Postdoc focusing on the development of a data science lab

Description

The department of Systems Science for Defence and Security is looking for one postdoc for the development of a university data science lab. The aim of the data science lab is to provide departments and individual researchers with best practices for how to incorporate data science techniques within existing research structures. The data science lab should function as an expertise repository in open-source programming and research methods suitable for acquisition, pre-processing, analysis, and visualization of (big) data resources. The expertise gathered within the data science lab enables strengthening fundraising in form of external grants for applied research projects that implement the data science techniques.

Duties

You will work with two or three case studies within existing research projects at the Swedish Defence University. The case studies are research studies within different applied fields of research. The results of the case studies should be published in high-quality academic publications. Two case studies are identified at this point:

• Department of political science: The digitalization of emotions and great power politics, Linus Hagström och Fredrik Doeser. Focus on narrative analysis to map the narratively mediated emotions featured in various empirical materials, such as speeches by top-leaders and opposition figures and modelling and sentiment analysis to detect and trace narratives and narratively mediated emotions in mush vaster social media data.
• Department of systems science for defence and security: Big data modelling for energy system resilience, Vera van Zoest. Focus on multivariable modelling of electricity demand in times of energy crisis. A dataset of approximately 10,000 smart meters should in this study be linked to other datasets and statistics to scale down to individual household appliances and up to national electricity consumption. This is a mixed methods study in close collaboration with researchers from the Uppsala Smart Energy Research group and with another postdoc working on graph network simulations to detect vulnerabilities in the Swedish electricity network.  

Alongside and in-between the case studies you should also develop data science best practices in terms of technical reports, guidelines, or tutorials describing the process of conducting the research with an aim of providing a user-friendly and practical example of how data science techniques can be used in the applied fields of research at the university. You should, together with an advisory board, arrange workshops and seminars with an aim to get information and guidance regarding data science techniques. These activities should be openly available to researchers at the university. You will disseminate your results in peer-reviewed scientific articles, at (international) conferences, reference group meetings and internal seminars. In total the work within the case studies expect to take up about two years spread over the three years and the development of data science best practices expect to take up about one year. Administrative tasks and tasks related to teaching may be part of your work, up to 20 %. 

Qualifications

We are looking for you who has obtained a PhD degree (or equivalent) at the start of the employment, in a relevant area of expertise (e.g. data science, computer science, statistics, geo-information science, and engineering). You work independent and with precision. You have good communication skills, and are fluent in English in both reading and writing.  

Merits: 

• Experience in collection and preprocessing of quantitative data;
• Experience with programming in R, Python, Matlab or other relevant programming languages;
• Experience publishing peer-reviewed scientific articles;
• Swedish language skills.

To be able to show an interest in develop data science best practices with an aim of providing a user-friendly and practical example of how data science techniques can be used in applied research are considered an advantage.

You enjoy being part of the university's working community. You are present and active so that you can perform your tasks in the best way. You share knowledge and contribute to the Swedish Defense University's professional development, collegial working methods and social community.

Employment

Temporary, full-time (100%) employment for three years. Starting date as soon as possible or per agreement. 

The position may be placed in a security class, which then requires an approved security clearance with a register check. Swedish and international applicants are welcome.

Applicants who have completed their doctorate no more than three years before the application deadline will be given priority. If there are special reasons, such a degree may have been completed earlier. With special reasons is meant leave due to illness, parental leave, and positions of trust within trade unions, service in the total defense, or other similar circumstances as well as clinical service or service/assignment relevant to the subject area.

Application

Your application should include:

• a cover letter including your motivation to apply for this position
• your CV including list of publications and (planned) date of doctorate
• a research plan of max. 2 pages in which you describe your research interest and approach to this specific project, we would here appreciate if you develop your ideas in relation to develop data science best practices with an aim of providing a user-friendly and practical example of how data science techniques can be used in applied research
• your previous publications of relevance to this position (optional, max. 10)

Apply by following the link via the Swedish Defence University HF/HR 48/2024.

Contact information

Deputy Head of Department of Systems Science for Defence and Security Hans Liwång, hans.liwang@fhs.se, 08-553 425 00

Welcome with your application at the latest 2024-03-20!