Researcher, ViEWS & The Department of Peace and Conflict Research - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

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. 80 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.

Project ViEWS – a political Violence Early-Warning System (https://pcr.uu.se/research/views/). ViEWS started up in January 2017 with financial support from the European Research Council and will run through 2021. Project leader is professor Håvard Hegre. 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://pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/). 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 https://pcr.uu.se/research/views/ and in https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022343319823860

The department and the project ViEWS now seeks a researcher, for a temporary employment (full-time for 12 months), starting on 1 March 2020. The start date may be negotiated.

Expected tasks: The 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 will preferably be in terms of methodology, alternatively, in terms of modeling and data collection or adaptation based on conflict-specific domain knowledge.

The 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.

The employment may include teaching at bachelor or master level, and other adminstrative tasks (maximum 20% of the employment).

Qualifications and required skills

• PhD in a field of methodological relevance to the project (e.g. statistics, computer science or social science)
• Excellent skills in quantitative methodology and machine learning
• Extensive experience with programming languages used in machine learning. Most ViEWS code is written in Python 3.X, and the researcher will have to contribute to this code base.
• Excellent proficiency in English (both speaking and writing)

Additional qualifications: Experience from data collection and project management.

To include in your application: A cover letter (no longer than 500 words), your CV, a project description that lays out your research plans and how these fit the ViEWS project, and five samples of your work.

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 March 2020, or as otherwise agreed.

Type of employment: Temporary position (12 months)

Scope of employment: 100 %

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

Please submit your application by 19 February 2020, UFV-PA 2019/4517.

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.