Ledig stilling ved Simula
Postdoc position in Blockchain Technologies
Deadline: 15.11.2019
Simula Research Laboratory has a two-year Postdoc position available in blockchain technologies. The position is associated with the project “SmartMed: Secure and accountable sharing of medical records using smart contracts and blockchain”.
Project description:
Increasing amounts of health data are recorded in health registries, with the strategic initiatives of data sharing and fusion across different registries in Norway. This forms an excellent opportunity for world-class medical research as few countries have such a high-quality infrastructure. However, it also constitutes a very high privacy risk should a security breach occur.
Publicized incidents of leaked medical records pose a major challenge for the digital trust in eHealth where storing, accessing and exchanging sensitive patient-related data must comply with several regulations, while remaining accessible to authorized health practitioners. Governmental legislations regarding data privacy, such as the EU's GDPR, present an additional source of concern for healthcare registries which are now faced with severe legal and financial consequences in case data confidentiality is breached.
Our principal approach is to facilitate solutions for health registries by using Smart Contracts and the emerging Blockchain Paradigm. From the data safety, authenticity, and nonrepudiation standpoint, blockchain is a perfect fit for sharing medical records since it provides an easily accessible, immutable, and transparent history of all contract-related data, adequate for building applications with trust and accountability. Use of smart contracts brings a number of additional advantages for sharing medical data by healthcare registries: consent management, fine-grain privacy control, transparency, and reduced bureaucracy and expenses.
We are looking for a talented and motivated postdoctoral researcher who is interested in developing and evaluating novel techniques addressing the challenges mentioned above.
Research will be done in close collaboration with the Networks and Distributed Systems group at the University of Oslo and the Cancer Registry of Norway.
Candidate profile:
- The candidate must have a completed (before the position starts) PhD degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering with excellent grades.
- The candidate should have strong background in distributed computing.
- Knowledge in distributed transactions, P2P, cryptography, consistent data replication, artificial intelligence is beneficial.
- The candidate should have excellent level of spoken and written English, good interpersonal and communication skills, be curious and creative, and show the willingness to learn and work as part of an international team. Simula is an equal opportunity employer and women are particularly encouraged to apply.
Simula offers:
- Excellent opportunities for performing high quality research, as part of a highly competent and motivated team of international researchers and engineers;
- An informal and inclusive international working environment;
- Generous support for travel and opportunities to build international networks, through established collaboration with industry, exchange programs and research visits with other universities, and funding to attend conferences.
- Modern office facilities located at Fornebu by the Oslo fjord and 10 minutes’ drive from the center of Oslo.
- A competitive salary. Starting salary from NOK 524.200.
- Numerous benefits: access to company cabin, BabyBonus arrangements, sponsored social events, generous equipment budgets (e.g., computer, phone and subscription), subsidized canteen meals and monthly bus pass, comprehensive travel/health insurance policy, etc.
- Relocation assistance: accommodation, visas, complimentary Norwegian language courses, etc
- Administrative research support: e.g., quality assurance process for grant proposals (including RCN and EU programs).
- Wellness and work-life balance. Our employees’ health and well-being is a priority and we encourage them to make use of our flexible work arrangements to help balance their work and home lives efficiently.
Application requirements:
Interested applicants are requested to submit the following:
- Curriculum vitae summarizing education, positions and academic or industrial work, scientific publications, and software development experience.
- A cover letter explaining the candidate’s background, qualifications, research interests and why is the candidate motivated to apply to the position;
- Academic transcripts;
- A copy of PhD thesis (if available);
- Contact information of two references, including the PhD supervisor(s).
Application deadline: 15 November 2019
Applications must be submitted through the portal. Applications will be reviewed continuously, until the position has been filled.
Additional enquiries regarding the position can be addressed to:
- Dusica Marijan (dusica@simula.no)
Simula Research Laboratory uses Semac´s background check in our recruitment process.
According to the Norwegian Freedom and 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.