Two Positions in Biostatistics

Two Positions in Biostatistics are offered at the Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology:

1. A full time Researcher in biostatistics for clinical trials at the Oslo University Hospital, possibly combined with a 20% Professor position at the University of Oslo.

2. A full time Researcher at Oslo University Hospital in biostatistics

The Oslo University Hospital (OUS), in partnership with the University of Oslo (UiO), is seeking two outstanding, inspiring and enthusiastic candidates for two permanent positions at the Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology (OCBE), Oslo, Norway.

For the first position, we wish to recruit a biostatistician with strong competence in the methodology and practice of clinical trials, including complex designs and heterogeneous data.  If the candidate is evaluated to have professor competence, then the position will be integrated with a 20% professor position at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine, UiO, Norway.

For the second position, we wish to recruit a biostatistician with strong competence in any area of biostatistics. This position is not integrated with a position at UiO.

This is an opportunity to join one of Europe's most active biostatistics groups at an exciting time.  OCBE has staff affiliated with both OUS, in the department of Research Support Services, and UiO, in the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences. Currently, the centre includes seven tenured professors, four associate professors, fourteen researchers, and several post-doctoral fellows and PhD students, making up a group of about 55. OCBE is internationally recognized, with interests spanning a broad range of areas (including time-to-event models, data integration, causal inference, statistical genomics, Bayesian inference, Machine Learning, informative missingness and measurement error models, epidemiological studies of lifestyle and chronic diseases, stochastic models for infectious diseases, high dimensional data and models, clinical trials, register based studies) and numerous collaborations with a number of leading bio-medical research groups in Norway and internationally.

OUS is one of the largest hospitals in Scandinavia. More than 50% of all biomedical research in Norway is published by researchers affiliated with OUS. Research undertaken covers basic, translational and clinical research. This is the result of the hospital's research strategy and its extensive international network cooperation, together with the Medical Faculty of UiO. In this way, OUS complies with its role as national reference hospital, responsible for introducing and developing new diagnostic methods, new treatments and follow-up plans.

The positions are part of a substantial investment in the centre by the UiO and OUS. The UiO is launching a new long-term strategy with major investments in the life sciences, including computational life sciences, and the raising of a new large building on campus, to which OCBE is expected to move in 2022.  The Research Support Services at OUS is now providing research infrastructure in the field of biobanking, health registers, data management and monitoring of clinical trials and administrative support for applications for research-funding nationally and internationally.  This infrastructure will be expanded to an upgraded Clinical Trail Unit, to host and run major multicenter clinical trials. The candidate for the first position will take a leading role in this process.

OCBE has a major role in the recently funded prestigious centre for research-based innovation Big Insight, a consortium of academic, industrial and public partners. The head of OCBE leads Big Insight, which has a funding of about 4 mil Euro annually until 2022. Big Insight develops original statistical and machine learning methodologies and tools to extract knowledge from complex and big data, with focus on personalised solutions and sharper predictions of complex processes. A further focus of research at OCBE is the thematic area Statistical methods for biobank, health survey and registry data. The Norwegian biobanks, health surveys and health registries represent a unique treasure ("heath data as a national competitive advantage"), which OCBE will contribute to exploit, moving us closer to more precise, predictable and powerful medicine, towards prevention, treatment and prognosis for each individual patient.

In addition to research, as a part of Research Support Services, OCBE provides an extensive advisory service for bio-medical and life science researchers at UiO, OUS and at other  hospitals in south-east Norway (HSØ). OCBE is also responsible for the biostatistical teaching for the professional study in medicine, the PhD training and continual education of research staff at OUS and HSØ. For the present positions, it is expected that roughly half of the time will be dedicated to research and the other half to advising, supervision and some teaching. For the first position, advising will be mainly toward clinical trials; however, the appointed scientist in this position, as well as the one appointed scientist in the second position, is expected to be able and willing to advice researchers from a broad spectrum of bio-medical areas, in a wide range of biostatistical topics.

If the appointed scientist to the first position is evaluated at a professor level by our evaluation committee, then the main position at OUS is integrated with an additional 20% position at UiO. We underline that candidates do not need to already be in a professor position when applying. It is required that the position holder attends to both positions. If the main position is left, the 20% position must also be vacated. If the candidate recruited in the first position does not have yet professor competence, the position will not be integrated with any UiO position, although the candidate might qualify for it, after some years.

The successful candidate for the first position at professor level will have a strong research record, as judged by the strength of her/his scientific, peer-reviewed publications, with particular reference to the last 5-8 years. She/he is an innovative and independent researcher and leader in the field of clinical trial. She/he will be an excellent advisor.

The successful candidate for the first position who is not yet at professor level, and the successful candidate for the second position, can be earlier in their careers, though with a research record already corresponding approximately to an associate professor level.

As interdisciplinary collaborative projects are a key part of our activities, we are looking for candidates with interests for and experience in collaborations with clinical and bio-medical research groups and research advising/supervision.  The successful applicants will be expected to make proactive efforts to establish national and international research collaborations.

The ability to win research funding will be essential and a proven record of attracting research funding and/or research studentships is required for the first position at professor level, and potentials in this direction in the other cases.

Candidates should present a statement of their research interest, past and current research and advising experience and a plan for their future research (1-3 pages), along with the names of some references.

Interviews will be held and references collected. Applicants may also be required to give a trial lecture.

The basis of assessment of the applicants by the assessment committee will include their scientific, professional, advising, supervising and teaching qualifications, together with their qualifications in management and administration. As part of the ranking of qualified applicants, particular weight will be attached to qualifications that are central to this announcement and job description. Recent qualifications will carry more weight than older qualifications. Originality and innovation will be given priority before volume, and recent publications will be weighted higher than older.

In the final review and recommendation, emphasis will be laid on skills related to the  job description, the evaluation done by the assessment committee, evaluation of personal suitability for the position based on interviews and references obtained, ability to disseminate scientific knowledge, plans for further research and ambitions for his/her role in OCBE.

Applicants, who are not competent in Norwegian, Swedish or Danish, must be perfectly fluent in English. The candidate is encouraged to acquire competence in Norwegian subsequently to the appointment.

The OUS and the UiO wish to appoint more women to permanent research positions. Women, minorities, individual with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

The OUS and the UiO have an intellectual property agreement that applies to all employees, with the aim of securing rights to research results.

Requirements for the application, as PDF-files:

• Cover letter (statement of motivation and research interests)

• CV (summarizing education, positions, academic work, grants, advising and supervision)

• A complete list of publications

• List of references (2-4)

• Documentation of basic pedagogical competence, advising and lecturing experience

• Plans for future research (1-3 pages)

• Other qualifications and documentation

We offer:

• Salaries of Researchers at OUS are competitive

• Salary for UiO Professor approximately between 640.000 and 900.000 annually (100% position)

• Salary for both positions will depend on qualifications and seniority

• Membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund

• Full public health insurance

• Attractive welfare benefits

Home page: http://www.med.uio.no/imb/english/research/centres/ocbe/


Non-scandinavian applicants: Please click on "Søk på stilling" and then opt for English language. If you need help please email ? frigessi@medisin.uio.no