Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Global challenges regarding energy and climate change, the environment, health, food safety, technology and renewable solutions, use and conservation of land and natural resources, and development of the bio-economy, requires greater effort. NMBU is well equipped to conduct further research in these fields. NMBU's expertise spans entire value chains and includes both basic and applied research.

On 1 January 2014, the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science and the University of Life Sciences merged and became –NMBU, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. NMBU has 1700 employees and 5200 students, and is currently located on two campuses – Ås, about 30 km south of Oslo, and Adamstuen in Oslo. In 2020, the new research- and education-building for veterinary science will be completed and all of NMBU will then be located at Campus Ås.

Further information about NMBU is available on www.nmbu.no.

The Faculty of Biosciences (www.nmbu.no/en/faculty/biovit) contributes to the development of sustainable agriculture and food production systems through basic and applied research in plants, animals and fish (aquaculture). The Faculty is organised in two departments: Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences (IHA) and Department of Plant Sciences (IPV).

IHA is currently inviting applications for a 3-year PhD position in fish nutrition. The position is jointly funded by SureAqua, a Nordic Centre of Excellence, and the BIOFEED project.

SureAqua was established in 2017 to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration across the Nordic bioeconomy community. It is funded through NordForsk’s Nordic Bioeconomy Programme, and is coordinated by the International Research Institute of Stavanger(IRIS).

BIOFEEED is a researcher project financed by the Research Council of Norway aiming to develop basic research and methods to develop novel feed ingredients for fish feed from non-food biomass, and to document the effect of the fish feed resources on growth performance and health in Atlantic salmon. BIOFEED has close synergies with Foods of Norway, a prestigious Centre for Research-based Innovation hosted by NMBU and primarily funded by the Research Council of Norway.

Research project

The PhD candidate will be mainly associated with work on documenting the effect of insects as a novel feed resource on growth performance and health of farmed fish, mainly salmonids.

The PhD position is offered for 3 years. The successful candidate is expected to submit a plan during the first six months of the appointment with a view to completing a doctorate within the PhD scholarship period. The candidate will be based at NMBU, Campus Ås; however, a research stay at one of our collaborating universities abroad is strongly encouraged.

Main tasks

• Design and conduct growth performance and health experiments with Atlantic salmon.
• Contribute to diet formulation and feed production.
• Study the impact of novel feed resource components on fish growth performance and health, using state of the art tools (including gut microbiome analyses, and other nutrigenomic tools).
• Process and perform statistical analysis of data

Academic qualifications

The successful applicant must meet the conditions defined for admission to a PhD programme at NMBU. The applicant must have an academically relevant education corresponding to a five-year Norwegian degree programme, where 120 credits are at master's degree level. The applicant must have a documented strong academic background from previous studies, and be able to document proficiency in both written and oral English. For more detailed information on the admission criteria please see the PhD Regulations and the relevant PhD programme description. The applicant must document expertise and interest in the research subject.

Required academic qualifications

• An MSc degree or the equivalent in animal or aquaculture science. Candidates from other disciplines, e.g. veterinary science, food science, human nutrition or biology, may also be considered.
• Appropriate research experience with monogastric farm animals, preferably with salmonids.

Additional qualifications

The following qualifications would be considered an advantage:

• Hands-on experience with handling of fish, collecting data and sampling of blood, organs and tissues for analysis of biological responses in nutritional studies, as well as experience in feed production and chemical analyses.
• Experience with state of the art omics techniques (e.g., transcriptomics, metagenomics) and imaging methodology (e.g., flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, immunohistochemistry) would also be an advantage.

Personal qualities

Personal traits will be greatly emphasized. We seek a creative person with good communicative and collaboration skills. It is important that you are well organized, work efficiently and can deliver on time.

The candidate must not have any allergies that could affect their work with feed, chemicals or farm animals.

Remuneration

The position is placed in government pay scale position code 1017 (PhD Fellow), wage framework 20.7 (salary grade 51). PhD Fellows are normally assigned pay grade 51 (NOK 443.900,-) on the Norwegian Government salary scale upon employment and follow ordinary meriting regulations.

Employment is conducted according to national guidelines for University and Technical College PhD scholars.

Further information

• Prof Margareth Øverland, Email: margareth.overland@nmbu.no, +47 95109628 or
• Dr. Jon Øvrum Hansen, Email: jon.hansen@nmbu.no +47 6723 2666

Application

To apply online for this vacancy, please click on the 'Apply for this job' button above. This will route you to the University's Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not done so already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Application deadline: 21.06.2018

Applications should include (electronically) a cover letter, curriculum vitae, full publication list, copies of degree certificates and transcripts of academic records (all certified), and a list of two persons who may act as references (with phone numbers and e-mail addresses). Publications should be included electronically by the application deadline.

If it is difficult to judge the applicant’s contribution for publications with multiple authors, a short description of the applicant’s contribution must be included.

A compulsory contribution of 2 % is made to the Norwegian State Pension Fund. A good working environment is characterized by diversity. We encourage qualified candidates to apply, irrespective of gender, physical ability or cultural background. The workplace will if necessary be facilitated for persons with disabilities.

According to the Freedom of Information Act § 25 the list of applicants for this position may be made public irrespective of whether the applicant has requested that his/her name be withheld.

Apply for this job

Søknadsfrist: 21.06.2018

Web: www.nmbu.no

Kontakt: Prof Margareth Øverland

Telefon: +47 95109628

E-post: margareth.overland@nmbu.no

Kontakt 2: Dr. Jon Øvrum Hansen

Telefon: +47 6723 2666

E-post: jon.hansen@nmbu.no