Job Title: Research Associates (multiple positions), System 3 Reports to: Experience (in years): At least 1 year of paid, full-time work experience
Full time, fixed term of 12 months, with potential for renewal

Ashoka University is India's premier interdisciplinary teaching and research university. An institution that has become a beacon of academic excellence in less than 10 years since its inception. Champion interdisciplinary learning, cutting-edge pedagogy, and academic rigor to transform Indian higher education.
Think Strategically: Collaborate with visionary minds to shape the future of higher education through strategic planning and a forward-thinking approach.
Experience the power of teamwork and diverse perspectives, working collectively towards our shared goals.
Deliver Excellence: Strive for excellence in all aspects, upholding the highest standards of academic excellence, student support, and professional development opportunities.

At the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC), we bring together behavioural scientists, policy experts, and researchers to develop novel insights and catalyse action. We partner with governments, non-profits, and corporations to embed behavioural science in programme design, creating solutions that work in practice and at scale. Established by Ashoka University with Gates Foundation support, we make development more people-centric through real-world applications of behavioural science. System 3 is a new research lab under the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC). Basic science, from India: Most of what the world knows about how people think, trust and decide comes from a few narrow populations. India, with its range of languages, identities and institutions, is where those claims can be properly tested. We will run foundational, curiosity-driven research on cognition, judgement and behaviour, to learn which findings travel and which were only ever local. We take inspiration from the MIT Media Lab: open, accessible and joyful in the pursuit of credible science.
How do we learn, judge,



trust and decide when intelligent machines are part of everyday life What do we gain, and what do we quietly give away This will be a major focus of our research agenda.
Understanding the human mind in all its diversity will let us study how AI changes it.
We are looking for people who like building something from scratch, who take ownership without waiting to be asked, and who are as comfortable rolling up their sleeves as thinking big.
System 3 is hiring Research Associates to be the engine of the lab. The Associates will run studies, work with data and help bring the lab's research to life, learning how rigorous behavioural science is done from the Pre-Doctoral Fellows they work with every day. The role suits someone who is curious about research and about how people think and decide, and who wants to learn by doing it in a small, ambitious team. Reporting to a Pre-Doctoral Fellow, the Associates will be part of the lab's core team.
What the Research Associates will do:
Set up experiment sessions, run them with participants and collect data carefully and accurately.
Bring people into the lab
Reach out to the wider public to invite them to take part in research.
Work with data
Clean, organise and analyse data under guidance, using AI tools where useful and checking what they produce.
Support the science
Search for and summarise research papers.
Help prepare study materials, figures and drafts for the Pre-Doc Fellows and Principal Investigators.
Open the lab to the curious
Help organise public lectures and discussions on behavioural and cognitive science.
Welcome anyone who is curious, whether or not they have a science background.

A bachelor's degree in any discipline that shows quantitative ability or strong analytical reasoning, for example philosophy,



a pure science, computer science, economics or engineering. Candidates without a quantitative background should be willing to learn basic statistics and programming, with support from the lab.
At least 1 year of paid, full-time work experience in any field is required. Experience in research, AI or an applied behavioural science field is preferred.
Data analysis in Python, R, Stata or Matlab, or the ability to pick it up quickly.
Using agentic AI tools for research (coding, analysis, literature work), and protecting the team from hallucinations.
Associates work with different Principal Investigators and projects, so we do not expect any one person to have every skill below. Strong candidates will have the Required skills plus some of the Desirable skills for social sciences or cognitive sciences or AI.
Data collection through Qualtrics, SurveyCTO, oTree, z-Tree or similar.
Familiarity with regression and basic statistics.
Adapting tasks and measures across languages and populations (translation, back-translation).
Economics and sociology projects
Experience with survey or field data, and regression analysis of it.
Psychology and cognitive science projects
Programming behavioural experiments in PsychoPy, jsPsych or lab.js, including online studies (for example Pavlovia).
Comfort with reaching out to people and encouraging them to take part in research, or a real willingness to learn how.
Willingness to do whatever a research start-up needs, from running sessions to setting up a room for a public talk.
An updated CV: Showcase your professional accomplishments, skills, and experiences.
In your email mention the name and email address of a manager or colleague who can speak to your work (a professional, not an academic, reference). This will help us efficiently process your application.
Last compensation received: We value your expertise and acknowledge the importance of fair compensation.
Pursuit of Excellence: At Ashoka University, we strive for excellence in all aspects of our operations.

📌 Research Fellow - Full Time, Fixed Term (Delhi)
🏢 Centre for Social and Behaviour Change
📍 Delhi