Post Doc in Regulatory Science

The Copenhagen Centre for Regulatory Sciences (CORS), Department of Pharmacy is offering a 1½ year fulltime Postdoc fellowship in Regulatory Science on a project aiming at developing an infrastructure for real-time analytics of medicine regulatory processes.

The fellowship is available from May 1, 2021 or the soonest possible thereafter.

CORS

We offer an interesting and challenging job in at CORS, an international cross-disciplinary research environment spanning pharmacy, humanities, law, and social science. At CORS, we strive for academic excellence, collegial respect, and freedom tempered by responsibility. With its research, CORS seeks to improve the drug regulatory system, by systematically studying its structure and behaviour as well as designing new tools to facilitate regulatory decision-making. Through improvement of the drug regulatory system, we aim to contribute to an improvement of the health of the society.

You can read more about CORS here: https://cors.ku.dk/ 

Project description

Regulatory science often use data captured in existing, publicly accessible government sites. These data capture many attributes of a medicine regulatory processes and drug development, ranging from clinical trial information to post-marketing assessments of safety and effectiveness, risk management plans, regulatory review, and agency interactions.

However, this information is typically spread across multiple documents, much still in unstructured formats, making data collection cumbersome and time-consuming and making it challenging to link information, and sometimes also to validate the accuracy of the data.

This project aims at exploring the feasibility, sustainability and usability of creating and maintaining a regulatory science database that in a (semi-) automated manner by collecting unstructured data from public available regulatory resources and transform them in structured data ready to be sequentially analysed.

The database should support the development of a publicly available user interface (e.g., dashboard) to conduct (near) real-time descriptive analytics of regulatory documents.

Novo Nordisk A/S finances the fellowship.

Your job

Your key tasks as a postdoc at the Faculty are to:

• Develop a publicly available user interface (e.g., dashboard) to conduct (near) real-time descriptive analytics of regulatory documents
• Write scientific manuscripts on the grounds of your research results
• Participate in Center activities
• Participate in national and international conferences and scientific meetings
• Participate in teaching activities at the department
• Co-supervise PhD and MSc students 

Profile

The postdoc will address challenges of and develop new AI-driven techniques for text analytics within one or several of the following topics:

• Knowledge extraction and classification with word embedding and machine learning
• Deep learning techniques for sentiment analysis and topic modelling
• Multi-document summarization and conversational systems

Therefore, we are looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic scientist with the following competencies and experience:

Essential experience and skills:

• You have obtained a relevant PhD degree prior to the starting date
• A solid background in natural language processing or text analytics is essential, and good programming skills are required. Experience with NLP techniques like sentiment analysis, or summarization is useful, and a solid understanding of machine learning, linked data and information retrieval is assumed.
• Proficient communication skills and ability to work in teams
• Excellent English skills, written and spoken

Preferred qualifications

• A PhD degree in Computer and Information Science or equivalent is preferable, as well as a strong publication record.
• Experience with international research projects is preferable.

Place of employment

The place of employment is at the department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment.

We offer an informal and friendly workplace with dedicated colleagues that teamwork for tackling academic challenges.

Terms of employment

The employment as postdoc is a full time position for 1½ years. Starting date is 1 May 2021 or as soon as possible thereafter

Salary, pension and terms of employment will be in accordance with the agreement between the Danish Ministry of Finance and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations). Currently, the monthly salary starts at 34,600 DKK/ approx. 4,650 Euro (April 2020-level). Depending on qualifications, a supplement may be negotiated. The employer will pay an additional 17.1 % to your pension fund.

Non-Danish and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions, if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark the last 10 years.

Questions

For further information you may contact project leaders Associate professor Christine Erikstrup Hallgreen, christine.hallgreen@sund.ku.dk and Assistant professor Maurizio Sessa, maurizio.sessa@sund.ku.dk.

Applicants may find this link useful: www.ism.ku.dk (International Staff Mobility).

Application procedure

Your online application, in English, must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now’.           

Your application must include the following documents/attachments – all in PDF format:

• Cover letter (approx. one page) describing your background, qualifications, interest and motivation for applying for this position
• CV, incl. education, work/research experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
• A certified/signed copy of a) PhD certificate and b) Master of Science certificate. If the PhD is not completed, a written statement with defence date from the supervisor will do.
• Other information for consideration, e.g. list of publications and relevant certificates
• Names and contact details of references and/or recommendation letters

Deadline for application

21 February 2021, 23:59 CET.

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process           

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor. Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can read about the recruitment process at https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held in the end of March

University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, gender, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation. Appointment will be based on merit alone.

Part of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), and among Europe’s top-ranking universities, the University of Copenhagen promotes research and teaching of the highest international standard. Rich in tradition and modern in outlook, the University gives students and staff the opportunity to cultivate their talent in an ambitious and informal environment. An effective organisation – with good working conditions and a collaborative work culture – creates the ideal framework for a successful academic career.