A staff member employed to provide research support — data collection, literature search, analysis, administration — to a research project under the direction of a more senior researcher, typically without independent design authority over the project.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A bachelor's-level RA on a 2-year contract conducting structured interviews under a PI's protocol

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A research associate with independent design authority is not an RA in the narrow sense

Editorial commentary

RA roles range from largely administrative to highly substantive scientific contribution. Career progression typically leads to research-associate roles (greater independence) or to doctoral study. UK academic grading places RA below research associate; US usage is less standardised.

References

UCEA UK Higher Education Academic Pay Grades
Vitae Researcher Development Framework

Also known as

RA · Research aide

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Research assistant"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/research-assistant" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/research-assistant",
  "name": "Research assistant",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/research-assistant",
  "description": "A staff member employed to provide research support — data collection, literature search, analysis, administration — to a research project under the direction of a more senior researcher, typically without independent design authority over the project.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/mentorship-career-stages#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/research-assistant",
  "sameAs": [
    "RA",
    "Research aide"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:01:35",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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