Associate Professor in Bioinformatics - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Uppsala University’s tenure track system grants associate professors the possibility to be assessed for promotion to the position as professor. The university provides support in various areas, such as scientific and educational development, leadership development as well as patent and innovation support.

The Department of Cell and Molecular Biology (ICM; https://icm.uu.se) is organised into seven research programmes which all focus on different areas of cell and molecular biology: Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Microbiology and Immunology, Molecular Biology, Molecular Biophysics, Molecular Evolution, Molecular Systems Biology, and Structural Biology.

The scientific basis of what we do lies in biology, but our research overlaps with other areas such as medicine, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, engineering sciences and physics. ICM drives successfully interdisciplinary research in molecular structure, function and evolution, and offers excellent opportunities to combine theoretical and experimental approaches. In total, we are over 200 staff and ~50 Ph.D. students.

Bioinformatics is an expansive area at ICM with ~60 bioinformaticians, partly within the research programmes, partly within the national bioinformatics infrastructure NBIS (https://nbis.se), which constitutes the SciLifeLab Bioinformatics platform.

Uppsala University is part of the large SciLifeLab and Wallenberg national initiative for data-driven life science (https://www.scilifelab.se/data-driven/), and in conjunction herewith ICM now expands its bioinformatics activities with an associate professor in bioinformatics.

The position is placed at the programme Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. (https://www.icm.uu.se/cbbi). The research within the programme is focused on computational biology with an emphasis on structural biology and biochemistry, intracellular kinetics and bioinformatics, especially algorithm development and biomedical applications.

ICM offers a vigorous research environment with unique possibilities for synergies and collaborations between theoretical and experimental activities.

ICM is responsible for the international master programme in bioinformatics and is active within multiple bioinformatics courses at Uppsala University.

Please find more information about ICM at https://icm.uu.se.

Description of subject area of the employment: The subject area is bioinformatics in a wide sense and includes development of new methods (especially using AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning), structure-based calculations, and analysis of large-scale data in life sciences.

Duties: 

• Research, teaching, and administration. Teaching duties include course responsibility and course administration and supervision of second- and third-cycle students. The Associate Professor will be responsible for courses in bioinformatics.
• Follow developments within the subject area and the development of society in general that is important for the work at the university.
• The position may come to include administrative duties within the faculty.

 Qualifications Required:

• PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, computer science, mathematics or similar subject of relevance for the position.
• Research Expertise and Teaching Expertise. It is necessary that the pedagogical skills, the research expertise and the professional skills are relevant to the content of the employment and the tasks that will be included in the employment.
• Applicants must have completed teacher training of relevance to operations at the University, comprising ten weeks, or have acquired the equivalent knowledge. If special circumstances apply, this training for teachers in higher education may be completed during the first two years of employment.
• Documented ability to teach in Swedish or English is a requirement. 
• Personal capabilities necessary to carry out fully the duties of the appointment.

Assessment Criteria/Ranking of applicants that fulfil the above-mentioned qualifications required:
The ranking of eligible applicants will be based primarily on research and teaching expertise, of which weight will be primarily given to research expertise.

Research Expertise comprises research merits. In addition to academic merits, research merits from other activities, including technology development, may also be taken into account including research merits obtained outside the academy, which includes for example technology development and innovation ability. In assessing research expertise research quality must be the prime consideration. The scope of research, primarily in regard to depth and breadth must also be afforded consideration. In assessing research expertise, special weight will be attached to research merits in bioinformatics. Additional weight is given to research merits in methods development, AI methods, machine learning, multi-omics analysis, and structure-based calculations.

Furthermore, consideration must be given to the capacity to plan, initiate, lead, and develop research and education in the third cycle, the ability to acquire funding for research in competition, as well as the demonstrated capacity to interact with others both within academia and in the wider community.

Teaching Expertise comprises educational and teaching qualifications. This expertise can have been achieved outside the academy through supervision, internal training, mentoring programs, etc. In assessing teaching expertise teaching quality must be the prime consideration. The scope of teaching experience, in terms of both breadth and depth, must also be afforded consideration. In assessing teaching expertise special weight will be given to merits in the areas of bioinformatics and algorithmics.

Furthermore, consideration must be given to the capacity to plan, initiate, lead, and develop teaching and instruction, as well as the ability to connect research to teaching in respect to research in the subject at hand, subject didactics, as well as teaching and learning in higher education. The ability to interact concerning issues of teaching and learning in higher education with actors inside and outside the University is also included in teaching expertise.

Administrative Expertise is important for the employment and will be given high consideration.Administrative expertise is demonstrated, for example, through the capacity to plan, organise, and prioritise work in an efficient and task-related manner as well as through the ability to assign and observe time frames. Expertise includes overall operational planning and the capacity to manage resources in a way that reflects operational priorities as well as the ability to work in a structured manner based on an awareness of goals and quality.

Management Expertise is important and will be afforded high consideration. Management expertise is demonstrated through the capacity to lead operations and personnel, make decisions, take responsibility, and motivate others, providing them with what is needed for the efficient achievement of common goals. The abilities to coordinate the group and help create a sense of involvement, participation, and enjoyment in work and to deal with conflicts constitute further examples of demonstrated expertise.

Collaboration Expertise is important and will be afforded high consideration. Collaborative expertise is demonstrated by the ability and skill of planning, organizing and implementing interaction with the surrounding community. The ability to translate knowledge sharing with the surrounding community into activities of importance to the education's development and quality is part of the collaboration expertise.

All merits must be documented in a manner that makes it possible to assess both quality and scope.

In filling this position the university aims to appoint the applicant who, following a qualitative holistic assessment of her/his competence and expertise, is judged to have the best potential to carry out and develop the relevant duties and to help advance operations.

Further information:
An applicant who is offered an employment as Associate Professor can be promoted to Professor if he/she has applied for this, is qualified for such a post, and moreover has been deemed suitable on the basis of the specific criteria established by the faculty board.

In an overall assessment of the applicant’s qualifications, parental leave, part-time work relating to care of children, union assignments, military service, or the like are to be regarded as work experience.

University appointment regulations

Faculty appointment regulations

Instructions for application

About the position:
The position is permanent. Full time position. Starting date by agreement. Placement: Uppsala

For further information about the position, please contact professor Bengt Persson, 070-4250 230, Bengt.Persson@icm.uu.se

Please submit your application by 26 August 2024, UFV-PA 2024/2157.

If you are an international candidate, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus.