Fakultet for samfunnsvitenskap (SAM)

Oslo Metropolitan University is Norway's third largest university with almost 22,000 students and over 2,500 employees. We have campuses in central Oslo and at Romerike. OsloMet educates students and conducts research that contributes to the sustainability of the Norwegian welfare state and the metropolitan region.

Faculty of Social Sciences offers study programmes within archivistics, library and information science, journalism and media studies, social work, social policy and child welfare, public management and business.

The faculty has about 4200 students and nearly 280 members of staff.

The Department has around 600 students and 40 employees and is located at the OsloMet Pilestredet Campus in Oslo. Multiple programs are offered through the department, including Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral programs in Library and Information Science and a Bachelor’s program in Archivistics and Records Management.

Oslo Metropolitan University - Externally funded research project

OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University is Norway’s third largest university, with nearly 22,000 students and more than 2,200 employees. OsloMet has a dynamic stimulating research intensive academic environment and an attractive employment framework. OsloMet is a diverse and urban university with an international profile; its main campus is in the city centre, providing a vibrant setting to study, conduct research, and work.  

Call for Expression of Interest for a joint application under the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme – Call: MSCA-PF-2023

Hereby OsloMet invites interested experienced researchers of any nationality, who have a PhD degree and maximum eight (8) years of research experience after having obtained the PhD degree, to apply for the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Postdoctoral Fellowship (call HORIZON-MSCA-PF-2023) to conduct research at OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University for a period of two years.

Research Group for Information in Use (INFUSE)

OsloMet’s research group INFUSE investigates use of information at work, everyday-life, studies, and leisure. The research group’s overall aim is to develop understanding of people’s use of information and its prerequisites in various situations and contexts. Within INFUSE research, information use in viewed as a ubiquitous phenomenon per se within private and public sector environments. The interdisciplinary studies focus on how use of information and interaction with information resources infuse, facilitate, frame, and form individual behaviour, social interactions and/or societal infrastructures, and connect and contribute to fields such as Information Behaviour, Information Systems, Human Computer Interaction, Information/Knowledge Management, Digital Information Environments, Information Literacy and Workplace Learning. The group has diverging composition of members consisting of three full professors together with associate professors and PhD students. In addition, INFUSE host both long and short term national and international associates. INFUSE is based at the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science.

Area of research

March 2020 marks a milestone in work life. Prior to that, physical propinquity had been fundamental to the shaping and fortifying of countless work practices of white-collar workers, including those related to explicit information and tacit knowledge, rudiments in the knowledge-based approach to organizations. These practices have relied on the physical office as the archetype of the workplace; an understanding that now is challenged by the experiences of the all-digital workplace. Consequently, work practices adjust increasingly to hybrid modes impacting workplace’s information flows, both the trivial (e.g., friendly chats) and the critical (e.g., cross-boundary knowledge encounters), ultimately contributing to the availability and content of the workplace’s collective pool of knowledge. The detachment from shared physical workspaces has disrupted many existing information- and knowledge-sharing practices by accentuating the digital ones beside the on-site ones. These alterations re-organize information landscapes and make investigations of information and knowledge sharing in transformation from the perspectives of the individual and the work organization essential to facilitate the resilience of workplaces and work life.

The candidates are invited to address practices and mechanisms that foster or hamper information flows and access to knowledge at work as well as the enabling and challenging consequences among actors and stakeholders at the individual, organizational and/or societal level. Proposals may examine one or more workplaces or professional domains. Multinational, multilevel, and comparative research designs are particularly welcome.
 
The candidates may want to address questions such as: How is knowledge shared in hybrid workplaces? What are consequences of working less in co-located offices on workplace learning? How information flows cross between co-located and dis-located workspaces? How does structural changes of working affect information sharing and knowledge creation? How is understanding of shared information values and knowledge base generated in hybrid workplaces? What is the relationship between information flows and innovation in hybrid workplaces? How is interpersonal information and knowledge sharing facilitated over organizational boundaries in hybrid workplaces? How does information flows impact feelings of inclusion and work satisfaction in hybrid workplaces?

Successful candidates will be supervised by Professor Katriina Byström. She has 25 years’ experience studying the role of information and use of information sources for knowledge work, were editor and central author for “Information at Work – Information management in the workplace (Facet Publishing, 2019), and has over 3000 citations to her work (see profile in Google Scholar and WoS).

With this call for Expression of Interest, we invite researchers to submit their application accompanied by CV (including publication list) and a one-page project description, that will be the basis for selecting a maximum of two candidates with whom we will collaborate for developing competitive MSCA-PF proposals. The cooperation for the proposal development will be carried out remotely, with regular online communication via email and virtual meeting platforms. Applicants who are successful in getting their proposals funded by the EU, must relocate to work in the Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science, at OsloMet main campus, in the centre of Oslo.

Starting Date of the fellowship

The EU shall inform the results on the MSCA-PF-2023 applications in February 2024. Successful applicants are expected to be available to start the fellowship project from within the two months following the announcement of results and no later than summer 2024. 

