PhD Research Fellow in Social Sciences

Job description

Applicants are invited for a four-year full-time position as PhD Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Equality in Education (CREATE), University of Oslo, Norway.

CREATE is an interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence funded by the Research Council of Norway with the objective of generating novel knowledge about how to reduce social inequality. The interdisciplinary center integrates researchers with substantive expertise from education, psychology, sociology, economics, and genetics, and methodological expertise from educational measurement, psychometrics, econometrics, statistics, and biostatistics. The PhD fellowship is affiliated with CREATE’s research strand 1 «Identifying the barriers to equality in education», aiming to disentangle the causal mechanisms that hinder equality and to understand for whom, how, and why these mechanisms operate over time and across the life course.

The PhD fellow will be part of the interdisciplinary Convergence Environment “NeuroPathways: A Multidisciplinary Convergence Approach to Understanding and Supporting Neurodevelopmental Variability”, funded through the University of Oslo. The project integrates economics, sociology, genetics, psychology, pharmacology, and educational sciences to advance our understanding of neurodevelopmental variability and improve evidence-based and inclusive support strategies across the life course.

We are looking for a motivated and engaged PhD fellow with strong potential for high-quality research. The position includes 25% career-promoting work, which may consist of teaching, dissemination, and contributions to NeuroPathways interdisciplinary and convergence activities. The career-promoting work will depend on the candidate’s qualifications and CREATE's needs.

More about the position

Convergence Environments are interdisciplinary research groups that aim to solve grand challenges related to health and the environment. They are funded by UiO's interdisciplinary strategic area UiO:Life Science .

Neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD and autism are being diagnosed more than ever — but why, and with what consequences? NeuroPathways is an interdisciplinary Convergence Environment that brings together sociology, economics, psychology, genetics, pharmacology, education, and clinical research to address questions about neurodevelopmental variability that cannot be answered within disciplinary silos. The NeuroPathways research environment bridges biomedical and social science perspectives to examine how genetic predispositions and environments — from clinics to classrooms — jointly shape developmental outcomes, using Norway’s exceptional registry and cohort data to study why diagnoses are rising, who receives assessment and support, which interventions work best for whom, and how support systems can become more equitable and inclusive.

This PhD position has an education and society-oriented focus. The PhD fellow will work with large-scale register and cohort data to investigate how social structures interact with individual and family-level risk factors to influence life-course trajectories. Within this framework, the successful candidate will focus on key areas such as examining fairness in support across educational institutions and groups, describing life-course trajectories by taking an intersectional approach incorporating genetics, gender, and socioeconomic background, and identifying specific school characteristics that foster inclusive environments and mitigate the effects of genetic predispositions. This work will integrate descriptive and causal approaches to map outcomes across education, the labor market, and health from childhood through early adulthood.

The PhD fellow will be embedded in the interdisciplinary NeuroPathways Convergence Environment. Professor Astrid Sandsør or Associate Professor Nicolai Borgen, both at the Center for Research on Equality in Education – CREATE, will serve as primary supervisors with overall responsibility for the PhD project. Professor Hedvig Nordeng (Department of Pharmacy) will serve as secondary supervisor.

The PhD fellow will collaborate closely with researchers across the NeuroPathways Team, including experts in psychology and genetics, education and inequality, pharmacoepidemiology, and clinical psychology. The PhD fellow will work with advanced quantitative methods, contribute to joint publications within NeuroPathways, and participate in interdisciplinary seminars and training activities.

The PhD fellow will take part in the approved PhD program at the Faculty of Educational Sciences and is expected to complete the project within the set fellowship period. The main purpose of the PhD fellowship is to qualify the candidate for a research career within or beyond academia. To support a strategic and well-structured PhD trajectory, the PhD fellow will be required to develop a career and competence development plan in dialogue with the supervisory team early in the appointment period. The successful candidate will receive close supervision and is encouraged to develop a strong international research profile through collaboration, conference participation, and research stays abroad.

For more information, please see our web site.

