The Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy

The University of Eastern Finland is inviting applications for a senior researcher, postdoctoral researcher or project researcher position in the Real4Reg-project at the School of Pharmacy, Kuopio campus. The position will be filled from 1 March 2024 (or as agreed) to 31 December 2026. The position is located in Kuopio, Finland. Please find more information below and submit your application no later than 15 January 2024.

 
Applicant´s role

As our new senior researcher, postdoctoral researcher or project researcher, you will be working at Professor Anna-Maija Tolppanen’s group and contribute towards successful completion of the “Development, optimisation and implementation of artificial intelligence methods for real world data analyses in regulatory decision-making and health technology assessment along the product lifecycle” project, funded by the Horizon Europe funding https://www.real4reg.eu/ . This project will run between 2023-2026 and it aims to provide solutions for the data analytical needs of health regulatory and health technology assessment bodies across the EU in the field of real-world data and synthetic data. The project is collaborative effort of European regulatory agencies, academic research institutions and patient organisations.

You will be responsible for conducting analyses and assisting in developing analytic scripts for pharmacoepidemiological analyses assessing drug utilisation and differences in confounder structure and accounting for these differences, as well as for performing statistical analyses on Finnish data, which are already available for analysis. In addition, you are expected to write these results to scientific publications, with support from our experienced research group. The project requires excellent statistical analysis skills and prior expertise in implementing propensity scores. In addition, you are expected to have good communication skills and ability to communicate with professionals from different scientific backgrounds, ranging from clinicians to computing scientists.

We are strictly looking for a candidate with clearly demonstrated excellent pharmacoepidemiological statistical analysis skills, but we are flexible on the academic qualifications and scientific background. Thus, we are open for applications from postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers.

More information about the principal investigators and the group:

Employment and salary

The position is filled for a fixed term from 1 March 2024  (or as agreed) until 31 December 2026. The position is a full-time position, and a probationary period of 6 months is applied to all new members of the staff.

The salary of the position is determined in accordance with the salary system of the Finnish universities. The salary comprises two components: a job requirement component and a personal performance component. The job requirement component is dependent on the candidate’s academic qualifications and expertise. A project researcher position is based on level 2-4 (2 225,83 – 2 775,28 €/month), post-doctoral researcher on level 5 (3 213,55 €/month) and  senior researcher on level 6-7  (3 747,44-4 320,23 €/month) for teaching and research staff. The personal performance component can be a minimum of 6 % and a maximum of 50 % of the above-mentioned sum. With personal performance component the indicative salary is between 2 440-3 330 €/month for project researcher, 3 530 –  3860 €/month for post-doctoral researcher and 4 120-5 184 €/month for senior researcher. The salary depends on the experience as well as personal performance and will be regularly evaluated during the project. The starting salary is based on experience and qualifications.

Expectations

• documented expertise in writing analytic scripts for pharmacoepidemiological data analysis with R or SAS (mandatory)
• excellent project management skills and commitment to timelines
• ability to communicate in written and spoken English, with experts from different scientific and professional backgrounds
• adaptability to work both independently and as a team member

Additional (non-mandatory) strengths of the applicant include prior expertise in handling Nordic register data, track record in scientific writing and prior experience in working with secure remote access environments.

The person to be appointed to the Postdoctoral Researcher is required to hold a doctoral degree in a suitable discipline (e.g. statistics, epidemiology, pharmacy). The person to be appointed to senior researcher position is expected to have doctoral degree in a suitable discipline and at least three years of post-doctoral work experience in a position relevant to the job description.

Your benefits 

You will have an opportunity to work as an integral part of multidisciplinary group with strong track record in international collaborations and RWE research. The project will provide you interesting analytical tasks, opportunities for improving the utilisation of real-world data in regulatory use as well as excellent collaboration and networking opportunities with the other consortium members including European regulatory agencies and research institutes. 

You will have access to the university’s staff benefits, including  
•    opportunity for flexible multi-location work
•    extensive occupational health care  
•    broad selection of staff training
•    staff discount on lunch in our campus restaurants, as well as on a range of other services  
•    affordable sports services and tax-free bike benefit 

Please read more in the Work at UEF section on our website.  

You will have an opportunity to work in an interesting/meaningful/diverse role as part of our international, creative, participatory and inclusive academic community.    

Enjoy your life in Finland! Known for its cleanliness, welfare know-how, modern technology and superb education system, Finland is an exotic and safe country to work in. Please visit the Life in Finland section on our website to learn more.    

How to apply? 

Submit your application by using our electronic application form no later than 15 January 2024 by 24:00 (midnight) Finnish time (UTC+2).

Please note that you must include the following appendices in your application

• a résume or CV (Template for researcher’s curriculum vitae | Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK)
• copy of the applicant’s highest academic degree certificate
• complete list of publications, articles relevant for this position highlighted https://www.aka.fi/en/research-funding/apply-for-funding/how-to-apply-for-funding/az-index-of-application-guidelines2/list-of-publications/
• motivation letter  listing describing your experience in pharmacoepidemiological data analysis and project management and other merits relevant for the position
• contact information of at least two reference persons
• other documents to demonstrate the applicant’s merits for the position

In addition, attachment of reference letter(s) is highly encouraged.

Questions? 

For further information on the position, please contact  Professor Anna-Maija Tolppanen,
tel. +358 29 445 4014, email. anna-maija.tolppanen@uef.fi

For further information on the application procedure, please contact HR Secretary, Sari Palviainen, email. sari.palviainen@uef.fi

The Faculty of Health Sciences operates at the Kuopio Campus of the University of Eastern Finland. The Faculty offers education in medicine, dentistry, nutrition and pharmacy, as well as in some other central fields of the health care sector. The Faculty is research-intensive, and its internationally recognised research activities are closely linked to the strategic research areas of the University. There are approximately 3 090 degree students and about 580 PhD students in the Faculty. The faculty has 800 staff members.

The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) is the most multidisciplinary university in Finland. Our university employs approximately 3,200 experts, and our community includes approximately 16,000 degree students and 16,000 adult education students. Our campuses are located in Joensuu and Kuopio. We represent the world’s cutting edge of research in many fields and produce research-based knowledge, which is made openly available to benefit everyone. Learn more about our university at www.uef.fi/en. Read also about UEF as a working community and employer and the career stories of our employees.

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