The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest ranked educational and research institution, with 26 500 students and 7 200 employees. With its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally recognised research communities, UiO is an important contributor to society.

RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion is financed through the Research Council of Norway’s Centre of Excellence Scheme.

RITMO combines a broad spectrum of disciplines – from musicology, neuroscience and informatics – to study rhythm as a fundamental property of human cognition, behaviour and cultural expression. The Centre is organized under the Department of Musicology, in close collaboration with the Department of Psychology and the Department of Informatics.

Job description

A Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (SKO 1352) is available in connection with the research project GROOVE: Mapping, Modeling, and Perceiving the Combinatorics of Groove-based Rhythms, funded by the Research Council of Norway. The project is affiliated with RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion at the University of Oslo and will also benefit from the new, large Norwegian initiative, MishMash Centre for AI and Creativity. 

All RITMO researchers are co-located and work in a unique interdisciplinary constellation, with world-leading competence in musicology, psychology and informatics. It is expected that all members of the centre contribute to the general activities and collaborations within RITMO. 

The researchers have access to state-of-the-art facilities in sound/video recording, motion capture, eye tracking, physiological measurements, various types of brain imaging (EEG, fMRI), and rapid prototyping and robotics laboratories.

Applicants are required to upload/attach a research outline (uio.no) stating research questions and theoretical and methodological approaches that will further the goals of the project. The project description must present a feasible progress plan. It is expected that the applicant will be able to complete the project during the period of appointment. It is suggested that candidates should carefully read the project website: Mapping, Modeling, and Perceving the Combinatorics of Groove-based Rhythms (GROOVE) - RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, and the details below to align their research plan appropriately.

More about the position

The project, GROOVE, aims to significantly advance knowledge on groove and why specific combinations of rhythmic patterns reliably elicit pleasure and the urge to move. Building on recent work in music theory, rhythm cognition, and music information retrieval, the project will develop a novel, theoretical-analytical framework for the categorization of multi-part rhythmic patterns and their combinations across ensemble parts (e.g., drums, bass, guitar, voice) and genres. The empirical focus will be placed on groove-based traditions that have strongly influenced global popular music (e.g., funk, reggae, samba). The candidate is not expected to have prior expertise in these specific traditions; repertoire knowledge is covered by other team members. 

The successful candidate will lead the project’s computational work package and develop the pipeline that operationalizes the theory and supports perceptual studies. This includes: contributing to method development on rhythm modeling; performing source separation on commercial recordings and extracting audio features (onsets, pitch, harmony, dynamics); curating datasets; and integrating machine learning approaches to complement rule-based methods. 

The candidate will collaborate closely with the PI and the project team and co-author publications.

The position is available for a period of 3 years, starting the earliest 1. September 2026 and latest 1. November 2026. There is a 10 % component of the position which is devoted to teaching and administrative duties or other career-promoting work. Given additional funding, the position may be extended to 4 years, with a 25 % duty component. This would depend on the qualifications of the recruited candidate, the department’s needs for teaching, and the centre’s need for assistance.

The successful candidate is expected to become part of the research environment and contribute to its development. The main purpose of postdoctoral research fellowships is to qualify researchers for work in higher academic positions within their disciplines. 

A career plan shall be developed for the Postdoctoral Fellow, specifying the competencies the Postdoctoral Fellow should acquire. UiO is responsible for following up on the career plan and ensuring that the Postdoctoral Fellow has access to career guidance throughout the postdoctoral term.

Selection criteria 

Qualification requirements

• PhD or equivalent academic qualifications with a specialization in computational musicology, computer/data science, informatics, sound and music computing, or other related field. The applicant is required to document that the degree corresponds to the profile of the post.
• Experience with one or more of the following: data curation, digital signal processing, music information retrieval, audio source-separation, audio analysis, statistical modeling, machine learning, and advanced programming in Python.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Personal suitability and motivation for the position.

The doctoral dissertation must be submitted for evaluation by the application deadline. Appointment is dependent on the public defense of the doctoral thesis being approved.

It is an advantage if you have

• Knowledge/experience with one or more of the following: music theory, rhythm analysis, metadata development, symbolic music processing.
• Track record in building reproducible pipelines (version control, unit tests, containerization) and curating research datasets.

In assessing the research outline special emphasis will be placed on

• The alignment with the main project "GROOVE" and to what extent the outline is furthering the goals of the project, focusing in particular on the development of the computational pipeline for the analysis and categorization of rhythm pattern combinations (Work Package 2) in the project proposal.
• The scientific merit and innovation of the research outline
• Feasibility of the research plan and outcomes 

Personal skills

• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to successfully join in academic teamwork within and across disciplines
• Time-management and the ability to carry out the project within the allotted time frame
• Adaptability and willingness to contribute to a good working environment

Employment in the position is based on a comprehensive assessment of all qualification requirements applicable to the position, including personal qualifications and assessment of the research outline.

We need different perspectives in our work 

UiO is an open and internationally oriented comprehensive university that strives to be an inclusive and diverse workplace and academic environment. You can read more about UiO’s work on equality, inclusion, and diversity at uio.no.

We fulfill our mission most effectively when we draw upon our variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We are looking for great colleagues—could you be the next one?

We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Relevant adjustments may include modifications to working hours, task adaptations, digital, technical, or physical adjustments, or other practical measures.

If you have an immigrant background, a disability, or CV gaps, we encourage you to indicate this in the job application portal. We always invite at least one qualified candidate from each group for an interview. In this context, disability is defined as an applicant who identifies as having a disability that requires workplace or employment-related accommodations. For more details about the requirements, please refer to the Employer portal (Norwegian).

The selections made in the job application portal are used for anonymized statistics that all state employers include in their annual reports.More information about gender equality initiatives at UiO can be found here.

We hope you will apply for the position with us. 

We offer

• Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organization with an important societal mission, contributing to knowledge development, education, and enlightenment that promote sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development.
• Committed colleagues in a good working environment.
• Good welfare schemes.
• Opportunity of up to 1.5 hours a week of exercise during working hours.
• A workplace with good development and career opportunities. 
• Membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, which is one of Norway's best pension schemes with beneficial mortgages and good insurance schemes.
• Salary in position as Postdoctoral Fellow, position code 1352 in salary range NOK from 595 000 to 677 000, depending on competence and experience. From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund.

Read more about the benefits of working in the public sector at Employer Portal.

Application

Your application must include:

• Application letter describing your qualifications and motivation for the position
• Curriculum Vitae (complete list of education, positions, teaching experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activities).
• Research Outline: approx. 3 pages, maximum 9,000 characters. See Research Outline - template for PhD and Postdoctoral applications to RITMO (uio.no).
• A complete list of publications with links to the full versions of published paper
• If available, a code repo (e.g., Github), representative of the applicant’s work
• Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)

Please note that all documents must be in English or a Scandinavian language.

Application with attachments must be submitted via our recruitment system Jobbnorge.

Short-listed candidates will be invited for an interview.

General information

Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we cannot, you will hear from us.

Please refer to Regulations for the Act on universities and colleges chapter 3 (Norwegian) and Guidelines concerning appointment to post doctoral and research posts at UiO.

The University of Oslo has a transfer agreement with all employees that is intended to secure the rights to all research results etc.

Apply to this role

Questions about the position

• Guilherme Schmidt Câmara (Project leader), +47 93 26 92 71, g.s.camara@imv.uio.no
• Pia Søndergaard (Head of RITMO Administration), pia.sondergaard@imv.uio.no
• Julie Tøllefsen (Seniorrådgiver HR), j.b.tollefsen@hf.uio.no