Faculty of Social Sciences,

Department of Psychology,

Section for Health, Developmental and Personality Psychology

Job description

A PhD position in developmental cognitive neuroscience is available at the Section for Health, Developmental and Personality Psychology (HUP). The position will be part of the Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), in collaboration with the PROMENTA Research Center.

NORMENT is a Norwegian Centre of Excellence aiming to disentangle the genetic, neurobiological, psychological and environmental factors contributing to mental illness. Through our infrastructure for clinical evaluations, cognitive assessment, neuroimaging and biobanking we are assembling a large imaging genetics database comprising data from healthy controls and patients suffering from mental disorders.

PROMENTA is a newly established interdisciplinary research center focusing on developmental processes and social gradients in mental health, drug use and wellbeing.

The PhD position is funded by a grant from the Research Council of Norway for the project «Learning from mistakes: A Longitudinal Neuroimaging-Cohort-Registry Study”. The project is part of a larger project called BRAINMINT

The fellowship is for a period of three years. A fourth year can be considered with the addition of a 25% teaching requirement, depending on the competence of the applicant and the needs of the department.

More about the project

On an overarching level, we aim to improve our understanding of the role of neurocognitive development in adolescent mental health and education. The primary objectives of the project are to 1) Map the development of self-regulation functions and associated brain activity across adolescence, 2) Probe how this development is related to changes in brain structure and structural connectivity, 3) Test how early life influences and traits are associated with individual differences in adolescents’ self-regulation functions, and 4) Examine the relevance of these functions for mental health and school performance.

We will collect and analyse behavioural, electroencephalography (EEG) and multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from both a large population-based sample and a heterogeneous clinical sample of adolescents. In addition to this new data-collection, we are working with several large-scale open developmental datasets that include EEG, functional and structural MRI, and diffusion MRI.

The successful PhD applicant will play a central role in the data collection. The PhD candidate is expected to learn and perform neuroimaging and statistical analyses and write research articles in the fields of developmental cognitive neuroscience, mental health and education. The specific focus of the PhD project will be planned together with the project leader, but can for instance involve using EEG or fMRI to study development of cognitive control, error processing or emotion processing, or using diffusion MRI to study structural connectivity in relation to adolescent mental health or education. The PhD is also expected to collaborate with other members in the research group.

The project is led by Professor Christian K. Tamnes (PI) and involves collaborations with national and international researchers, and the work may include a period abroad.

Qualification requirements

• Applicants must have a Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant field, such as psychology, cognitive neuroscience, medicine, or related.
• High fluency in English, spoken and written
• Potential and ambitions for excellent research within the project, as evidenced by the required letter of application, explaining the motivation for applying and how own qualifications are suitable for the announced position
• Competence in data processing and statistical analysis (R, Mplus or similar)

Preferable qualifications

• Research experience in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, mental health, or education
• Experience with EEG and/or MRI data collection and/or analysis
• Experience with working with adolescents
• Excellent writing skills
• Interest in performing and promoting Open Science practices

Personal skills

• Creative thinking and analytic abilities
• High motivation and efficient work structure
• Ability to work in collaborative groups and independently

In assessing applications, particular emphasis will be placed upon the quality of the candidate’s academic qualifications. Interviews with selected candidates will be arranged where the applicants personal suitability, motivation and cooperative skills will be emphasized.

We offer

• Salary grade NOK 491 200 - 534 400 per year depending on qualifications in a position as PhD Research fellow (position code 1017)
• A professionally stimulating work environment
• Enthusiastic colleagues with high expertise in relevant fields
• Unique learning opportunities
• Opportunities for extensive collaboration with national and international collaborators
• Favorable pension and social welfare benefits

How to apply

The application must include

• Letter of application, 1-2 pages, explaining the motivation for applying and how own qualifications are suitable for the announced postdoc position
• CV summarizing education, positions, academic work and other qualifying activity
• Copies of educational certificates (academic transcripts only)
• A complete list of publications and academic works (including preprints and scientific posters). Publications should not be submitted along with the initial application
• Names and contact details of at least two references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail, and telephone number)

The application with attachments must be submitted through our electronic recruiting system, please follow the link “Apply for this job”. Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University's grading system. Please note that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.

Contact information

• Project leader, Christian K. Tamnes: c.k.tamnes@psykologi.uio.no
• HR officer, Linn Berg Salvesen: l.b.salvesen@psykologi.uio.no

Please contact the project leader for more information about the project.

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Research Fellowships at the University of Oslo.

No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the University of Oslo.

This is a project funded by the Research Council of Norway and applicants with a previous PhD degree cannot be appointed for this position.

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.

The appointment may be shortened/given a more limited scope within the framework of the applicable guidelines on account of any previous employment in academic positions.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. We also want to have employees with diverse expertise, combinations of subjects, life experience and perspectives. We will make adjustments for employees who require this.

If there are qualified applicants with special needs, gaps in their CVs or immigrant backgrounds, we will invite at least one applicant in each of these groups to an interview.

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