PhD Candidate within Social and Environmental Psychology

About the position

RAINFOREST: Coproduced transformative knowledge to accelerate change for biodiversity – PhD position at the Department of Psychology

The Department of Psychology has a vacancy for a PhD candidate within Social and Environmental Psychology. The position is resident at NTNUs campus in Trondheim. It is an educational position, which will provide promising research talents the opportunity for professional development towards a PhD-degree. The position is connected to the PhD program at the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences.

You will report to the Head of Department.

The position is created to strengthen the focus area “sustainable consumption” within the Environmental Psychology group at NTNU “Citizen, Environment, and Safety” (CES). The group is one of the leading groups on environmental psychological research in Europe leading and co-leading numerous international and interdisciplinary projects across a large variety of thematic areas. 

The EU project RAINFOREST, which this PhD position is connected to, focuses on human consumption, production, and trade of food and biomass as the main underlying causes of biodiversity loss. In addition to several European countries such as Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Norway, there will be case studies located in Brazil and Peru, hence the project has a global scope. 

The role of this PhD in the project is to focus on the human dimension within the consumption life cycle, hence decision making and behaviour change. Together with the interdisciplinary consortium in the project, the candidate is expected to collaborate with retailers in Norway to develop case study experiments in which the effect of a selection of interventions shall be evaluated.  The aim of the interventions is to reduce the impact of consumer decision making on biodiversity and could for example focus on meat consumption (but also other product categories such as dairy, coffee, alcohol or local and seasonal produce).

The PhD candidate will apply knowledge from social and environmental psychology to develop an appropriate (mixed methods) study design in collaboration with respective retailers to answer the core research questions: 

• Which interventions to minimize biodiversity impact of consumer decisions are acceptable and feasible from a consumer, retailer and stakeholder perspective?
• Which intervention has the strongest effect on biodiversity impact of consumer decisions and why?
• What are potential barriers and limitations for scaling up these interventions in Norway and internationally?

For the case studies, a combination of methods can be applied such as interviews, focus groups, surveys or observations. Activities the successful candidate will be involved in include interactions with project partners and stakeholders, data collections, subsequent data analysis and the development of scientific publications. In addition to the case studies, the candidate is expected to feed into other work packages in the project to represent the behavioral science perspective. The candidate is encouraged to shape the project description according to their own strengths and further to co-develop the process together with project partners and stakeholders working in this project.

The position will strengthen NTNU’s international collaboration profile and to demonstrate the wide applicability of psychology and behavioral science. 

Duties of the position

• The PhD fellowship holder is expected to work on the RAINFOREST project (Coproduced transformative knowledge to accelerate change for biodiversity)
• The PhD is expected to complete the necessary doctoral coursework.
• The PhD is expected to conduct research and apply methods in line with the project description, publish, and write publishable papers that constitute the requirement for the PhD position.
• The PhD is expected to collaborate with his/her fellow project partners across disciplines and beyond academia

Required selection criteria

• You must have a professionally relevant background in social and/or environmental psychology
• Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master’s level
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master’s degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU’s grading scale . If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
• Master’s students can apply, but the master’s degree must be obtained and documented by 01.11.2022.
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty’s doctoral program

The appointment is to be made in accordance with Regulations on terms of employment for positions such as postdoctoral fellow, Phd candidate, research assistant and specialist candidate  and Regulations concerning the degrees of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) and Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) in artistic research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Preferred selection criteria

• Excellent written and oral English language skills, ideally supported by evidence. The following tests can be used as a documentation: TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE), or Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE).
• Level 2 or higher in any of the Scandinavian languages, especially for community and stakeholder interaction is appreciated but not obligatory.
• The position also requires excellent skills for working in a large team and across disciplines as well as experiences with communicating scientific content outside the own discipline and outside academia.
• Previous experience in quantitative methods, survey design and analysis, qualitative data collection and analysis are considered beneficial.
• Interest and relevant experience in consumer decision making and biodiversity impact.
• The ability to carry out and finish projects successfully will be given weight.

Personal characteristics

Personal qualifications which we see contributing positively to the research team are independence, work capacity and enthusiasm. We are also looking for candidates with social skills benefiting the work environment for the PhD candidate and in general.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal suitability, in terms of the qualification requirements specified in the advertisement.

Emphasis will be placed on personal and interpersonal qualities.

We offer

Salary and conditions

As a PhD candidate (code 1017) you are normally paid from gross NOK 501 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The period of employment is 3 years.

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD programme in social and educational sciences (https://www.ntnu.edu/studies/phsv/psychology)  within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD programme during the employment period.

The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants , and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU. 

After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution on a daily basis.

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English.

Publications and other scientific work must follow the application. Please note that your application will be considered based solely on information submitted by the application deadline. You must therefore ensure that your application clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience fulfil the criteria specified above.

The application must include: 

• CV and certificates
• transcripts and diplomas for bachelor’s and master’s degrees. If you have not completed the master’s degree, you must submit a confirmation that the master’s thesis has been submitted.
• A copy of the master’s thesis. If you recently have submitted your master’s thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed master’s degree must be presented before taking up the position.
• Project proposal
• Name and contact information of three referees
• If you have publications or other relevant research work

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor’s and master’s education, in addition to other higher education. This must be documented by NOKUT. Description of the documentation required can be found here .

We will take joint work into account. If it is difficult to identify your efforts in the joint work, you must enclose a short description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates. 

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – DORA.

General information

Working at NTNU

NTNU believes that inclusion and diversity is our strength. We want to recruit people with different competencies, educational backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to solving our social responsibilities within education and research. We will facilitate for our employees’ needs.

NTNU is working actively to increase the number of women employed in scientific positions and has a number of resources to promote equality.  (tas bort hvis ikke aktuelt)

The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the innovation capital of Norway with a population of 200,000. The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available. Furthermore, Trondheim offers great opportunities for education (including international schools) and possibilities to enjoy nature, culture and family life and has low crime rates and clean air quality.

As an employee at NTNU, you must at all times adhere to the changes that the development in the subject entails and the organizational changes that are adopted.

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you want to reserve yourself from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation . You will be notified if the reservation is not accepted.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Isabel Richter, e-mail Isabel.Richter@ntnu.no . If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Terese Brå, e-mail: terese.bra@ntnu.no .

If you think this looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates attached. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Upon request, you must be able to obtain certified copies of your documentation.  

Application deadline: 01.11.2022

NTNU – knowledge for a better world

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) creates knowledge for a better world and solutions that can change everyday life.

Department of Psychology

Our research and teaching are based on five perspectives: biological, cognitive, social, personality and developmental psychology. We offer a clinical programme in psychology as well as study programmes in the psychology of learning and in work and organizational psychology. We have also three outpatient clinics in which we treat patients as part of the clinical programme. The Department of Psychology  is one of seven departments in the Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences .

Deadline 1st November 2022
Employer NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Municipality Trondheim
Scope Fulltime
Duration Engagement
Place of service Dragvoll, Trondheim