R sig jobs - Sep 2013 - PhD Studentship: Geographically Weighted Geodemographics [University of Liverpool]

Supervisors: Dr Alex Singleton; Professor Chris Brunsdon
Industrial Partner: Office for National Statistics

Applicants are invited for a PhD studentship at the University of
Liverpool within the ESRC North West DTC. The studentship will be
supervised by Dr Alex Singleton and Professor Chris Brunsdon in the
Department of Geography and Planning; and is being conducted in
collaboration with the Office for National Statistics.

This three year advanced quantitative methods award will provide an
enhanced stipend of ?16,726 (tax free) alongside payment of tuition
fees. You will also have the opportunity to apply for additional
funding related to training and fieldwork expenses. This studentship
is open to candidates from outside of the UK / EU.

The project aims to redefine those methods through which
geodemographic classifications are created, feeding these developments
into ONS best practice for creating future open national indicators,
such as the census Output Area Classification. The project will
develop an extension to traditional geodemographics that more
appropriately accounts for spatial context and the relationship
between small area geography. This will involve the development of new
methods integrating spatial statistics, data mining and computer
modelling.

The candidate will require a background in Geography, Planning,
Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistics or other quantitative
discipline; an undergraduate degree at 2.1 or 1, and ideally a Masters
degree in a domain relevant area. We would be especially interested in
candidates with some coding experience, either in traditional
languages (java, python etc) or statistical programming such as R.

If you are interested and would like some more information, we have a
more detailed specification of the project available here:
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/881843/Further_Details_PhD.pdf

Also, please feel free to get in touch with Alex Singleton
(alex.singleton at liverpool.ac.uk).
Candidates interested in this studentship should send a letter
detailing their suitability and interest in the project, along with a
CV, to Alex Singleton by 27th September 2013.

-- 
Dr Alex Singleton
Lecturer in Geographic Information Science
Department of Geography and Planning
University of Liverpool
Email:alex.singleton at liverpool.ac.uk
Tel: 0151 7943108
Website: http://www.alex-singleton.com
Twitter: alexsingleton
Skype: alexsingleton