We are offering two PhD fellowships in the broad interdisciplinary area of critical data studies/science and technology studies commencing 1 April 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter. These PhD positions form part of a larger project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) about what drives the establishment of cross-border data infrastructures and how they affect everyday healthcare.
Our group and research The positions are situated at Center for Medical Science and Technology Studies (MeST), which is a research center with approximately 35 researchers working with STS and medical humanities questions, and located in the Section for Health Services Research, which means we are interested in implications for the healthcare system. It provides a stimulating and cross-disciplinary environment for understanding the social dynamics of research and clinical practice, drawing upon a wide range of methods.
The two positions form part of a larger project called DataSpace, managed by Professor Klaus Hoeyer. DataSpace proposes a new conceptualization of how the pursuit of health is shaped by data. Healthcare is increasingly datafied and a wide range of actors – patients, clinicians, administrators, policymakers and industry – want to be able to exchange and access health data across national boundaries. Competing initiatives for fostering cross-border data integration proliferate, and the EU provides major investments, e.g. through the European Health Data Space (EHDS). These massive investments will influence healthcare, administration and research, but we do not know how.
DataSpace explores what is driving the establishment of cross-border health- data infrastructures, which types of infrastructures are being established, with which implications for whom, and for what comes to be included and acted upon in relation to health, organizational performance, and health policy. Furthermore, these investments emerge in tandem with wider social changes where data have become constitutive for the lives we can live. With DataSpace we therefore explore and conceptualize how people experience themselves and the world around them with and through data.
We take the term ‘space', empirically present in the EHDS initiative, and reinvigorate it theoretically to establish a vocabulary fitted for understanding data-intensive health environments. We suggest seeing data spaces as having both formative and experiential dimensions and explore how they interact. Concerning the formative dimensions, data spaces are enacted through promises, work, and users. Four experiential dimensions relate to what is experienced as right (legally and morally), true (epistemologically), present (phenomenologically) and valuable (economically, emotionally, and socially). This theoretical approach provides a new understanding of how patients, clinicians, researchers, administrators, and industry shape healthcare with and through data.
Throughout the project we share and compare our materials. It is therefore important that you feel comfortable with collaborative work.
Information about the department can be found at: https: // publichealth.ku.dk/.
1. Position: Patient journeys and data journeys across European borders This PhD focuses on the establishment of publicly initiated cross-border data infrastructures, in particular the European Health Data Space (EHDS), with a particular attention to how patients travel with and without patient data, how they experience and problematize data exchanges, and how the interaction with the health services unfold. How and when do data become present in their pursuit of health? This means that this position forefronts what we above spoke about as the dimension of experience we might associate with the sense of presence and phenomenology.
Candidate profile : We are looking for an emphatic researcher who finds joy in good thinking and who moreover has the following competencies and experiences:
Essential experience and skills:
Desirable experience and skills:
Principal supervisor is Professor Klaus Hoeyer, Department of Public Health, [email protected], direct phone +45 3532 7996. Among co-supervisors we expect Dr Alexandra Middleton. Others may be suggested.
2. Position: The making of data infrastructures in and beyond the EU This PhD position focuses on the establishment of cross-border data infrastructures for sharing health data, looking at, for example, public, non- profit organisations and/or commercial companies for whom health data is the main asset. It might also include the companies producing software for or wanting to use data made available from other initiatives, e.g., the EHDS. The position will identify and investigate health data infrastructures operating across borders. It also focuses on how members of these organisations (and, depending on your interests, the people whose data they use) valuate these initiatives: which types of valuation shape their commitments? This means that this position forefronts what we above spoke about as the dimension of experience we might associate with valuations (economically, emotionally, and socially).
Candidate profile : We are looking for an emphatic researcher who finds joy in good thinking and who moreover has the following competencies and experiences:
Essential experience and skills:
Desirable experience and skills:
Principal supervisor is Professor Klaus Hoeyer, Department of Public Health, [email protected], direct phone +45 3532 7996. Among co-supervisors we expect Dr Clémence Pinel. Others can be suggested.
Start: 1 April 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter Duration: 3 years as a PhD student
Job description Your key tasks as a PhD student at SUND are:
Key criteria for the assessment of applicants Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master's degree related to the subject area of the project. Please note that your master's degree must be equivalent to a Danish master's degree (two years).
Other important criteria are:
Place of employment The place of employment is at the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment.
Terms of employment The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.
The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years. The start date is 1 April 2024, or after agreement.
The employment is conditioned upon the applicant's successful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant prior to enrolment.
The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty's rules on achieving the degree.
Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 28,990 DKK/Roughly 3,887 EUR (October 2023 level) plus pension.
Questions For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor. In order to qualify your application, we suggest that you request a copy of an article outlining the theoretical framework guiding the project from Professor Klaus Hoeyer: [email protected].
General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School's website: https: // healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/.
Application procedure Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now' below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format:
1. Motivated letter of application stating your specific interests and which of the positions you are applying for as well as how you suggest approaching the project. Here you need to indicate who and what you want to study. This letter is important in articulating your interests and your ideas on what you might want to do and why you are well placed to do it given your skill set (max. two pages). If you wish to apply for both positions, you will need to specify you approach to each position (and can use half a page extra).
2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master's degree must be equivalent to a Danish master's degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https: // ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find- assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science
4. Publication list (if relevant)
Application deadline: 17 December 2023, 23.59pm 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.
The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.
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 find information about the recruitment process at: https: // employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/
The applicants will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.
The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.