality Type

• Social / Enterprising
• Social / Investigative
• Social / Artistic
• Social / Conventional
• Social / Realistic

Knowledge

• Scientific research methodology

  The theoretical methodology used in scientific research involving doing background research, constructing an hypothesis, testing it, analysing data and concluding the results.

• University procedures

  The inner workings of a university, such as the structure of the relevant education support and management, the policies, and the regulations.

Skills

• Discuss research proposals

  Discuss proposals and projects with researchers, decide on resources to allocate and whether to move forward with the study.

• Assist scientific research

  Assist engineers or scientists with conducting experiments, performing analysis, developing new products or processes, constructing theory, and quality control.

• Conduct scholarly research

  Plan scholarly research by formulating the research question and conducting empirical or literature research in order to investigate the truth of the research question.

• Use data processing techniques

  Gather, process and analyse relevant data and information, properly store and update data and represent figures and data using charts and statistical diagrams.

• Develop scientific theories

  Formulate scientific theories based on empirical observations, gathered data and theories of other scientists.

• Archive scientific documentation

  Store documents such as protocols, analysis results and scientific data using archiving systems to enable scientists and engineers to take methods and results from previous studies into account for their research.

• Monitor developments in field of expertise

  Keep up with new research, regulations, and other significant changes, labour market related or otherwise, occurring within the field of specialisation.

• Apply scientific methods

  Apply scientific methods and techniques to investigate phenomena, by acquiring new knowledge or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.

• Write scientific papers

  Present the hypothesis, findings, and conclusions of your scientific research in your field of expertise in a professional publication.

• Write research proposals

  Synthetise and write proposals aiming to solve research problems. Draft the proposal baseline and objectives, the estimated budget, risks and impact. Document the advances and new developments on the relevant subject and field of study.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB