Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS)

The position

The Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS) has an open Postdoctoral Fellow position. NCLOS  was established on 1st of September 2013 and is a world leading research centre on law of the sea and ocean governance. The centre has an extensive national and international academic network. NCLOS is located at the Faculty of Law, UiT the Arctic University of Norway, in Tromsø. 

The Faculty of Law, has about 1000 law students, 25 PhD students, 40 members of the academic staff and 18 members of the administrative staff. The faculty may award the degrees of Master and PhD in law as well as the degrees of Master of Laws (LL.M.) in the Law of the Sea and Joint Nordic Master`s Programme in environmental law.

The position is affiliated with the national research program Arctic Ocean 2050.

The position is a fixed term position for a duration of three years. Appointment to the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow is mainly intended to provide qualification for work in top academic positions. The applicant must be able to carry out the project over the full course of the employment period. No person may hold more than one fixed term position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the same institution.

The position will additionally be assigned to teaching and related work for UiT in an amount equivalent to a maximum 20 % of a full-time employment.

The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. You must be able to start in the position within a reasonable time after receiving the offer.

Arctic Ocean 2050

The position is affiliated with the national research program Arctic Ocean 2050. The program brings together 18 Norwegian research institutions in a major interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at strengthening Norway’s knowledge base and strategic capacity in a rapidly changing Arctic Ocean. Its goals are to improve our understanding of the present-day Arctic Ocean and how it may change towards 2050, and develop the knowledge needed for future management, sustainable use, and a safe and secure region. The ten-year program (2026–2035) combines basic research, applied science, and innovation – offering unique opportunities for professional development and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Arctic Ocean 2050 focuses on processes within the central Arctic Ocean, its interactions with the surrounding seas, and how these dynamics connect to broader climatic and political systems. Field activities will primarily take place in the Eurasian Basin, between Fram Strait and the North Pole, as well as including the adjacent continental slopes. Pan-Arctic perspectives will be ensured through remote sensing, research on broader sociopolitical drivers, and modelling tools that cover the entire Arctic Ocean, and extensive international research collaboration.

As part of Arctic Ocean 2050, you will join an ambitious research environment with high societal relevance and the opportunity to contribute to new knowledge on some of the world’s most remote and important ocean regions.

The position’s field of research

NCLOS seeks to fill one postdoc position to contribute to the NCLOS research at the intersection of global and regional regimes, with particular focus on the Arctic.

Projects addressing one or more of the following themes will be preferred:

• The Arctic law and governance regime complex, and the interactions among existing legal instruments frameworks and bodies in times of geopolitical shifts.
• Sustainable conservation of Arctic resources, living or non-living, in the context of climatic changes.
• Climate interventions in the Arctic.
• Critical Arctic infrastructures and Law of the Sea.
• Arctic Geopolitics and its impact on the legal order of the sea.
• Regulating a “blue” Arctic ocean across sectors through ecosystem-based conservation.

Projects taking a doctrinal, contextual or critical theoretical and methodological approaches are equally welcome.

The candidate selected for employment must be willing to adjust her/his project proposals to the plans of the Centre.

Qualifications 

The applicant is required to hold a Norwegian doctoral degree in law or a corresponding foreign doctoral degree recognized as equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree.

When applying for a Postdoctoral Fellowship, the applicant shall submit a project proposal for the qualifying work. It should be 5-8 pages long. The proposal shall include a progress plan. It is required that the applicant will be able to complete the project during the period of appointment. In addition, he/she must be able to document proficiency in English equivalent to Norwegian Higher Education Entrance Qualification. The applicant must understand Norwegian or commit himself/herself to participate in the Norwegian Language Courses held by the University of Tromsø at the outset of the employment. Nordic applicants can document their capabilities by attaching their high school diploma.

In the assessment the main emphasis will be attached to the submitted works and the project proposal for the qualifying work. Emphasis shall also be attached to experience from popularization and dissemination and academic policy and administrative activity.

During the assessment emphasis will be put on the candidate’s motivation, potential for research, and personal suitability for the position.

At UiT we put emphasis on the quality, relevance and significance of the research work and not on where the work is published, in accordance with the principles of The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

Inclusion and diversity

UiT The Arctic University of Norway is working actively to promote equality, gender balance and diversity among employees and students, and to create an inclusive and safe working environment. We believe that inclusion and diversity are a strength, and we want employees with different competencies, professional experience, life experience and perspectives.

If you have a disability, a gap in your CV or immigrant background, we encourage you to tick the box for this in your application. If there are qualified applicants, we invite at least one in each group for an interview. If you get the job, we will adapt the working conditions if you need it. Apart from selecting the right candidates, we will only use the information for anonymous statistics.

We offer 

• Involvement in an interesting research project.
• Good career opportunities.
• A good academic environment with dedicated colleagues.
• Flexible working hours and a state collective pay agreement.
• Pension scheme through the state pension fund.

Norwegian health policy aims to ensure that everyone, irrespective of their personal finances and where they live, has access to good health and care services of equal standard. As an employee you will become member of the National Insurance Scheme which also include health care services.

More practical information about working and living in Norway can be found here: https://uit.no/staffmobility

Application  

Please note that the application will only be assessed based on the information submitted by the application deadline via Jobbnorge. It is therefore important that you include all necessary documents demonstrating your qualifications for the position.

Your application must include:

• Application letter.
• Project proposal (max. 5-8 pages).
• CV.
• Diploma for all degrees.
• Official transcripts of grades/academic record for all degrees.
• Explanation of the grading system for foreign education (Diploma Supplement if available).
• Documentation of English proficiency.
• 2-3 references with contact information.
• Documentation of teaching experience and qualifications, if applicable.
• A list of your academic production.
• Description of your academic production, stating which works you consider most important Academic works, up to ten. The doctoral thesis is regarded as one work.

You must submit a project proposal that describe how you scientifically can contribute to (the project/described field of research). The proposal must include a progress plan.

All documentation to be considered must be in a Scandinavian language or English. Diplomas and transcripts must also be submitted in the original language, if not in English or Scandinavian. If English proficiency is not documented in the application, it must be documented before starting in the position. 

If you have larger academic works that are submitted via link and should be assessed by the evaluation committee, we request that this is explicitly mentioned in the application.

Assessment

The applicants will be assessed by an expert committee. The committee's mandate is to undertake an assessment of the applicants' qualifications based on the written material presented by the applicants, and the detailed description draw up for the position. A copy of the assessment report will be sent to all applicants. 

The applicants who are assessed as best qualified will be called to an interview. The interview should among other things, aim to clarify the applicant’s motivation and personal suitability for the position. A trial lecture may also be held.

General information

The appointment is made in accordance with State regulations and guidelines at UiT. At our website, you will find more information for applicants.

The remuneration for Postdoctoral research fellow is in accordance with the State salary scale code 1352. A compulsory contribution of 2 % to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund will be deducted.

The successful candidate must be willing to get involved in the ongoing development of their department and the university as a whole.

We process personal data given in an application or CV in accordance with the Personal Data Act (Offentleglova). According to the Personal Data Act information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure. You will receive advance notification in the event of such publication, if you have requested non-disclosure.