NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

Job description

The University of Oslo is looking for a Data Scientist with expertise in biodiversity informatics for the HORIZON-INFRA-2021-TECH-01 project "Biodiversity Digital Twin for Advanced Modeling, Simulation, and Prediction Capabilities" (BioDT). The BioDT project is a 36-month (2022-2025) pan-European research infrastructure project coordinated by the CSC IT Center for Science (Espoo, Finland) and includes 22 project partners from across 12 countries.

More about the position

The appointment is a full-time project position until the end of the project in May 2025. The position will be associated with the Norwegian Participant Node (GBIF Norway) of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and based at the University of Oslo Natural History Museum in Oslo. The appointed candidate will take part in a multinational team for delivering the responsibilities of UiO for the Horizon Europe-funded Biodiversity Twin (BioDT) project and be responsible for working with biodiversity information standards for the content data streams in collaboration with project partners and international standards bodies. BioDT’s objective is to create a first-in-class digital twin prototype for the advanced modeling and prediction of biodiversity and its patterns. Through practical user cases, it will address critical issues related to global biodiversity dynamics, and support science-based decision-making for the protection and restoration of our earth’s biodiversity.

Your tasks:

• Capture requirements and coordinate collaboration on data standards from across the research infrastructures (RIs) of GBIF, Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo ESFRI), Long-Term Ecosystem Research in Europe (eLTER ESFRI), and the LifeWatch ERIC.
• Documenting and communicating data content and data quality requirements, and addressing issues diagnosed in relation to the data standards for ecological data and other data types for the BioDT use cases.
• Contribute to the implementation of processes and data flows from environmental databases to ecological models, including data quality and fitness for use checks.
• Disseminating captured project requirements and results from the improvement of the data standards at relevant conferences and in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
• Interact with task groups of the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) community and other relevant stakeholders involved in the development of the biodiversity information standards and vocabularies for the data streams to the BioDT use cases.
• Collaborating with other project team members at the GBIF Secretariat to mobilize new data resources through interactions with the biological community. Supporting data publishers, and data users with data standards-related questions.
• Supporting the wider network of project partners and collaborators through technical support and training, including a strong communication component (email, video calls, etc.).

Qualification requirements

• A Ph.D. or an equivalent doctoral degree in data science, biodiversity informatics, ecoinformatics, natural sciences, or a related field.
• Experience with biodiversity informatics, data science, FAIR data principles, open science, persistent identifier technologies, and open data stewardship.
• A relevant scientific publication record.
• Excellent English language skills (written and spoken).

Desired qualifications and personal qualities

• Experience with relevant biodiversity data standards such as Darwin Core, Ecological Metadata Standards (EML), Biological Collections Ontology (BCO), Environment Ontology (EnvO), and/or Minimum Information about any (x) Sequence (MIxS).
• Knowledge of the research infrastructures for biodiversity data, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Long-Term Ecosystem Research in Europe (eLTER), Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), and the LifeWatch ERIC e-Science European infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem research.
• Experience with relevant data types including species occurrence data, collection specimens, taxonomic data, ecoinformatics, and ecological data.
• Teaching experience within data science and/or biodiversity informatics.
• Experience with suitable programming languages for data flow and analysis.
• Experience with collaboration tools like Git (GitHub) and related solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and work in a distributed team.
• Experience with teamwork in an international and multicultural setting.
• Scandinavian language skills are an advantage.

We offer

• Salary NOK 661 400 - 746 900 per annum depending on qualifications (position code Researcher SKO 1109).
• A chance to contribute to building a world-class research infrastructure that is central to the European strategic plans for research, digitization, and the green new deal.
• Career building links with a vibrant international research network with excellent opportunities for building a career in data science.
• A stimulating and friendly working environment.
• Membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.
• Attractive welfare benefits and a generous pension agreement, in addition to Oslo’s family-friendly environment with its rich opportunities for culture and outdoor activities.

How to apply

The application must include

• A cover letter that includes a statement of motivation and a summary of scientific background and research interests.
• A CV summarizing education, positions, research profile and merits, pedagogical qualifications, and other qualifying activities.
• A list of scientific publications.
• Contact information for two reference persons (name, relation to candidate, e-mail, and phone number). No reference letters should be submitted.
• The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system.
• Please note that all documents should be in English. Interviews will be part of the appointment process.

Formal regulations

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. Furthermore, we want employees with diverse professional expertise, life experience and perspectives.

If there are qualified applicants with disabilities, employment gaps or immigrant background, we will invite at least one applicant from each of these categories to an interview.

Contact information

• Chief engineer Dag Endresen, dag.endresen@nhm.uio.no, +47 40612982
• Research Director Hugo de Boer, h.de.boer@nhm.uio.no, +47 98126030

For questions about the recruitment system, please contact HR Officer Thomas Brånå: thomas.brana@nhm.uio.no

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