PhD position

The section for environmental data science operates and develops NIVA's central systems, tools and databases for environmental data. The main task of the section is to ensure and facilitate efficient and robust data flows for NIVA's researchers and to ensure that NIVA stays competitive in an increasingly digital world.
Advanced analytics on NIVA's data is increasingly part of the section's activities. In addition to this the group is also developing new capabilities on automatic (soft) real time data capture and reporting and exploring technologies for large scale data analytics. The team consists of ten skilled researchers and developers with a diverse background and the section works in close collaboration with researchers in all NIVA's units and the IT department.

Job description
The job is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and our PhD program is an important part of NIVA's ambitions in data science where we aim at developing new solutions, tools and methods in management and analytics of environmental data, and to encourage disruptive thinking within the organization.
The successful candidate will be part of a team of skilled researchers and developers in the section for environmental data science who aim to strengthen NIVA's competitive situation in managing and analyzing NIVA's environmental data.
Depending on background and interests the successful candidate will work on a project within the one (or a combination) of the following two intercoupled topics:

• Advanced data and meta data management with focus on easy, consistent and quality assured access to disparate datasets from the different databases and disciplines within NIVA.
• Advanced analytics (statistics and machine learning) and method development using combinations NIVAs data and other available environmental data sets. Including large oceanographic-, biological- and climate-models.

NIVA's data is mainly related to water monitoring (physical, chemical and biological quantities) and consists of data measured directly in the field, water samples analyzed in NIVA's laboratories, and data from modelling.

In NIVA, the PhD student will have the opportunity to collaborate with researchers and experts in the relevant domains (like fresh and saltwater biology, water chemistry, oceanography, etc.) and to take part in a common effort on moving these fields forward with respect to efficient data handling and advanced analyses.

The application should include a statement of research interests or a project outline for the PhD project, but it is expected that the successful candidate will ultimately define their project jointly with their supervisors during the first two months of the fellowship. The application letter should also discuss at least one research topic of interest to the candidate, including a brief reflection about the scientific issues involved and the possible choice of theory and method(s). This statement of research purpose should not exceed one page.

Requirements
Applicants must hold a Master's degree or equivalent in a relevant field such as informatics, software engineering, statistics, machine learning, mathematics or physics. Documented knowledge, skills and experience on environmental or applied sciences, algorithms, statistics, machine learning, and software development/software engineering will be considered an advantage when candidates are ranked.
The fellowship requires admission to the PhD program at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, at the University of Oslo. The application to the PhD program must be submitted to the department no later than two months after taking up the position.

Personal
The candidate needs to be an enthusiastic, goal-oriented candidate with good communication skills, who wishes to work in a broad interdisciplinary and international research group and project. You should be able to work in a team of researchers with different backgrounds.

NIVA offers you

• Challenging tasks at the leading national water research institute with a comprehensive international network of contacts.
• A head office at CIENS (The Oslo Centre for Interdisciplinary Environmental and Social Research) centrally located at the Oslo Innovation Centre near the University of Oslo.
• Stimulating work environment with capable and dedicated employees.
• Competitive conditions and salaries, pension plans and insurance benefits.