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Data Stewardship / Data Management - Centre for Bioinformatics (SBI)

Deadline: 02.07.2020

Universitetet i Oslo

The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest rated institution of research and education with 28 000 students and 7000 employees. Its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally esteemed research communities make UiO an important contributor to society.


The Department of Informatics (IFI) is one of nine departments belonging to the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. IFI is Norway’s largest university department for general education and research in Computer Science and related topics. The Department has more than 1800 students on bachelor level, 600 master students, and over 240 PhDs and postdocs. The overall staff of the Department is close to 370 employees, about 280 of these in full time positions. The full time tenured academic staff is 75, mostly Full/Associate Professors.

About the position

Applications are invited for a full time position in a role as Data Stewardship/Management at the new initiative of Life Science data management hub, hosted by the Centre for Bioinformatics (SBI), Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo (UiO).

The purpose of the new initiative of the Life Science data management hub is to establish, implement and facilitate good data management routines throughout the full scope of research projects in the life sciences at UiO in order to make the data re-usable and promote reproducibility of research findings. The Life Science data management hub will have many prominent research institutes/initiatives of Norway as the initial partners (e.g., ELIXIR, USIT, CEES, NORMENT, Oslo Center for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, BigInsight, CanCell, and Competence Group for Research Data). In addition, the Centre for Bioinformatics and its nodes will also be the partners.

The Centre for Bioinformatics was established in 2018 as a partnership between the Department of Informatics, Department of Biosciences, Department of Chemistry, and the School of Pharmacy. The Centre has a hub-node structure connecting central bioinformatics user environments at UiO and in the Oslo region. The hub is initially hosted by the Department of Informatics, but will move to the new UiO Life Science Building when this is finalized.

Duties/Responsibilities

This will be a key position at the Centre for Bioinformatics, where the successful candidate will be advising all the nodes/partner institutes of the bioinformatics hub regarding data management practices with the main goal of making data re-usable and promoting reproducibility of research findings. The candidate will establish, implement, maintain and facilitate data management routines according to the FAIR standards (described below) to all the partners of Life Science data management hub. For that, the candidate may research the best practices for the data management routines in life sciences and propose novel solutions, where there is a scope for scientific accomplishments. In addition, the candidate would act as the central contact person for data stewardship activities both at the Centre for Bioinformatics and the Life Science data management hub when cooperating with the national and international data management initiatives in life sciences. In this regard, the candidate is expected to cooperate with the local node of ELIXIR (https://elixir-europe.org/) in Oslo and also internationally with the ELIXIR community. The Centre for Bioinformatics is involved in multiple projects that produce large volumes of data in areas such as Precision Medicine, Genome Dynamics, Comparative Genomics or Microbiome Bioinformatics. As the Centre for Bioinformatics has a keen interest in data management topics, the successful candidate can expect to cooperate extensively with the Centre for Bioinformatics. Further, reproducibility also involves software practices, and will be an important aspect of the work. Successful candidates would be well-positioned to take up exciting roles as Data Stewards in the future, which has been popularly suggested to become a required role in many of the organizations that are especially data-driven.

Large volumes of data are common in several sub-disciplines of life sciences (e.g. sequencing data, imaging data etc). Data management is particularly important in life sciences throughout the life cycle of research projects to adhere to the FAIR standards (Findable, Accessible, Inter-operable, Re-Usable). Findable: In order to make data rse-usable, both humans and machines should be able to find the data, and for that machine-readable metadata is necessary. Accessible: Once the data is found (either by humans or by machines), the next obstacle to overcome is the accessibility of the data - meaning that the required authentications and authorisations have to be met. Inter-operable: Often, it is required to integrate one type of dataset with another type of dataset or several other types of datasets. In addition, the data needs to inter-operate well with other application systems, machines, tools and so on. Re-usable: The main goal is to make data re-usable by optimising the data management practices.

Qualification requirements

When evaluating applicants, weight will put on documented experience and qualifications in the following areas:

Required qualifications

  • Applicants must possess a degree at a minimum bachelor level in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology or a relevant field within Biology, Biomedical sciences, Health Sciences, Information Science, Data Science, or Computer Science
  • Programming and technical competence
  • Familiarity with typical datasets produced in biomedical research, especially omics datasets and databases
  • Fluent English, both oral and written

Desired qualifications (nice to have)

  • Knowledge/Experience in data management/stewardship or information science
  • Knowledge/Experience in data storage platforms that are particularly relevant for life sciences including cloud solutions
  • Familiarity/experience with existing standards for handling different types of bioinformatics/life science data, metadata management, data exchange solutions over the cloud, management of sensitive data according to the requirements of GDPR
  • Experience with multiple data-types and databases relevant to life sciences is an advantage but not necessary
  • Norwegian language, both oral and written

Personal skills

Ability to work independently, to collaborate, and coordinate with colleagues

We offer

  • salary NOK 523 200 – 627 700 per annum depending on qualifications in a position as Head Engineer (position code 1087), depending on qualifications and seniority.
  • 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:

  • Cover letter (statement of motivation)
  • CV (summarizing education, positions, relevant experience, and other qualifying activities)
  • copies of educational certificates (academic transcripts and diplomas only)
  • Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, email and telephone number).

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system. Please note that all documents should be in English (or a Scandinavian language).

Formal regulations

Interviews with the best qualified candidates will be arranged.

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.

Contact information

For more information about the position contact the:

  • Director of the Centre for Bioinformatics, Prof. Eivind Hovig at +47 93069881, ehovig@ifi.uio.no

For questions regarding our application system, please contact HR Senior Adviser Torunn Standal Guttormsen, phone:+47 22854272, email: t.s.guttormsen@mn.uio.no

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