The position

A position as PhD Fellow in the project "Ancient sedimentary DNA of Freshwater Fish and Ecological Interactions in Europe over the Last Two Millennial" is available at the University Museum, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. The position is for a period of four years. The nominal length of the PhD programme is three years. The fourth year is distributed as 25 % each year and will consist of teaching and other duties, such as secondments and interactions with the industry or the public sector. The objective of the position is to complete research training to the level of a doctoral degree. Admission to the PhD programme is a prerequisite for employment, and the programme period starts on commencement of the position.

The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. There will also be extensive fieldwork in NW Europe. The candidate may also undertake a research stay abroad for up to 3 months with one or more of the project collaborators or another relevant organization.

You must be able to start in the position in Tromsø within a reasonable time after receiving the offer.

Affiliation

This position is attached to the Research Groups of Natural Sciences and Archaeology, the ArcEcoGEN Aurora Research Centre, and the Freshwater Ecology Group at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology at UiT. Natural Sciences is responsible for developing and maintaining scientific collections of objects (animals, plants, fossils and minerals) as well as public outreach, including the Tromsø Arctic Alpine Botanical Garden. Archaeology is responsible for the archaeological collections at the Tromsø University Museum as well as cultural heritage management and research-based excavations in Northern Norway. All excavated archaeological finds are incorporated into the existing museum collections. Combined the research areas of Botany and Archaeology have a permanent staff of approximately 21, of which 16 are in academic positions. At the moment, 10 PhD students and 4 postdoctoral researchers are connected to the research area and ArcEcoGEN Centre.

The departments have laboratories for environmental archaeology, modern and ancient DNA analyses. These labs will be upgraded significantly in 2025 with full sample integration and robotisation of many sedaDNA processes, making them world class in this area of research. Natural Sciences currently involved in three large projects: “MEMELAND”, “IceAgent” and “Norwegian Barcode of Life”. The latter includes full genome sequencing of the entire Norwegian flora. The Archaeology Group has 5 permanent academic research positions and a variable number of field archaeologists in technical positions. The primary focus of ongoing research is on prehistoric and historic archaeology within the region and comparative regions. The Freshwater Ecology Group (FEG) of the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology conducts research on aquatic systems at high latitudes. Focusing on invertebrates, fish, and parasites, the FEG uses experimental approaches, long-term time series, and modelling approaches to better understand ecological interactions from the interspecific to the community level within and across ecosystems from the catchment to the coast.

The project

The successful candidate will work on the project "Ancient sedimentary DNA of Freshwater Fish and Ecological Interactions in Europe over the Last Two Millennia".

This PhD project is attached to the ERC Synergy Project ‘MEMELAND’ (Molecular Ecology of European Medieval Landscape) at the University Museum of the Arctic University of Norway (PI Tony Brown). The successful candidate will join a multi-university team who are coring over 100 lakes in NW Europe to reveal ecosystem changes related to agricultural intensification over the last 2000 years. Whilst the main focus is terrestrial agriculture and its effects on biodiversity an additional theme is effects on freshwater systems including lakes and rivers. We are also interested in aquaculture both in purpose created environments (e.g. fishponds) and through river and lake stocking. Specific areas of investigation will include a) changes in fish faunas for selected sites, b) examine the causes of these changes and relate to vegetation, climate and archaeological data, c) investigate the use of fish parasite sedaDNA as an additional methodology, d) trial other primers for fish and e) use non-amplicon sequencing on selected sites and samples.

This PhD project will build on work already done by the Research Centre using general primers (16S) which have revealed surprisingly high fish diversity in sites in the UK and Norway. However, the full suite of lakes from across NW Europe will be available for this project. This position is at Tromsø but the candidate will be working with the teams in Salzburg (chronology, geochemistry and lake coring), eawag, Zurich (lipids), University of Oxford (archaeology and archaeobotany) and Charles University Prague (spatial modelling). The research outcomes will contribute to resilience and transformation in the Middle-high latitudes of Europe and operationalize Sustainable Development Goals.

Contact

For further information about the position, please contact:

Tony G Brown, e-mail: antony.g.brown@uit.no
Christian Selbach, e-mail: Christian.selbach@uit.no

Qualifications

This position requires:

A master's degree in subject relevant to the research description. Qualification with a master’s degree is required before commencement in the position. If you are near completion of your master’s degree, you may still apply provided that you submit all requested documents.
A master's thesis
Documented fluency in English. Nordic applicants can document their English capabilities by attaching their high school diploma.
The applicants must present a project description outlining the academic basis of the PhD project. The project description shall not exceed 4 pages, literature references included. It must include a description of the theme, research question(s), and a reasoning of the choices. It should also indicate the methodologies to be used, and what actors outside the academia to involve. The final project description will be developed in cooperation with the supervision team after employment.

