Postdoctoral Researcher in public health informatics – problem gambling during COVID-19

The Digital Psychiatry Lab at the Center for Psychiatry Research in Stockholm conducts research on the complex associations between digital environments and mental health problems – research at the intersection of psychology, public health, informatics and system science. A prominent research track concerns online gambling, where the digital environment offers unique opportunities to make use of high-resolution Big Data and the interactive format to identify and prevent problem gambling. We offer an engaging and supportive research environment where you will have excellent and stable conditions to grow as a researcher, work with unique data, and produce high-quality research with immediate public health policy implications.

Our research group has enrolled in an academia-industry collaboration with government-operated gambling provider Norsk Tipping – a gambling monopoly with approx. 2 million customers, offering both online and traditional gambling – to do independent research on how gambling habits changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers at the University of Bergen and at Stockholm University are additional academic partners. We are now looking for a postdoctoral researcher for this two-year project, with the possibility of an extension. As a postdoc, you are expected to plan and take primary responsibility for carrying out five-six planned studies on this topic. This includes:

• Survey and stay up to date on research published on this topic.
• Together with Data scientist at Norsk Tipping, develop data specifications for database queries.
• Contribute to writing ethical applications.
• Doing advanced data processing and statistical analyses.
• Creating surveys.
• Writing manuscripts and handling submissions.

The planned analytical approach covers timeseries analyses, SEM, machine learning and more. There will also be opportunities to contribute to qualitative research on the same overarching topic.

As a postdoc in the research group, you will partake in weekly lab meetings, journal clubs and similar. If time allows, you are also welcome to contribute to other projects led by the research group.

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctor a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a doctoral degree is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. It is considered as an advantage if you have completed your doctoral degree within the last three years, if there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

For this interdisciplinary project, we welcome driven, skilled and well-organized applicants from a range of backgrounds. We welcome international applicants; non-EU citizens should however make sure that they are eligible for work permit in Sweden.

Necessary qualifications

• An educational and/or research background in one or several of the following fields: psychology (clinical or applied), public health, epidemiology, informatics, data and system science, statistics, Data Science, social work, quantitative sociology, or other relevant field
• Documented ability to publish research in top journals in your field
• Broad and in-depth quantitative skills, including data processing and statistical analysis, as well as the drive and prerequisites to quickly pick up new skills. In our group, we work primarily with R and Python.
• Skilled project manager and excellent collaborator.

Meriting

• High general digital competence.
• Scientific and/or clinical background in gambling, addiction, psychiatry or public health policy for controlled commodities.
• Knowledge about Nordic gambling markets – landscape, law and regulations, actors, etc.
• Knowledge about the GDPR and/or Swedish legislation for ethical review of research.
• Knowing enough Swedish or Norwegian to understand laws and regulations, alternatively a documented history of being able to quickly pick up a new language

The Digital Psychiatry Lab is proud to house a wide set of skills – clinical psychology, social work, Data Science, HCI – and we therefore value applicants who like to share their expertise, are pedagogical and have experience working with researchers from other backgrounds.

The research project is led from the Centre for Psychiatry Research at Torsplan, Stockholm, Sweden. You are expected to be on-site at least four days a week. Shorter trips to Norway are to be expected. There may be opportunities to spend a few months of the postdoc period working at the University of Bergen in Norway, if there is interest.

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Location: Torsplan, Stockholm

Read more about the research group you will be part of here

Choose to work at KI – Ten reasons why

Application

An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

• A complete resumé, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
• A complete list of publications
• A summary of current work (no more than one page)

During recruitment, we may ask you to perform a simple data science task, if deemed necessary to properly assess suitability.

Welcome to apply at the latest 9th of March 2023. Interviews with short-listed candidates may take place before this deadline, but all applicants will be given full consideration and the position will not be offered to any candidate until after the deadline has passed.

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.