Research Assistants

Do you want to work in a leading international research institution with high academic standards and an interdisciplinary environment and contribute to a new and original area of research, developing forecasting systems and tool?

PRIO’s purpose is to conduct research for a more peaceful world, and we are committed to using the best of what technology has to offer in achieving that purpose. Having been at the forefront of data-driven social science research since its foundation in 1959, The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) is looking for up to three research assistants hired for one year, starting  in June 2023 or upon agreement. The Research Assistants’ time will be mainly split between high-profile projects, led by Research Professor Håvard Hegre:

“ANTICIPATE: Anticipating the Impact of Armed Conflict on Human Development” (https://www.prio.org/projects/1976 ) is financed by the European Research Council. ANTICIPATE develops the methodological foundation for establishing an early warning system for armed conflict and its impact.

“UFFAC: Uncertainty in the Forecasting of Armed Conflict” is financed by the Research Council of Norway, and explores methods to estimate and evaluate the uncertainty involved in forecasting armed conflict.

“VIEWS-PIN: People in Need” is financed by CRAF’d and seeks to expand the current VIEWS forecasting system to global coverage and to include the forecasts of impacts of armed conflict.

The projects are part of the VIEWS research consortium that is a collaboration between the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Department of Peace and Conflict Research (DPCR) at Uppsala University. With funding from the European Research Council, VIEWS (https://viewsforecasting.org/) has developed an armed conflict warning system. This system is currently being expanded to also forecast the impacts of armed conflict. To facilitate development of the system as well as monthly updates, VIEWS has developed an extensive codebase (https://github.com/prio-data/viewser).

The research assistants will contribute to the following areas of work:

• Web scraping, downloading, cleaning, processing, and aggregating datasets including satellite/spatial data, and ingesting into the VIEWS database
• Developing code and text presenting results for the forecasting system and research papers
• Data processing and programming in Python, contributing to the codebase for the production system and to code producing other project outputs
• Contributing to documentation of system as well as to other research outputs (e.g. papers/blog posts)
• Literature search and summaries, research into the background of actual conflicts
• Statistical analysis in Python
• Outreach activities such as arranging info sessions for users of the early-warning system
• Administrative tasks (budgeting, reporting, organizing conferences, etc.)

The job will provide very good experience with project work in a dynamic research group, data analysis, and the research process more generally. The RA will be able to work with an exciting topic, which can also, for example, serve as a starting point for the MA or PhD thesis.

Applicants are required the following qualifications:

• good English skills,
• experience with programming,
• a high degree of independence and willingness to work,
• interest in research in social science  (within the project's core area of conflict and human development research, but also in other areas of social sciences, or within statistics or computer science)
• good communication skills.

In addition, one or more following qualifications are desirable:

• Master degree in relevant field

• Good knowledge of Python and/or R
• Experience with using software for geographical processing of data (e.g. QGIS, R, CDO)
• Strong analytical skills and generally good understanding of the conflict research literature (or other relevant literatures)
• Good organizational and communication skills

The candidates should preferably have completed and be able to refer to good grades in research methods and statistics courses, but these are not formal requirements. For those currently enrolled in such courses and whom will complete these by June 2023, it will be possible to send documentation of grades as soon as these are ready.

PRIO is located in attractive premises in central Oslo. We offer salary according to qualifications, group life insurance, and membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund. PRIO has a dynamic work environment with an international staff of approximately 120 members in full and part-time positions. The working language at  PRIO is English. PRIO is an equal opportunity employer and values staff diversity.

Applications should be written in English and include:

• Letter of application.
• Curriculum vitae.
• Transcripts of academic degrees.
• Names and contact details of three references

For further information about the position, please contact Research Professor Håvard Hegre (hhegre@prio.org). For further information about the recruitment process or the submission of your application, please contact Department Manager Ilze Gehe (ilzgeh@prio.org), tel. +47 22 54 77 00.