Postdoctoral Fellow in Machine Learning and Digital Health Services for Frail Older People

About The Position

We offer an exciting 3-year postdoctoral position that provides an excellent opportunity to develop a strong independent research profile. You will work in a highly internationally oriented research environment, bringing together expertise from medicine and health sciences, information technology, and the humanities. With a growing proportion of older adults in the population, there is an increasing need for sustainable health services for individuals at risk of frailty, or living with frailty. Frailty is a complex age-related condition characterized by cumulative decline across multiple physiological systems, leading to increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes and mortality.

About The Project

The Digi-FrailCare project aims to innovate healthcare services by developing digital solutions that facilitate collaboration among healthcare professionals, support decision-making and personalized interventions, and promote the prevention and early identification of frailty. The work spans medical, technological, and social science domains, reflecting the disciplinary backgrounds of the researchers involved and their respective faculties. The project will contribute to the development of future interdisciplinary models of care for frailty, with the goal of improving health and functional outcomes in older adults as part of building sustainable health services for the future.

Duties of the position

The main responsibility of the postdoctoral fellow is to develop analytic models for identifying early signs of frailty, using data from the HUNT Study and relevant register data. The analyses will include large-scale epidemiological health data as well as daily life activity data collected using wearable sensors, with a strong emphasis on the application of machine learning methods. In collaboration with the rest of the project team, the postdoctoral fellow will investigate key factors relevant to the development of a digitalised model for assessment and follow-up of individuals at risk of frailty or who have developed frailty. The postdoctoral fellow will be affiliated with the Geriatrics, Movement Science, Stroke and Rehabilitation (GeMS-R) research group at the Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science. This interdisciplinary group includes movement scientists, physiotherapists, engineers, physicians, and technical staff. As a postdoctoral fellow, you are expected to lead and contribute to scientific publications, participate in popular science dissemination, and actively engage in project meetings, collaborations, and reporting activities.

Required Selection Criteria

• You must have completed a PhD in engineering or computer science, or an equivalent foreign doctoral degree recognised as comparable to a Norwegian PhD.
• Competence in developing and applying machine learning methods
• Good oral and written presentation skills in English
• Demonstrated competence in developing and applying machine learning methods (e.g. publications, open source code)

Preferred Selection Criteria

• Experience working in interdisciplinary research projects
• Experience working with health data
• Good oral and written presentation skills in Norwegian/Scandinavian

Working as a Postdoctoral fellow requires that you

• Work independently as well as part of a team
• Work structured, set goals and make plans to achieve them
• Show curiosity and a strong motivation for the subject
• Analyze data, assess different perspectives and draw well‑foundated conclusions
• Engage and contribute constructively with feedback
• Are flexible and open to adjusting the plan for the project as needed

Emphasis will be placed on personal qualities.

We offer

• Exciting and challenging tasks in a strong, international academic environment
• Open and inclusive working environment with committed colleagues
• Career guidance throughout the postdoctoral program and together with you we will prepare a career plan, which contains the skills and knowledge you will acquire
• Mentor programme as a new employee at NTNU
• Favorable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Free Norwegian language training at a basic level (A2)

As a Postdoctoral Fellow at NTNU, you will have access to employee benefits.

Diversity

Diversity is a strength, and at NTNU we aim to be an employer that reflects the diversity in society and that makes use of the potential of the population's collective skills. Our vision is Knowledge for a better world and our values are creative, critical, constructive and respectful. We believe that an organization that is equal, diverse and gender‑balanced is essential for us to achieve our goals. We strive to attract employees with different skills, life experiences and p