It is considered an advantage if you have:

Working experience in the field in question
Experience from ecology, bioarchaeology, palaeoecology or bioinformatic/working on genetic data
Knowledge of cool-temperate ecosystems and particularly fish/aquatic systems
Experience from working in a team
A national and/or international research network that you can refer to
Publications and/or reports
Working knowledge of Norwegian or a Scandinavian language

Please note that the application will only be assessed based on the documents submitted through www.jobbnorge.no within the application deadline. This includes documents that is needed to assess admission to the PhD programme. If necessary documents is missing, your application will not be evaluated. See under "Application" what documents you must submit.

We will also emphasize motivation and personal suitability for the position.

As many people as possible should have the opportunity to undertake organized research training. If you already hold a PhD or have equivalent competence, we will not appoint you to this position.

Admission to the PhD programme

For employment in the PhD position, you must be qualified for admission to the PhD programme at the Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics and participate in organized doctoral studies within the employment period.

Admission normally requires:

A bachelor's degree of 180 ECTS and a master's degree of 120 ECTS, or an integrated master's degree of 300 ECTS.
A master's thesis with a scope corresponding to at least 30 ECTS for a master's degree of 120 ECTS.
A master's thesis with a scope corresponding to at least 20 ECTS for an integrated master's degree of 300 ECTS.

Grade requirements applies both to the master thesis as well as courses part of the master’s degree. The minimum requirements are grade B or better on the master’s degree, and an average grade of B or better on courses that are part of the master’s degree. For integrated master's degrees, applicants are required to have achieved a grade of B or higher on their master's thesis and an overall average grade of C or higher across all courses comprising the integrated degree programme. A more detailed description of admission requirements can be found here.

If you are employed in the position, you will be provisionally admitted to the PhD programme. Application for final admission must be submitted no later than two months after taking up the position.

Applicants with a foreign education will be subjected to an evaluation of whether the educational background is equal to Norwegian higher education, following national guidelines from Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills. Depending on which country the education is from, one or two additional years of university education may be required to fulfil admission requirements, e.g. a 4-year bachelor's degree and a 2-year master's degree. UiT normally accepts higher education from countries that are part of the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

Inclusion and diversity

UiT The Arctic University of Norway is working actively to promote equality, gender balance and diversity among employees and students, and to create an inclusive and safe working environment. We believe that inclusion and diversity are a strength, and we want employees with different competencies, professional experience, life experience and perspectives.

If you have a disability, a gap in your CV or immigrant background, we encourage you to tick the box for this in your application. If there are qualified applicants, we invite at least one in each group for an interview. If you get the job, we will adapt the working conditions if you need it. Apart from selecting the right candidates, we will only use the information for anonymous statistics.

We offer

Norwegian health policy aims to ensure that everyone, irrespective of their personal finances and where they live, has access to good health and care services of equal standard. As an employee you will become member of the National Insurance Scheme which also include health care services.

More practical information about working and living in Norway can be found here: https://uit.no/staffmobility

Application 

Please note that the application will only be assessed based on the information submitted by the application deadline via Jobbnorge. It is therefore important that you include all necessary documents demonstrating your qualifications for the position.

Your application must include:

Cover letter explaining your motivation and research interests
CV
Official diplomas for Bachelor's and Master's degree in the original language
Official transcripts of grades/academic record for Bachelor's and Master's degree in the original language
Official translation of diplomas and transcripts of records (ToR) to English or a Scandinavian language, if applicable
Explanation of the grading system for foreign education (Diploma Supplement if available)
Documentation of English proficiency. If English proficiency is not documented in the application, it must be documented before starting in the position.
References with contact information
Master’s thesis, and any other academic works
Project description (max 4 pages)

Qualification with a master’s degree is required before commencement in the position. If you are near completion of your master’s degree, you may still apply and submit a draft version of the thesis and a statement from your supervisor or institution indicating when the degree will be obtained. You must still submit your transcript of grades for the master’s degree with your application.

All documentation to be considered must be in a Scandinavian language or English.

Assessment

The applicants will be assessed by an expert committee. The committee's mandate is to undertake an assessment of the applicants' qualifications based on the written material presented by the applicants, and the detailed description draw up for the position. A copy of the assessment report will be sent to all applicants.

The applicants who are assessed as best qualified will be called to an interview. The interview should among other things, aim to clarify the applicant’s motivation and personal suitability for the position.

General information

The appointment is made in accordance with State regulations and guidelines at UiT. At our website, you will find more information for applicants.

A compulsory contribution of 2 % to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund will be deducted from the salary. You will become a member of the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, which gives you many benefits in addition to a lifelong pension: You may be entitled to financial support if you become ill or disabled, your family may be entitled to financial support when you die, you become insured against occupational injury or occupational disease, and you can get good terms on a mortgage. Read more about your employee benefits at: spk.no.

A shorter period of appointment may be decided when the PhD Fellow has already completed parts of their research training programme or when the appointment is based on a previous qualifying position PhD Fellow, research assistant, or the like in such a way that the total time used for research training amounts to three years.

We process personal data given in an application or CV in accordance with the Personal Data Act (Offentleglova). According to the Personal Data Act information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure. You will receive advance notification in the event of such publication, if you have requested non-disclosure.

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