Postdoctoral Researcher/Research Associate (Data Analytics)
In conjunction with the College of Engineering & Informatics,
The Insight Centre for Data Analytics,
The Ryan Institute, and
The School of Medicine
NUIG 145-15
Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for a fixed-term 12-month contract position for a Postdoctoral Researcher/Research Associate (Data Analytics) with theCollege of Engineering and Informatics (Information Technology), the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, The Ryan Institute, and the School of Medicine at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
About the post:
The researcher will join the interdisciplinary PANDEM project team, which is performing leading edge research on discovering innovative ways to protect the health and security of citizens in the EU in the face of pandemic threats. PANDEM, funded through the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, will contribute to the reduction in the adverse health, socio-economic and security consequences of future pandemics, so that society will be better prepared at regional, national, EU and global level. PANDEM will assess current pandemic preparedness and response tools, systems and practice at national, EU and global level in priority areas including risk assessment and surveillance, communication and public information, governance and legal frameworks.
The post will focus on supporting the task of integrated gap analysis for pandemic responses, and the need to identify improvements and specify the requirements of effective and responsive integrated solutions. A key aspect of the post will be to review best-practice surveillance information systems, and analyse the potential for advances in the field of digital disease detection in the following areas:
- Data models of health indicators,
- Processes for obtaining data (e.g. role of standards, data transfer protocols, security considerations, data quality),
- System architectures for disease surveillance
- Visualization approaches and standards,
- Alerting algorithms (including automated analysis of social media streams) for analyzing surveillance data, and
- Risk surveillance models for assessing potential likelihood outcomes of early pandemic-like activity
- Collaboration and communication between surveillance users, across borders and between sectors
- Information system training requirements, in terms of key stakeholders from health agencies, security agencies, civil protection
The role will also involve the design and implementation of decision support dashboards (e.g. using R components such as RShiny and ggviz) for presenting public health and security-related data, and also providing input to the design of the project’s roadmap and future demonstrator efforts.
Eligibility:
- PhD Degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Bioinformatics, Statistics, Data Analytics, Information Technology, or related discipline.
- Excellent written and oral English skills
- Good interpersonal skills and a strong team player.
- Ability to work in an interdisciplinary context, spanning computer science, public health and epidemiology.
- Good knowledge of system analysis and data modelling principles, for example:information systems design, data analytics.
- Demonstrable track record and technical competence in a data analytics framework such as R, Python or linked data.
- Experience in design of interactive information dashboards and visualisation of public health/related data.
Salary:€37,750 per annumStart date: January 1st 2016
Further information on research and working at NUI Galway is available on Research at NUI Galway.
For information on moving to Ireland please see
Informal enquiries about this post can be made to Dr. Jim Duggan or Dr. Conor Hayes ()
To Apply:
Applicants should send a covering letter, detailed CV and the names and addresses of at least three referees via e-mail (in Word or PDF format only) to:
Applicants must put Ref. No. NUIG 145-15in subject line of e-mail application.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 5pm (GMT) on Friday December 11th 2015.
National University of Ireland, Galway is an equal opportunities employer
.