Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Information Science at Media Futures
Deadline: 18.06.2023
University of Bergen
The University of Bergen is a renowned educational and research institution, organised into seven faculties and approximately 54 institutes and academic centres. Campus is located in the centre of Bergen with university areas at Nygårdshøyden, Haukeland, Marineholmen, Møllendalsveien and Årstad.
Through robust and close interaction with the world around us – globally, nationally and locally – we shall be instrumental in building a society based on knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Do you want to take part in shaping the future?
Postdoctoral Research Fellow position
There is a vacancy for a postdoctoral research fellow position at MediaFutures within Media Content Production and Analysis. The position is for a period 4 years with 25% compulsory teaching duties. We are looking for an ambitious and self-motivated colleague to join us in MediaFutures: Research Centre for Responsible Media Technology & Innovation.
MediaFutures is a new centre for research-based innovation at the Department for information science and media studies, University of Bergen, and will be located at Media City Bergen. The centre is a part of the Norwegian Research Council’s Research-based Innovation scheme. MediaFutures will in cooperation with industry partners from news media and media technology research topics like media experiences, recommender technology, content production and analysis, content interaction and availability, and Norwegian language technology. The goal is to develop responsible technological solutions to societal challenges like AI, fake news, echo chambers and political polarization. The results will be new digital tools, analysis methods and content types for the future of media. The center will also perform research training within media technology and innovation. This will create outputs such as new patents, prototypes, research articles and software, as well and innovative start-up companies.
The candidate will work at MediaFutures at MediaCity Bergen in Work Package 3 within Media Content Production and Analysis and will closely collaborate with researchers and partners in this work package, including, Schibsted, BT, Wolftech, TV2, etc. and with relevant researchers and partners in other work packages as well.
The Work Package 3 on Media Content Production and Analysis in MediaFutures aims at the development of novel approaches to creating media content with the support of artificial intelligence, as well as novel ways to analyse media content for various purposes of interest to media businesses and consumers. Our focus is particularly on news content, evaluating the trustworthiness of existing news sources as well as ensuring trustworthiness in news content produced through novel tools.
The research questions we are interested in pursuing in this post doc project are: To what extent can we use AI techniques, for example event modelling, computational creativity, and natural language generation, to develop tools that generate or support the generation of trustworthy news stories in text, sound, tv or other media forms? To what extent can such tools be of value to news producers and news consumers?
The research work will include conducting initial literature studies, surveys with industry partners, and using the gained knowledge to developing modelling approaches, algorithms and prototypes. Research can be conducted by exploiting scientific literature on computational creativity, event modelling (based on semantic technologies and knowledge extraction from unstructured information sources), and natural language generation. Furthermore, studies involving active cooperation and co-creation of insights with our business partners in the centre, journalists, and consumers need to be conducted to investigate the realisation and value of the tools as well as how the produced news stories are perceived by news consumers. We expect a high volume of publications reporting on the project results in interdisciplinary publication venues as well as prototypes to be showcased to the industry partners in the centre.
In summary, the successful candidate will focus on proposing, developing, implementing and validating algorithms for AI-based news story production in collaboration with the partners.
The candidate will work be supervised by the work package leadership. The candidate will also carry out secondments at industry partners in MediaFutures. The candidate will be required to submit a PostDoc plan within 3 months after the start of the position together with the candidates’ work packages leaders and approved by the centre’s director.
The position formally reports to the centre director at MediaFutures.
Qualifications and personal qualities:
The applicant must hold a Norwegian PhD or an equivalent degree within Information Science, Computer Science, or Artificial Intelligence. They must have submitted their doctoral thesis for assessment prior to the application deadline. It is a condition of employment that the PhD has been awarded.
Strong programming skills are a must.
Background within computational creativity, semantic technologies, and natural language generation is an advantage.
Experience from scientific work (e.g., previous conference and journal publications) is a requirement.
Experience in innovation work, grant writing and proposal authorship is an advantage.
Great motivation for research and innovation work, and interest in the topic and good knowledge of relevant theory and methods is a must.
We are seeking for candidates that has proven skills to work in a team, as well has the ability to work independently and in a structured manner.
Proficiency in both written and oral English (this is the working language of the centre).
Potential candidates may be invited to the centre for an interview.
About the position of postdoctoral research fellow:
The position of postdoctoral research fellow is a fixed-term appointment with the primary objective of qualifying the appointee for work in top academic positions. The fixed-term period for this position is 4 years with both research and 25% compulsory teaching duties. Individuals may not be hired for more than one fixed-term period as a postdoctoral research fellow at the same institution.
We can offer:
A good and professionally challenging working environment.
Salary at NOK 615 700 (code 1352, pay grade 63) on the government salary scale upon appointment. Further promotions are made according to length of service in the position.
Enrolment in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
Practical questions about the application process should be directed to Adviser – HR, Pernille Hole, pernille.hole@uib.no.
The state labour force shall reflect the diversity of Norwegian society to the greatest extent possible. People with immigrant backgrounds and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply for the position.
The University of Bergen applies the principle of public access to information when recruiting staff for academic positions.
Information about applicants may be made public even if the applicant has asked not to be named on the list of persons who have applied. The applicant must be notified if the request to be omitted is not met.
Further information about our employment process can be found here.
