PhD-Candidate

Ageing and Health
The Norwegian National Centre for Ageing and Health (Ageing and Health) is a publicly funded national centre of expertise in ageing and older people’s health in Norway. We take a holistic approach to our field, aiming to promote health, prevent illness, and support people in living well with disease. We fulfil our vision, ‘Ageing and Health – for Better Ageing’, through our work in the core areas of ageing, physical health, mental health, cognition, and dementia.

Ageing and Health brings together, develops, makes accessible, disseminates, and implements knowledge and expertise on ageing and older people’s health in Norway by providing practice-oriented knowledge, education, and research. Our primary target groups are employees, students, and researchers at all levels of the health and care services. Other key target groups include decision-makers, national health authorities, older people, their relatives, and the general public.

Ageing and Health has a national mandate and places strong emphasis on having activities in all health regions. We have offices and staff located throughout the country. Organisationally, Ageing and Health is affiliated with the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst RHF) and is jointly owned by Oslo University Hospital HF and Vestfold Hospital Trust HF.

Read more about us at:
www.aldringoghelse.no

More information in English is available here:
https://www.aldringoghelse.no/english

About the project
Are you interested in using artificial intelligence (AI) to shape the future of healthy ageing? This PhD project is built around the World Health Organization’s (WHO) concept of intrinsic capacity - the combined physical and mental abilities that allow people to function and thrive as they age, including cognition, locomotion, sensory function, vitality, and psychological well-being.

As a PhD candidate, you will work with unique Norwegian population data, combining decades of information from the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) with multiple national health registries. Few countries in the world offer this opportunity. Using advanced AI and machine learning (ML) methods, you will analyze large, rich, and complex datasets to develop new ways of measuring intrinsic capacity and to uncover how life-course factors influence health and ageing in later life.

The project explores i) how intrinsic capacity can be captured in a Norwegian population, ii) which early- and mid-life factors shape trajectories of intrinsic capacity later in life, and iii) how changes in intrinsic capacity are linked to disease, health service use, and survival.
This PhD offers cutting-edge training at the intersection of ageing research, epidemiology, and AI, with clear relevance for future healthcare and policy.

About the position
Ageing and Health has a vacant 3‑year full-time (100%) position as a PhD candidate in the project Smart Aging: Leveraging machine learning to understand and predict intrinsic capacity in Norwegian older adults.

Are you curious about healthy ageing and WHO’s concept of intrinsic capacity, and motivated to use AI to generate knowledge with real societal impact? Then we would love to hear from you.

Tasks and responsibilities

As a PhD candidate at Ageing and Health, you will be part of an interdisciplinary research environment with several PhD and postdoctoral fellows, as well as senior researchers.

• You will have a leading role in the project, including analysis of research data, writing scientific articles, and publishing results in international peer-reviewed journals
• Complete a PhD degree, including completing necessary PhD courses at the University of Oslo
• Disseminate research results to both academic and general audiences

Qualifications

• Relevant health-related education at Master’s level that qualifies for admission to a PhD programme (grade B or better)
• Experience with quantitative analytical methods using statistical software such as Stata, R, etc
• Experience with AI/ML methods for quantitative analysis is preferred, but not a requirement
• Good oral and written communication skills in English
• Residence and work permit in Norway are required

Personal qualities

• Strong collaboration and communication skills
• Ability to work purposefully, in a structured and independent manner
• Interest in and motivation for the project’s research questions
• Solution-oriented, positive, and approachable
  
• Personal qualities will be given significant weight
  

We offer

• Employment in an exciting and continuously developing knowledge organization
• A stimulating research project with an interdisciplinary supervisory team
• A positive working environment with supportive colleagues
• A flexible work situation characterized by independence and responsibility
• Attractive loan and insurance schemes through KLP
• Group life insurance, travel insurance for work-related travel, leisure and occupational accident insurance
• Good welfare benefits, including access to a sports association and staff cabins
• Appointment in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, collective agreements, and internal guidelines
• As an employee at Vestfold Hospital Trust (Sykehuset i Vestfold HF), you will be enrolled in the collective pension scheme with KLP, with a 2% pension contribution. More information on public service pensions is available at www.klp.no

Application deadline 22 February 2026.

Start date: 15 April 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

For questions about the project, please contact Project Manager Ekaterina Zotcheva at ekaterina.zotcheva@aldringoghelse.no or +47 400 97 275.

For questions regarding the recruitment process, please contact Head of Professional Development Trine Nordby Skjellestad at trine.skjellestad@aldringoghelse.no or +47 990 19 206.

Sykehuset i Vestfold (SiV HF) is part of the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst) and provides specialist healthcare services in somatics, psychiatry, and substance use disorder treatment to the population of Vestfold. 

SiV HF has several locations in Vestfold, and its main operations are located in Tønsberg. 

The hospital has 4,500 full-time equivalents and approximately 5,600 employees.

 

SiV HF also performs tasks within research, education, and the training of patients and their relatives. 

You can read more about the hospital at www.siv.no