Qualification requirements

Applicants must satisfy the requirements for admission to the faculty´s PhD program. This normally includes:

• Applicants must hold a Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics, Sociology, Education, Psychology or other relevant fields
• A Master’s degree (120 ECTS) with a minimum grade B (ECTS grading scale) or equivalent. The master’s degree must include a thesis of at least 30 ECTS, with a minimum grade B
• A Bachelor’s degree with a minimum grade C (ECTS grading scale)
• For 5-year studies, the average grade must be C or better for the first three years, and B or better for the last two years (ECTS grading scale). The Master thesis must have been graded with a minimum grade B
• Advanced quantitative research skills
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in English

In the assessment of applications, emphasis will be placed on:

• The quality of the project description and the research topic’s relevance to NeuroPathways
• Familiarity with quasi-experimental methods for causal inference
• Familiarity with administrative register data or other types of big data
• Familiarity with R, Stata, Python, or other relevant computing languages
• Documented research experience or educational background related to neurodevelopmental conditions

Personal skills

Personal suitability and motivation for the position will be emphasized and assessed based on the following qualities:

• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in interdisciplinary research teams
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to give and receive constructive scientific feedback
• Structured, reliable, and results-oriented working style
• Good communication and collaboration skills

We need different perspectives in our work

UiO is an open and internationally oriented comprehensive university that strives to be an inclusive and diverse workplace and academic environment. You can read more about UiO’s work on equality, inclusion, and diversity at uio.no.

We fulfill our mission most effectively when we draw upon our variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We are looking for great colleagues—could you be the next one?

We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Relevant adjustments may include modifications to working hours, task adaptations, digital, technical, or physical adjustments, or other practical measures.

If you have an immigrant background, a disability, or CV gaps (Norwegian), we encourage you to indicate this in the job application portal. We always invite at least one qualified candidate from each group for an interview. In this context, disability is defined as an applicant who identifies as having a disability that requires workplace or employment-related accommodations. For more details about the requirements, please refer to the Employer portal (Norwegian).

The selections made in the job application portal are used for anonymized statistics that all state employers include in their annual reports. More information about gender equality initiatives at UiO can be found here.

We hope you will apply for the position with us.

We offer

• Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organization with an important societal mission
• Opportunity to work with world-class research data
• Inclusion in the NeuroPathways Convergence Environment’s professional and social activities and broad network of early career researchers (doctoral and postdoctoral fellows)
• Dedicated colleagues in a friendly and international research environment, recognized as a Centre of Excellence
• A workplace with good development and career opportunities
• Salary NOK 550 800 - 594 000 per annum depending on qualifications in a position as PhD Research Fellow, (position code 1017). From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund
• Attractive welfare benefits and a generous pension agreement, in addition to Oslo’s family-friendly environment with its rich opportunities for culture and outdoor activities

How to apply and what to include in your application

The application must include:

• Application letter (max. 2 pages) describing motivation for applying, previous research experience, research interests, and how your qualifications match the position
• A project description, including progress plan (5-7 pages). Please see our guidelines. Choose a topic relevant to NeuroPathways and motivate your interest
• Identify a potential research question and suggest a methodological approach and study design to pursue this question
• Include a tentative progress plan for the PhD, including coursework you would benefit from

CV with a complete overview of education, work experience, and other qualifying activities Publication list, including Master’s thesis and any other academic work (including preprints, talks, or posters)Copies of educational certificates (academic transcripts only). Foreign applicants must attach an explanation of their grading systemDocumentation of English proficiency (for information on required documentation, see information on this webpage)List of reference persons: 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail, and phone number)

Incomplete applications will not be assessed.

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system Jobbnorge.

When applying for the position, we ask you to retrieve your education results from Vitnemålsportalen.no. If your education results are not available through Vitnemålsportalen, we ask you to upload copies of your transcripts or grades. Please note that all documents should be in English (or a Scandinavian language).

When evaluating the application, emphasis will be given to the project description and the applicant’s academic and personal prerequisites to carry out the project. Applicants may be called in for an interview.

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Research Fellowships, Regulations for the Act on universities and colleges chapter 3 (Norwegian) and Regulations for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at the University of Oslo.

No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the University of Oslo.

Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we cannot, you will hear from us.

The appointment may be shortened/given a more limited scope within the framework of the applicable guidelines on account of any previous employment in academic positions.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.