Main duties of the position

The successful candidate will primarily work on the MSCA fellowship funded project, but will be integrated in the Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science in general, taking part in regular meetings and discussion groups, and in particular on activities of the research group INFUSE. The candidate will specifically be introduced with Prof. Byström’s national and international research networks. In agreement with the candidate, he/she will collaborate with and draw on Prof. Byström’s ongoing project “Peopleless Offices” and/or may be invited to participate in the development of grant applications.

Expected qualification of applicants 

Candidates must have a PhD in information studies, organizational studies or equivalent field in social sciences as a minimum requirement. We are primarily looking for experienced researchers who wish to use this period as an opportunity to further develop their research, and to develop longer term research collaborations with OsloMet and other organizations conducting research in the field. The candidates must be eligible for a MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship: have a PhD successfully defended by the submission deadline (mid-September 2023), a maximum of eight (8) years research experience after PhD, and not having worked/studied in Norway more than 12 months in the last three years.

We are looking for applicants who have

  • In-depth knowledge on roles of information and knowledge in individual and/or social contexts.
  • Good knowledge of research methods, quantitative or qualitative, for studying information interactions.
  • A good track record in research and publications.
  • Commitment to develop a competitive MSCA-PF grant application.
  • An open and cooperation-oriented nature, with strong abilities for independent academic work.
  • Excellent command / highly proficient spoken and written English.

Assessment and selection of candidates

Evaluation will be based on the qualification and project idea. Interested candidates must submit with their application the following documents:

  • CV (including research track record and list of publications)
  • A one-page description of the project idea for which a MSCA-PF grant will be applied (no predefined structure, excluding references)

Short-listed candidates will be invited for a virtual interview to select candidates that will be invited to develop the full MSCA-PF application with deadline by mid-September 2023 under the supervision of Prof. Byström and with the support of the professional research administration staff at OsloMet. 

Under this call announcement a maximum of five candidates will be interviewed and two candidates will be invited to write applications with the endorsement of OsloMet. Candidates will be informed of the results of the internal pre-selection and invitation to apply within the two weeks following the interview. 

Original documents about your qualification must be presented if you are invited for an interview. OsloMet performs document inspections in order to give you as a candidate a proper evaluation and to ensure a fair competition. Proposals will be pre-selected based on internal evaluation and the availability of suitable supervision. All documents that you hand in to OsloMet, including your proposal idea, will be handled in full confidentiality and in strict compliance with GDPR regulations.

Selected candidates must participate in the virtual masterclass on MSCA-PF, a two-day workshop organized by OsloMet on 19-20 April 2023 to provide applicants with detailed information and explanation of the application template to complete their proposal in compliance with the EU Commission requirements.

The postdoctoral position

Successful applicants who obtain a MSCA-PF grant will be offered a position at OsloMet to be hired as postdoctoral researchers to implement their proposed research projects, in conditions as explained below.

We offer

OsloMet assists in developing competitive MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship proposals. Then, to successful applicants who are awarded the MSC-PF grant, we offer:

  • Flexible working conditions
  • An inclusive and friendly work environment
  • Unique academic network with the possibility for the right candidate(s) to pursue his/her academic goals under the auspices of Prof. Byström
  • Norwegian language classes
  • Onboarding assistance for relocation and other services

The position adheres to the Norwegian Government’s policy that the national labour force. It is important for OsloMet to reflect the population diversity, all qualified candidates from any nationality are welcomed to apply. OsloMet is an IA (Inclusive Workplace) organization and operates in compliance with the Norwegian IA agreement. We make our active endeavour to further develop OsloMet as an inclusive workplace and to adapt the workplace if required. If there are periods in your career when you have not been working, under education or training, you are also eligible to apply. Questions may be directed to the contact persons (per below).

Remuneration

The competitive fellowship opportunities are 100% funded and include living and mobility allowances.

  • Type of employment: Temporary position
  • Contract type: Full time
  • Annual Salary: Approx. EUR 60,000
  • Starting day of employment: (expected): TBD between 1 April – 1 Sept 2024
  • Number of positions: 1 – 2
  • Working hours: 37.5 hours/week

OsloMet has implemented the Charter & Code for researchers and been granted the HR Excellence in Research (HRS4) by the EU Commission and is part of the EU network for mobility of Researchers EURAXESS. Practical information about relocation to OsloMet can be found here and EURAXESS Norway. 

Contact 

Hanna Karv, Head of Research Support, Faculty of Social Sciences, hanna.karv@oslomet.no
Katriina Byström, Professor, katriina.bystrom@oslomet.no
Address: Pilestredet 46, Oslo 0350, Norway

Last day of application

Call closes on 31. January 2023
Published: 21. December 2022
Reference number: 22/09122

Type of employment Temporary position (shorter than 10 days)
Contract type Full time
First day of employment Per agreement
Salary Annual Salary: Approx. EUR 60,000
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent 100%
City Oslo
County Oslo
Country Norway
Reference number 22/09122
Contact
  • Katriina Byström, +4767238036
  • Hanna Karv, +4767237148
Published 21.Dec.2022
Last application date 31.Jan.2023 11:59 PM CET

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