Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) is one of the largest University colleges in Norway, with about 1,800 employees and 18,000 students on five campuses in Førde, Sogndal, Bergen, Stord and Haugesund. We have a strong and innovative professional environment within health and social sciences, engineering and natural sciences, economics, social sciences, maritime studies, and teacher education, culture and sports. HVL offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs and various one-year courses. HVL is close to working life, the region and the students, and aims to become a university with a professional and working life-oriented profile.
Our ambition is to build stronger and more solid academic and research environments that will interact nationally and internationally. The aim is to become a recognized actor on the international higher education arena. Increased international cooperation and engagement in externally funded projects will work towards this goal.
The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences has about 370 employees and about 4500 students. We have a wide range of educational programs within health and social work professional educations, continuing and further education and several master's programs. The faculty offers the PhD program "Health, function and participation". In addition, the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences is responsible for the research area: "Innovation in the public sector" in the PhD program Responsible Innovation and Regional Development (RESINNREG), which is a collaboration across the faculties. Our students receive extensive skills training in addition to practice, including through exercises in communication and testing at an advanced simulation center, SimArena. We practice flexible forms of learning where the student himself is challenged to participate in research and development work.
At the Department of Health and Social Sciences, there are about 210 employees and about 2400 students at the campuses Førde, Bergen, Haugesund and Stord. The Department of Health and Functioning has around 70 employees and 620 students. We offer bachelor's degrees in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Radiography. We offer master’s degree in Clinical Physiotherapy, an international master’s degree in Healthy Aging and Rehabilitation and master’s degree in Evidence-Based Practice in the Health Sciences. Research and communication related to these fields, and educational research, take high priority at our department.
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences has an available PhD position within radiography and precision imaging
About the position:
The position is related to the project: "An application of multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and machine learning approaches for assessment and validation of imaging biomarkers in the aging brain and in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)".
The PhD fellowship is a 4-year recruitment position that will contribute to an active research environment at HVL. 25% of the time will be spent on compulsory work related to teaching, development work or administration.
The PhD fellow must enroll and fulfill the training part in the PhD education within the time frame of 4 years. Deductions can be made in the appointment period for previous recruitment period. It is a prerequisite that the PhD fellow has a workplace at the Institute of Health and Functioning/ Section of Radiography, Campus Bergen, and that the compulsory work is carried out at HVL.
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Radiography, Department of health and function, has an available PhD position within radiography and precision imaging
The project aims for a synergy between brain MR imaging and advanced data analysis in order to derive clinically feasible and actionable information. We will evaluate and validate different multimodal MRI biomarkers appearing from T1/T2-weighted images (radiomics), and metrics derived from diffusion/functional MRI applying machine learning techniques and predictive models. Use cases will be related to (i) cognitive aging and neurodegeneration and (ii) patients with functional gastrointestinal (brain-gut) disorders in particular the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Major clinical goals are diagnostic stratification, assessment of treatment response, and prediction of outcomes and expected trajectories.
The PhD candidate will participate and contribute to data analysis from both large-scale data repositories and local image recordings using state-of-the-art techniques. Important tasks are quality control, estimation and validation of imaging biomarkers, and exploration of feasibility and clinical workflows to promote precision imaging. We plan to combine big data analysis based on UK Biobank data offering a series of MRI data, genetic profiles, demographic information for healthy volunteers as a part of a large project ongoing at the Bergen/Oslo Universities (NORMENT) and to reveal structural and functional brain signatures associated with healthy subjects. As part of the multimodal brain imaging pattern analyses we will also address the concept of “brain age” (predicted from skull-stripped MRI data) and explore the role of discrepancy between “brain age” and chronological age as a biomarker in both cognitive aging and in IBS. The research project will be clinically oriented and aims specifically to contribute to health sciences within the fields of radiography and precision imaging in terms of practical application and validation of advanced data analysis methods in multimodal data.
The project establishes a multidisclipinary cooperation between local experts at HVL within the fields of mathematics, medical physics, medicine and radiography.
