PhD student position in perinatal mental health - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

More than 350 teachers, doctors, researchers and doctoral students work at the Department of Neuroscience, in both clinical and basic scientific disciplines. The Department has activities at the University Hospital and at Uppsala University Biomedical Center. The position will be placed at the Uppsala University Hospital, where the clinical scientific disciplines, including psychiatry are hosted. More information regarding the Department of Neuroscience: https://www.neuro.uu.se

Mental ill health is on the way to becoming society’s most daunting and costly problem today. During the latest years, there has been an increasing interest in questions regarding women’s health. Uppsala University initiated in 2020 a centre for Women’s Mental Health during the Reproductive lifespan, WoMHeR. In this centre, multidisciplinary expertise is gathered to develop evidence based knowledge relevant for women´s mental health. An important part of WoMHeR is a PhD graduate school where this PhD project is one of the awarded projects. For more information regarding WoMHeR, see: https://uu.se/forskning/womher/

PhD student position in perinatal mental health, focusing on the prediction of peripartum depression using data from the Mom2b mobile application

Project description: Depression during pregnancy or after childbirth (peripartum depression (PPD)) is a common (ca 10%), serious and potentially life-threatening disorder with high societal costs. Preventive efforts targeting PPD are thus of paramount importance, especially among high-risk groups, but our current ability to predict PPD is poor. 

The project aims to develop and evaluate effective and user-centered methods for the prediction of depression around childbirth, a prevalent condition with devastating consequences. We will use data from the Mom2b mobile application, including digital phenotyping, from 20 000 women and state-of-the-art machine learning methods. The project involves collaboration between several scientific areas such as psychiatry, reproductive health, and machine learning. Qualitative methods will be used to explore the experiences and attitudes of the participating women towards using the Mom2b mobile application, for further development and improvements.

The project will be led by Fotios Papadopoulos, a senior consultant in psychiatry and Senior lecturer at the Department of Neuroscience, in collaboration with researchers at the Department for Women’s and Children’s Health and the Department for Information Technology at Uppsala University.

Duties: You will be part of Mom2b infrastructure for data collection through Mom2b application. You will work, in close collaboration with experts in artificial intelligence, with data management and machine learning. You may also perform qualitative interviews with women participating in the study.

As well as developing your PhD thesis, you are expected to write scientific articles, present results at scientific meetings and conferences, teach on relevant courses, and actively contribute to the WoMHeR graduate school.

Requirements: To be eligible for the position, you need to have completed a degree at advanced level (Masters) in Psychology, Health Care Sciences, Behavioral Sciences, Medicine, Statistics, Computer sciences or a related area. Experience of quantitative statistical methods is necessary.

The position requires that the candidate is accepted within the postgraduate doctoral program. Information regarding requirements for acceptance is found at: http://www2.medfarm.uu.se/utbildning/forskarniva/ and https://www.uu.se/utbildning/utbildningar/forskarutbildning/.

We are looking for an ambitious and motivated candidate who has a strong interest in perinatal mental health and new technologies, as well as in working interdisciplinary. The applicant needs to be determined, structured and able to work efficiently both individually and in group. Demonstrated high level of proficiency in oral and written English is required. We are looking for a candidate who is willing to work full time or who wishes to combine the PhD with clinical work.

Additional qualifications: Previous documented experience of research is a merit as well as interest in mental health in becoming and new parents, e-health or machine learning. As qualitative interviewing might be included in the duties, good command of Swedish or the ability to learn the language within one year is important.

In filling this position, the university aims to recruit the person who, in the combined evaluation of their documented qualifications, competences, skills and prior experiences, is judged most suitable to carry out and develop the work-in-hand and to contribute to a positive development of the department and WoMHeR.

Application: Your application could be written in Swedish or English and should contain

• Your Curriculum Vitae
• Copies of degree certificate and grades
• Master’s thesis
• Full publication list
• A personal letter describing: (1) your eventual previous research experience and (2) the reason(s) why you want to pursue a PhD program
• Include contact information (name, email address, phone number) of at least two references

Interviews and work examples will be part of the selection process.

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.

Rules governing PhD students are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5, §§ 1-7 and in Uppsala University's rules and guidelines http://regler.uu.se/?languageId=1.

Salary: According to local agreement for PhD students.
 
Starting date: 15-10-2020 or as otherwise agreed.

Type of employment: Temporary position according to the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 § 7.

Scope of employment: 100 %

For further information about the position please contact: Fotios Papadopoulos, +46737761292, Fotis.papadopoulos@neuro.uu.se.

Please submit your application by 30 September 2020, UFV-PA 2020/2985.

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.