Open position: Postdoctoral Researcher

October 31, 2022

Postdoctoral Researcher to the ‘Population Mental Health’ research group led by Prof. Markus Jokela at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki.

The postdoc will be part of the consortium “Social networks, fertility and wellbeing in ageing populations: Building demographic resilience in Finland” (NetResilience), funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland. NetResilience investigates how social networks vary between regions and demographic groups and over time, and how they affect fertility, active ageing, individual wellbeing, and demographic resilience. It brings together leading scholars from social science, psychology, ecology, and computer science in Finland, and is directed by Prof. Antti O. Tanskanen (University of Turku).

The postdoc hired here will focus on geographical variations in subjective wellbeing, family relations, social activity, and population development (e.g., fertility rates and migration patterns) in Finland. The aim is to better understand how different individual, social, and regional factors contribute to people’s wellbeing and to differences in regional development at the level of municipalities. The data come from national surveys and population registries.

The person chosen to the position is expected to participate in research of the NetResilience research plan and to develop their own research projects related to the aims of NetResilience. In addition to the main focus on research, work tasks may include some teaching responsibilities (maximum of 5% of working time). In strategic research consortia, societal interaction has a central role, and NetResilience offers excellent opportunities to gain experience also in societal impact of research.

The contract is for a fixed term period until 30.9.2024 (with a possibility for an extra 3 years, pending the second consortium funding round). The postdoc is expected to begin in the project 1st of January 2023, or as soon as possible

Requirements

The person chosen for the position is expected to have a PhD from a relevant field (e.g. psychology, demography, sociology, geography); strong skills in quantitative methods; experience in using large and complex datasets; the ability to conduct independent scholarly work; and to publish research on the topics related to the project. Successful applicants have strong research orientation and fluency in English. Expertise with multilevel modeling is particularly helpful. Regarding statistical software, we prefer Stata, R, and/or Python.