The candidate being selected will be linked to the research group on Health, Sports and Function and must enroll in the PhD program Health, function and participation at HVL. The selected candidate must, together with the project leader, prepare a detailed plan for the research project, including a plan for the training component of the research education. Applications for admission to the PhD program must be sent no later than 3 months after appointment. It is assumed that the research fellow's project is arranged so that the research fellow can be admitted to the PhD program Health, function and participation.
Qualifications:
Documented qualifications within practical MRI and applied machine learning techniques / statistical analysis
Master’s degree (or equivalent) including a master’s thesis of at least 30 ECTS (or equivalent).
The master's thesis must be submitted for assessment within the application deadline, and the master's degree (120 credits or equivalent) must be approved no later than four weeks after the application deadline.
Grade for master's thesis (or equivalent) and average grade for master's study, shall normally be B or better
Skills in Python (MATLAB, R, Julia) programming, or convincing interest / background for developing such skills
Good skills in English, both written and oral
Wanted qualifications:
Preferably public approval as radiographer and/or formal education/qualifications within radiography
Familiar with widely used neuroimaging software packages such as FSL and/or FreeSurfer.
Experience from previous research work and scientific publication
Experience with project work, dissemination and supervision
Good written and oral skills in a Scandinavian language is considered as an advantage
Personal characteristics:
Ability to work systematically and self-organised
The candidate must be able to work independently and at the same time contribute to the professional community in general and in the research group in particular, and adopt to high ethical and scientific standards in the spirit of open science and reproducible research.
Additional demands:
Applicants must attach a separate letter of motivation of maximum 2 pages fitted to the outline of the project and the candidate`s background. Interested applicants can contact project manager Assoc. Prof. Ivan I. Maximov to receive the project sketch. The motivation letter will be used in the assessment of the candidate's qualifications.
Further information about the PhD education can be found at this link.
Application procedure:
Send application and CV by clicking on the button marked "Apply for the position" on this page. We point out that applications are assessed on the basis of the information entered in www.jobbnorge.no at the end of the application deadline.
It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that all relevant attachments are submitted by the deadline, including the master's thesis / master's thesis and up to five scientific papers they wish to include in the assessment, complete publication list, any project description, certificates and diplomas. If the diplomas, transcripts or other documentation are not in a Scandinavian language or English, the applicant must upload certified sales themselves. If the attachments exceed 15 MB, they must be compressed before uploading or attached as a link.
Applicants must attach a diploma documenting their previous education including all grades. Applicants with master’s education at academic institutions outside of Norway, must attach a diploma supplement if it can be provided by the academic institution which awarded their master’s degree.
Applicants for scientific positions are assessed by an expert committee. The assessment takes place on the basis of documented competence, up to 5 scientific works. Based on the committee's recommendation, relevant applicants will be summoned for an interview and trial lecture. The appointment body is the appointment committee/council at Høgskulen på Vestlandet.
The applications are sent electronically to the expert committee. Applications can not be sent by e-mail to individuals at the college.
Salary:
Good occupational pension, insurance and loan schemes from The Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
Exciting academic environment with the possibility of competence enhancement and development
Opportunities for training within the working hours
The position as a PhD student is paid in position code 1017/1378 PhD candidate, salary step 54. Further promotion takes place according to service seniority in the position.
A 2% contribution to the Government Pension Fund is deducted from the salary. The person who is appointed must comply with the guidelines that apply to the position at all times.
General information:
We point out that in accordance with the new Public Access to Information Act, information about the applicant may be published even if the applicant has requested not to be included on the applicant list. Applicants will be notified if such a request is not granted.
The state workforce must, as far as possible, reflect the diversity of the population. It is therefore a personnel policy goal to achieve a balanced age and gender composition, recruit people with a minority background, people with disabilities and gaps in the CV.
Contacts:
1) Project leader, Assoc. Prof. Ivan I. Maximov, Tel: +47 55 58 58 51 Mail: Ivan.Maximov@hvl.no
2) Head of Radiography Program, Assoc. Prof. Eli Eikefjord, Tel: +47 55 58 55 88 Mail: Eli.Bjovad.Eikefjord@hvl.no
3) Head of Institute of Health and Functioning, Bjørg Hafslund, Tel: +47 55 58 55 06 Mail: Bjorg.Hafslund@hvl.no
