PhD-fellowship

About the position

We invite applicants for a full-time position as a PhD research fellow at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo. The position is associated with the Personality unit at the Section for Health, Developmental, and Personality Psychology (HUP). The PhD will focus on development of personality and depression across the lifespan, and will be connected to The Depression Research Initiative (DRIVE) at the Department of Psychology. 

The appointment is a fulltime position for a period of three years. The employment period can be up to 4 years given addition of teaching and administrative duties, depending on the competence of the successful applicant and the resources and needs of the Department of Psychology.

Start date: Spring 2027.

More about the position

The PhD candidate will be part of the Personality group and focus on the relationship between personality, depression, and other mental health conditions. Personality is important for the development and course of mental health problems, and may affect how environmental risk factors affect mental health, as well as the consequences of mental health problems for social and academic functioning. The PhD project will be part of The Depression Research Initiative (DRIVE), made up by five work packages https://www.sv.uio.no/psi/english/research/groups/drive/index.html. 

The key objective of DRIVE is to encompass several core aspects of depression research, so they collectively can address questions that cannot be managed by a single work package. The current position will be related to the work package focusing on development of depression. The PhD project will answer some of the following overarching research questions, with a focus on depression: 

• How do characteristics of the individual and the environment predict personality development?
• What are the associations between personality traits and mental health outcomes, including depression, personal relationships, and work and academic functioning?
• What are the associations between characteristics of parents and children regarding personality and mental health, including depression?

Your main tasks will be

• Contributing to developing more specific research questions within the project.
• Complete a PhD thesis in Psychology.
• Publish research papers in international scientific journals.
• Provide scientific presentations to an international audience.
• Participate in the PhD program at the Department of Psychology.

Qualifications

Required skills

• At the time of the application, the applicants must have obtained a Cand. Psychol. degree, or a Master’s degree in psychology or a closely related field.
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in English are required.
• Experience in conducting statistical analyses.
• A strong interest in the topic of the PhD position.
• Interest in finding and reading relevant literature, defining research questions, preparing and analyzing data, and writing manuscripts.

To be employed as a PhD Research Fellow at the Department of Psychology, applicants must meet the admission requirements for the PhD programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences, with specialisation in Psychology. The successful candidate will be admitted to this programme option, subject to approval of the individual project proposal. Please see the Faculty’s admission requirements and the structure of the Psychology programme option.

Preferred skills

• Experience with running statistical analyses in R.
• Knowledge of personality, developmental psychology, and/or depression.
• Good writtenand oral proficiency inNorwegian.
• Experience with analyzing longitudinal data.
• Experience with conducting literature reviews.
• Previous research and interest in the above-mentioned topics. 
• Proven ability to work independently and efficiently on relevant research topics.

Personal skills

• Ability to work independently and to collaborate effectively with others.
• Curiosity and interest in learning.
• Strong motivation and organizational skills. 
• Ability to think creatively within a scientific framework. 

Employment in the position is basedon a comprehensive assessment of allqualification requirements applicable tothe position, including personal qualifications.

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 provide appropriate accommodations should you need them. 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, 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. 

Why should you choose us?

• Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organization with an important societal mission, contributing to knowledge development, education, and enlightenment that promote sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development.
• Committed colleagues in a good working environment. 
• Good welfare schemes.
• Opportunity of up to 1.5 hours a week of exercise during working hours.
• A workplace with good development and career opportunities. 
• Membership in the Statens Pensjonskasse, which is one of Norway's best pension schemes with beneficial mortgages and good insurance schemes.
• Salary in position as Doctoral Research Fellow, position code 1017 in salary range NOK 565 700–625 000, depending on competence and experience. From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund.

Read more about the benefits of working in the public sector at Employer Portal.

Application

Your application should include:

• An application letter including your motivation for the job and a description of how your qualifications are relevant for the job. 
• CV
• A complete list of publications
• Transcripts and certificates
• Contact information for 2-3 references

Your CV must be entered in Jobbnorge’s CV form and cannot be submitted only as an attachment. This requirement is intended to ensure correct documentation and record-keeping in accordance with the Public Administration Act, Section 15.

Application with attachments must be submitted via our recruitment system Jobbnorge, click "Apply for this job".

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 documentation must be in English or a Scandinavian language.

General information

Please note that we are unable to add documentation after the application deadline. As the deadline applies equally to all applicants, this policy ensures equal treatment throughout the recruitment process. If you experience difficulties uploading documents in Jobbnorge, please contact their customer service: Phone: +47 75 54 22 20 or Email: support@grade.com 

The primary method of communication throughout the process will be e-mails and messages through the recruitment system Jobbnorge. When you receive a notification of a message in Jobbnorge, please log in to read it, as it may be important.

The best qualified candidates will invited for interviews. 

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.

Please refer to Regulations for the Act on universities and colleges chapter 3 (Norwegian), Guidelines concerning appointment to recruitment positions at UiO and Regulations for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at the University of Oslo.

The University of Oslo has a transfer agreement with all employees to secure the rights to all research results and related intellectual property.