Tenure Track Position in Arctic and Boreal Community Ecology and Global Change

Field and Location

The Faculty of Science of the University of Oulu announces a tenure-track opening for a researcher studying ecological communities in northern environments in relation to climate and land-use change. The position is based at the Department of Biology. A successful candidate is expected to focus on studies assessing the temporal variability of both natural and anthropogenically disturbed biological communities in terrestrial and/or freshwater ecosystems. He/she is expected to work in close collaboration with other community ecology research groups of the department but is also expected to establish his/her own research group with independent external funding. The candidate should have considerable merits in one (or more) of the disciplines appropriate for the call (ecology, limnology, biogeography). The applicant can be either a terrestrial or freshwater ecologists, with experience on either terrestrial vegetation or aquatic organisms. We also expect the applicant to have good skills in numerical ecology and/or statistical modeling.

The tenure track position is open to highly motivated individuals that hold a doctoral degree and have excellent potential for a successful scientific career. Based on the experience and competence, the successful applicant will be placed at Assistant Professor or Associate Professor level of the four-level tenure track system.

Job Responsibilities and Required Qualifications

A person at any level of the academic tenure track system is expected to conduct outstanding world-class scientific research, to be competitive in attracting outside funding, to publish in leading international journals, to teach, supervise at both graduate and undergraduate level, to be an active member of the international scientific community, and to exhibit academic leadership. Career advancement on the tenure track is based on regular performance assessment measuring the candidate’s merits in all these areas.

Required qualifications at each level of the tenure track system are following:

Assistant Professor:

The position of an assistant professor is for persons who have recently finished their doctoral dissertation and are advancing towards a professional research career. The position is always fixed-term and the duration varies from three to five years. A continuation period may be granted as indicated in the University of Oulu Tenure Track guidelines. Only doctors who have finished their doctoral thesis less than ten years ago can be appointed to the position of an assistant professor.

The selection criteria for an assistant professor are the following:

- research potential, (publications, especially internationally refereed publications; funding granted; connections with the international community in the field)

- research experience in abroad laboratories at some point of the research career

- demonstrable development is prerequisite for a continuation period.

Associate Professor:

When appointing a person to the position of an associate professor the applicants are evaluated based on the following criteria:

- Publications on an international level: number and quality of the publications, number of citations

- Active role in research training

- Acquisition of external funding

- Working in more than one research institute during the career (in most fields represented at the University of Oulu, this signifies working abroad)

- An active role in the international scientific community

- Acknowledgements and awards

The position of an associate professor is initially a fixed-term position for five years, but a continuation period may be granted or the position may be made permanent. Being granted continuation for the position requires meeting the above-mentioned criteria as well as successful research work as indicated in the University of Oulu Tenure Track guidelines.

Salary

The salary of the appointed researcher will be based on the demand level chart for the teaching and research staff of Finnish Universities. In addition to the basic salary of the appropriate tenure track level, supplementary salary bill be given for personal achievement and performance, the sum rising to a maximum of 46.3 % of the basic salary level for the post. The salary thus being roughly 3400 – 4600 euros per month for an assistant professor and 4000 - 5300 euros per month for an associate professor.

Applications

Applications, together with all relevant enclosures, should be sent to The Registry, The University of Oulu, PO Box 8000, 90014 University of Oulu, Finland, electronically to the e-mail kirjaamo@oulu.fi as a single pdf file, and must arrive no later than 3 p.m. on Monday 1st October 2012 local time.

The applications should be written in English and the following documents need to be submitted:

1) A brief curriculum vitae including

• name and year of birth
• degrees, dates and places, major subject, topic of doctoral dissertation
• present employment relationship with starting and ending dates
• most important posts and full-time positions with starting and ending dates
• scientific expert positions
• most important scientific positions of trust and administration with starting and ending dates
• most important foreign visits
• most important scientific acknowledgements and awards

2) Complete list of publications (indicating the ten most important publications)

3) Research plan (max 4 pages)

5) Description of teaching experience

6) Acquisition of research funds

7) List of previous and present doctoral students

8) Contact details of 2 to 4 persons available for recommendation

9) The total number of citations and h-index of the applicant based on both Web of Science and Google Scholar (Publish or Perish).

Evaluators

The selection procedure will be carried out by an Appointment Committee and the Research Council of the University of Oulu according to the University of Oulu Tenure Track guidelines.

Contact details

In order to receive the information and announcements concerning the official selection procedures to be followed in order to fill this post, applicants must inform the Faculty of their contact details for the whole duration of the selection process: they must specifically provide both their home and work telephone numbers, and their e-mail addresses, and their fax numbers, and their postal addresses.

For further information and enquiries about this post, and about the application and selection procedures, please contact:

Prof. Timo Muotka, Ph.D. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Oulu mailing address: P.O. Box 8000, FIN-90014 University of Oulu, FINLAND

street address: Pentti Kaiteran katu 1, Linnanmaa, Oulu, FINLAND Tel. +358-8-503505750 Fax +358-8-553 1061 e-mail: timo.muotka (at) oulu.fi

https://wiki.oulu.fi/display/AnimalEcology/Stream+Ecology+Group