Uppsala University, Department of Peace and Conflict Research

The Department of Peace and Conflict Research was established in 1971 to conduct peace research and offer courses in peace and conflict studies. Currently approx. 70 persons are employed at the Department and at present some 300-400 students are enrolled every academic year. Courses offered include undergraduate and post-graduate courses, as well as a Ph. D. programme. For more information, visit http://www.pcr.uu.se.

We now seek a postdoctoral researcher to work within the project ViEWS – a political Violence Early-Warning System (http://views.pcr.uu.se).

ViEWS started up in January 2017 with financial support from the European Research Council and will run through 2021. The project applies statistics and machine-learning methods to estimate the probabilities of the three types of violence coded by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (https://ucdp.uu.se). ViEWS assesses the risk of violence in Africa for the next few months based on data available up to the previous month, and maintains a running live pilot that updates the risk assessments every month. The project is described in detail at http://views.pcr.uu.se and in https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022343319823860.

The postdoctoral researcher will be expected to start working on 1 September 2019 and to be employed for 24 months. The startup date may be negotiated.

Expected tasks
The Postdoctoral researcher will conduct own research within the topics covered by ViEWS. We expect the researcher to use ViEWS data and resources in her/his research, and to contribute actively to expand the ViEWS live pilot along the lines of own research interests. For instance, one core task will be to adapt, develop, and reformulate models for incorporation into the project’s ensemble models. Contributions can be in terms of methodology or in terms of modeling and data collection or adaptation based on conflict-specific domain knowledge.

The Postdoctoral researcher will also contribute to management tasks such as overseeing data collection, programming functionalities of the system, and presentations of the overall project in research papers, workshops, and on the project’s web page.

Requirements
To qualify for an employment as a postdoctor you must have a PhD degree in a social-science field or in a field of methodological relevance to the project (e.g. statistics or computer science), or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree within the same field.

You must also have excellent skills in quantitative methodology and machine learning, extensive experience with programming languages used in machine learning and excellent proficiency in English (reading, writing).

The PhD degree must have been obtained no more than three years prior to the application deadline. The three year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.

Additional qualifications
Experience with data collection, project management, and programming is advantageous. Most ViEWS code is written in Python 3.X, and the researcher will have to contribute to this code base.

How to apply
Send a cover letter (no longer than 500 words), your CV, a project description that outlines your research plans and how these fit the ViEWS project, together with five samples of your work to Håvard Hegre (contact details below). Questions regarding the position may be directed to the same email address.

Uppsala University strives to be an inclusive workplace that promotes equal opportunities and attracts qualified candidates who can contribute to the University’s excellence and diversity. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and from people of all backgrounds.

Salary: Individual salary.

Starting date: 1 September 2019 or as otherwise agreed.

Type of employment: Temporary position (24 months) according to central collective agreement.

Scope of employment: 100 %

For further information about the position please contact: Håvard Hegre, havard.hegre@pcr.uu.se.

Please submit your application by 13 May, 24:00. 2019, UFV-PA 2019/898.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? If so, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus. You are also welcome to contact International Faculty and Staff Services at ifss@uadm.uu.se.

Type of employment Temporary position
Contract type Full time
First day of employment 2019-09-01
Salary Fixed salary
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent 100 %
City Uppsala
County Uppsala län
Country Sweden
Reference number UFV-PA 2019/898
Union representative
  • Saco-rådet, saco@uadm.uu.se
  • ST/TCO, tco@fackorg.uu.se
  • Seko Universitetsklubben, seko@uadm.uu.se
Published 26.Mar.2019
Last application date 13.May.2019 11:59 PM CEST

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