For the project ‘Using data collected as part of official animal welfare control in animal welfare research’ we are advertising a postdoctoral/researcher position at the Department of Animal Environment and Health.
Since 2009, data from official animal welfare control in Sweden has been collected according to standardised species specific checklists for all categories of animals and consists of animal, resource and management-based measures. The resulting unique database is coordinated by the Swedish Board of Agriculture, but it has not yet been explored to assess its potential as a source of information about current welfare problems, the risk for future problems, or to help guide further harmonised data collection nationally or internationally. These questions are interesting from an international animal welfare research perspective as well as from a national practical point of view. With regard to farm animals, there is also the potential to extract information from industry databases for joint analysis with information from the official animal welfare control database. The research project is part of the Centre of Excellence in Animal Welfare Science, a strong research environment platform supported by the Swedish research council Formas.
Duties: To check the database for completeness, correctness and consistency, in consultation with the scientific team, and to contribute to the timely completion of the project. The applicant will take full responsibility for specific aspects of the analysis and the subsequent scientific publications. The applicant should also be active in helping promote further research in this area, including participating in writing research applications. There is the opportunity to supervise MSc students in related animal welfare research projects if the applicant wants to expand his/her teaching experience.
Qualifications: The position requires a PhD in Epidemiology, or an equivalent subject, and experience of working independently with large databases. An undergraduate degree in an animal related discipline (e.g. animal science, veterinary medicine, biology) is a merit as it will help with the interpretation of the animal welfare implications of the data. Knowledge of Swedish animal husbandry, animal welfare authority work and official animal welfare control can be an advantage, but will be weighed against other skills, such as long term potential to expand research in this area and contribute to strengthening our research profile in animal welfare science and policy.
Place of work: Uppsala
Form of employment: Temporary employment, 2 years
Extent: 100 %
Starting date: By agreement
Application:
We welcome your application marked with Ref no. SLU ua 781/2014.
Please submit your application to the Registrar of SLU, P.O. Box 7070, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden or registrator@slu.se no later than March 31, 2014.
SLU is an equal opportunity employer.