PhD Fellow in Marine Molecular Ecology

About this position

The position

The Norwegian College of Fishery Science (NCFS) at the Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics (BFE) is searching for a PhD Fellow to study the molecular ecology of fishes and other communities in the Artic Ocean as a contribution to the national flagship project

Arctic Ocean 2050

. The candidate will be part of the

Research Group for Genetics

(RGG).

The position is for a period of four years. The nominal length of the PhD programme is three years. The fourth year is distributed as 25 % each year and will consist of teaching and other duties

.

The objective of the position is to complete research training to the level of a doctoral degree. Admission to the PhD programme is a prerequisite for employment, and the programme period starts on commencement of the position.

The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. You must be able to start in the position within a reasonable time after receiving the offer.

The project

The PhD project will focus on illuminating fish diversity and connectivity, overall biodiversity, and biological interactions using environmental DNA obtained from seawater, natural samplers, and communities, video surveys and conventional survey methods, from the Arctic Ocean. This frigid part of the world is undergoing dramatic changes due to the climate crisis, however, how fishes, and other communities, and the food webs are impacted by these changes is poorly studied.

The research could therefore additionally include categorizing assemblages of species and/or populations into groups of ecological traits and function and include the construction of molecular based food webs. The successful candidate will be working in the national flagship project Arctic Ocean 2050. The teaching will be related to the thematic areas of the Research Group for Genetics (RGG), primarily within a course in Fish Biology and in a new course in Aquatic Molecular Ecology.

The successful candidate will become a member of the Research Group for Genetics (RGG) and will be included in the research, the career development programme, and social activities of the research group.

The candidate will be working with the RGG and Arctic Ocean 2050 team of scientists, PhD students and technical staff with highly cross-disciplinary competence. The applicant should be able to work independently as well as in a team.

Qualifications

Required qualifications:

A master’s degree or equivalent by the time of employment in molecular ecology, molecular biology, or genetics within a topic relevant to the position

Documented experience with DNA extraction from either tissues, communities, and/or environmental samples

Documented experience with PCR and/or qPCR

Documented experience with either bioinformatic or statistical analysis of DNA sequence data

Knowledge of taxonomy of fishes and other marine aquatic taxa

Documented knowledge of English

Desirable qualifications:

Experience in collecting and handling eDNA and community samples

Experience with working in clean lab environments

Experience with metabarcoding and/or shotgun sequencing approaches and analysis of such data

Experience with conventional and video fish survey methods and data analyses

Experience with fieldwork and research cruises, especially in cold environments

Knowledge of, or experience with, ecological niche theory and foodwebs

Experience and interest in teaching

Experience with outreach, communication, and social media content creation

Knowledge of Norwegian or a Scandinavian language

In the assessment, the emphasis is on the applicant's potential to complete a research education based on the master's thesis or equivalent, and any other scientific work. In addition, other experience of significance for the completion of the doctoral programme may be given consideration.

Personal qualifications and suitability will be emphasized; the candidate’s personal qualifications should include excellent interpersonal and communication skills and an enthusiasm to work as a member of a collaborative research team.

As many as possible should have the opportunity to undertake organized research training. If you already hold a PhD or have equivalent competence, we will not appoint you to this position.

Admission to the PhD programme

For employment in the PhD position, you must be qualified for admission to the PhD programme at the

Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics

and participate in organized doctoral studies within the employment period.

Admission normally requires:

A bachelor's degree of 180 ECTS and a master's degree of 120 ECTS, or an integrated master's degree of 300 ECTS.

A master's thesis with a scope corresponding to at least 30 ECTS for a master's degree of 120 ECTS.

A master's thesis with a scope corresponding to at least 20 ECTS for an integrated master's degree of 300 ECTS.

Grade requirements applies both to the master thesis as well as courses part of the master’s degree. The minimum requirements are grade B or better on the master’s degree, and an average grade of B or better on courses that are part of the master’s degree. For integrated master's degrees, applicants are required to have achieved a grade of B or higher on their master's thesis and an overall average grade of C or higher across all courses comprising the integrated degree programme.

A more detailed description of admission requirements can be found

here

.

If you are employed in the position, you will be provisionally admitted to the PhD programme. Application for final admission must be submitted no later than

two months

after taking up the position.

Applicants with a foreign education will be subjected to an evaluation of whether the educational background is equal to Norwegian higher education, following national guidelines from

Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills

. Depending on which country the education is from, one or two additional years of university education may be required to fulfil adm