PhD Candidate, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience

Organisation/Company

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - NTNU

Research Field

Biological sciences
Medical sciences

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)
Established Researcher (R3)

Country

Norway

Application Deadline

2 Oct 2023 - 00:00 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Other

Job Status

Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

About the job

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate who is interested in joining our collaborative team composed of an international and multidisciplinary environment consisting of physicists, biologists and clinicians in which creativity and scientific dialogue across fields is highly valued and encouraged. The PhD candidate will be hosted at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience (KISN) and work in close collaboration with the Norwegian 7T MR center and the MR core facilities at St.Olav’s University Hospital.

The group for Vision and Navigation (KISN) led by Tobias Navarro Schroeder seeks to integrate functional neuroimaging with behavioural tasks to answer fundamental questions about neural computation. To this end, the group investigates:

• How the human brain uses visual information to map the surrounding environment and how it forms and uses memories of past events.
• How the brain computes the location of people and objects using ecologically relevant virtual reality experiments and neuroimaging.
• Whether individual differences in memory performance correlate to structural differences in the brain or unique patterns of neurotransmitter release.
• Advanced ultra-high field, ultra-high resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) methods in the recently established Norwegian 7T MR center. This includes structural and functional MRI, MR spectroscopy, and MR elastography.

The position is full time (100%), with a 3 years contract. Starting as soon as possible.  

Your immediate leader is Associate professor and group leader Tobias Navarro Schröder

Duties of the position

• Work with a diverse, collaborative, and ambitious research team to establish a magnetic resonance elastography pipeline and to acquire data from both patients and healthy volunteers that bridges fundamental, basic research with clinical questions.
• Apply a combination of advanced cognitive testing, brain imaging, multivariate statistical tools and applied mathematics to study the link between hippocampal (dys)function and memory. This includes methods to test brain structure and morphology, function and connectivity, as well as molecular and cellular composition of brain areas.
• Disseminating scientific findings via conference presentations and scientific publications.

Required selection criteria

• Masters degree in neuroscience. Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master's level
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master's degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's doctoral program (https://www.ntnu.edu/phd/admission-and-financing )
• Excellent written and oral english language skills
• Experience in computer science
• Documented coding experience (e.g. history of activity on Github)
• Documented experience in machine learning
• Documented experience in neural data analysis

The appointment is to be made in accordance with Regulations on terms of employment for positions such as postdoctoral fellow, Phd candidate, research assistant and specialist candidate and Regulations concerning the degrees of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) and Philosodophiae Doctor (PhD) in artistic research national guidelines for appointment as PhD, post doctor and research assistant 

Preferred selection criteria

• Experience in applied data analysis and engineering.
• Experience in neural data analysis, ideally related to grid cells or spatial navigation data.
• Interest in systems, cognitive and translational neuroscience.
• Authored publication(s) in neuroscience in peer-reviewed scientific journal.
• Literature review and scientific communication
• Experience in programming languages and writing custom scripts for data processing (e.g. Matlab, Python, C)

Personal characteristics

• A drive to learn and become an independent researcher.
• Curious, passionate and creative.
• Highly motivated.
• Good communicator and ability to work in a team.
• Creative problem solving and taking the initiative to solve problems in a group setting
• Ability to work independently

Emphasis will be placed on personal and interpersonal qualities.

We offer

• Excellent international academic and clinical environment at the forefront of fundamental and translational neuroscientific research in Europe.
• exciting and stimulating tasks in a strong international academic environment
• an open and inclusive work environment with dedicated colleagues
• favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• employee benefits

Salary and conditions

As a PhD candidate (code 1017) you are normally paid from gross NOK 532 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The period of employment is 3 years. Preferred starting date is as soon as possible. 

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD programme in neuroscience within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD programme during the employment period.

The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants , and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU. After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution daily.

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English. 

Publications and other scientific work must be attached to the application. Please note that your application will be considered based solely on information submitted by the application deadline. You must therefore ensure that your application clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience fulfil the criteria specified above.

The application must include: 

• CV
• List of publications. If it is difficult to identify your contribution to joint works, you must attach a brief description of your participation.
• Transcripts and diplomas for bachelor's and master's/medical degrees. If you have not completed the master's degree, you must submit a confirmation that the master's thesis has been submitted. If you have not completed the medical degree, you must submit a confirmation that you are in the last year of your medical studies.
• A 1-2 page statement of intent. Why would you like to work on this project and what exactly makes you a suitable candidate (e.g. highlighting skills, previous work experience and research interest).
• Name and contact information of 2 to 3 references, ideally with letters of recommendation

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor's and master's education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found here . If you already have a statement from NOKUT, please attach this as well.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates. 

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment - DORA.

General information

Working at NTNU

NTNU believes that inclusion and diversity is our strength. We want to recruit people with different competencies, educational backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to solving our social responsibilities within education and research. We will facilitate for our employees’ needs.

NTNU is working actively to increase the number of women employed in scientific positions and has a number of resources to promote equality.

The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the innovation capital of Norway with a population of 200,000. The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available. Furthermore, Trondheim offers great opportunities for education (including international schools) and possibilities to enjoy nature, culture and family life and has low crime rates and clean air quality.

As an employee at NTNU, you must at all times adhere to the changes that the development in the subject entails and the organizational changes that are adopted.

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you want to reserve yourself from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation . You will be notified if the reservation is not accepted.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Tobias Navarro Schröder, email: t.navarroschroeder@ntnu.no . If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact HR Adviser Jorunn Amdam, e-mail: jorunn.amdam@ntnu.no

If you think this looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates attached. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Upon request, you must be able to obtain certified copies of your documentation.  

Application deadline: 02.10.2023

NTNU - knowledge for a better world
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) creates knowledge for a better world and solutions that can change everyday life.

The Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience is part of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at NTNU. It was established as a Centre of Excellence in 2002, and designated as a Kavli Foundation Institute in 2007 (www.kavlifoundation.org ). The scientific goal of the Institute is to increase the understanding of neural circuits and systems along with their role in generating psychological functions.

Today, the Institute consists of the Centre for Neuronal Computation (CNC) as well as the Egil and Pauline Braathen and Fred Kavli Centre for Cortical Microcircuits. In 2014, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to two of the Institute’s professors, Edvard Moser and May-Britt Moser. The Institute is responsible for an international master's programme and is affiliated with a doctoral programme in medicine. Through our widespread network of international collaboration, we offer unique career opportunities. For further information, see: www.ntnu.edu/kavli .

Questions about the position

Jorunn Amdam
HR Rådgiver
jorunn.amdam@ntnu.no

Tobias Navarro Schröder
Associate Professor
t.navarroschroeder@ntnu.no

Apply for this job

Deadline 2nd October 2023
EmployerNTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Municipality  Trondheim
Scope Fulltime
Duration Temporary
Place of service Olav Kyrres gate 9, 7030 Trondheim

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - NTNU

Country

Norway

City

Trondheim

Website

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/listing/352472/phd-candidate-kavli…

City

Trondheim