Research Programme Coordinator, SAFIRE Programme

Faculty of Science

The University of Oulu is a multidisciplinary, international research university, with about 3,600 employees who produce new knowledge based on high-standards research and provide research based education to build a more sustainable, smarter, and more humane world. The University of Oulu community has about 17,000 people in total. Our northern scientific community operates globally and creates conditions for the emergence of innovations.  

Research Programme Coordinator

Full-time fixed term position ending 31st December 2029. The coordinator will work in the research programme “SAFIRE: Safeguarding Biodiversity through Interdisciplinary Research on Habitat Restoration”, which is part of a national profiling actions funded by the Research Council of Finland. SAFIRE is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research programme led by the Faculties of Science, Technology, and Humanities at the University of Oulu. The wider profiling action programme involves other faculties.

SAFIRE will hire and support a team of new researchers (3 at Associate or Assistant Professor levels, plus at least 5 post-doctoral researchers or PhD students). The programme will engage research and impact activities in relation to ecosystem restoration, especially in the Arctic, through natural science, social science and humanities, and engineering research. It will also engage and co-produce knowledge and solutions with societal actors. SAFIRE will carry out different actions to strengthen collaboration between existing employees of Oulu University. It will also support Oulu University employees associated with SAFIRE to build meaningful relationships with societal actors linked to research and impact.

About the job

Primary responsibilities of the coordinator include:

• Planning and implementing the programme activities (promoting inter- and multidisciplinary research and other activities) in close collaboration with the SAFIRE leaders, steering committee, research groups, the recruited researchers, and the wider university community. Taking care of the annual reporting and the indicator follow-ups.
• Assisting and organizing the recruitment processes together with the human resources office.
• Liaising with the profiling programmes administration, coordinators, faculties (research coordinators and managers), participating research units, Centers for multidisciplinary research and the University of Oulu Graduate School (UniOGS).
• Supporting the integration of SAFIRE within the strategy of the faculties and the University of Oulu.
• Supporting integration with national and international universities.
• Supporting integration and liaison with societal actors (organisations, groups, etc).
• Assisting and planning the programme’s financial and budgetary aspects together with the programme leader, steering committee, and the controllers. Assisting with procurements and filling out travel invoices.
• Communications planning and implementation (website updates, PR, meeting minutes). Advertising and representing the programme in Finland and beyond.
• Organizing and participating in national and international meetings and science policy events related to the programme.
• Organizing the programme management board and steering committee meetings and taking care of the meeting minutes.
• Other duties associated with managing interdisciplinary research initiatives.

Note: While the official operating language of the University of Oulu is Finnish, the University has a large international, non-Finnish-speaking population. Finnish language skills are considered an advantage for the job, definitely not a requirement. Securing a work visa for this position is not expected to be challenging for US citizens (who can bring their families with them).