About this role
About the position The Department of Biotechnology at the Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences, and Biotechnology (ALB) at the University of Inland Norway (INN) invites applications from exceptional candidates for a PhD position. The position is expected to start as soon as possible and will last for three years. The successful candidate will be based at the Department of Biotechnology. The candidate will be enrolled in INNs PhD program in applied ecology and biotechnology, and the candidate must work from the designated workplace in Hamar. The appointed PhD candidate will work in the group of Professor Rafi Ahmad. The Ahmad group ( https://www.inn.no/english/find-an-employee/rafi-ahmad.html ) is also part of the Norwegian Network for One Health Resistome Surveillance (NORSE), a national network of 13 Norwegian institutions. The group is also part of Microbiology Matters (MiMa), a PhD school with work-life relevance that focuses on One Health and infectious diseases ( https://en.uit.no/project/mima ). The group is also affiliated with the National Center of Expertise, Heidner Biocluster. The appointed candidate will be working within a proliferating scientific environment comprising academic staff members, Ph.D. students, and research fellows with scientific expertise ranging from theoretical methods (machine learning, biostatistics, and bioinformatics) to experimental methods (genomics, molecular biology, clinical microbiology, microscopy, and spectroscopy). About the project The WHO considers bacterial infection caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) a critical global threat to modern healthcare and societal well-being. It has been nearly 40 years since a new class of antibiotics was introduced to the market. This, along with the increased and often inappropriate use of existing drugs, means we are heading toward a world where antibiotics may no longer be effective. Remarkably, most prescriptions and antibiotic administration are still done without any information on the causative pathogens or their resistance profiles. The selected candidate will work within the UTI-Diag and OH-AMR-Diag projects funded by the Research Council of Norway. Please find the project details here: https://www.inn.no/english/research/research-projects/UTI-Diag/ https://www.inn.no/english/research/research-projects/OH-AMR-Diag/ The main objective of these projects is to develop a proof-of-concept decision-making diagnostic system for rapid, accurate, and sensitive on-site detection of infections, pathogen identification, characterization of resistance profiles, and prediction of antibiotic susceptibility. Alongside INN University, we have a fantastic group of partners in the project consortium. From Norway - University of Tromsø, University hospital of North-Norway, Inland Hospital, and Norwegian Institute of Public Health. From India - Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. Plus, we’re thrilled to collaborate with the World Health Organization and the European Section of Infections in Urology. The key objectives of this Ph.D. project include (a) optimizing the in-house developed novel method for culture-independent sample preparation for body fluids; (b) performing metagenomic and potentially photonics analysis on clinical samples, and (c) correlation of the generated data; (d) proof of concept study to evaluate the performance of the development method in clinical settings. Please refer to our latest publications, which highlight our work. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66865-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-55635-z https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2025.1680165/full https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10096-024-04929-1 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1784408 Qualifications Qualifications It is a requirement that the PhD research fellow qualifies for admission to the University's PhD programme in Applied ecology and biotechnology. Applicants who already hold a PhD will not be considered. Applicants who have submitted their master's thesis for evaluation before the deadline are eligible to apply, but final documentation must be obtained before employment is offered. To be admitted to the doctoral program, the applicant must normally have a minimum master's degree or master's level (120 credits, §3 master's in the Norwegian system) or equivalent education, within in biotechnology, molecular biology, microbiology, biochemistry, or another relevant scientific discipline. Furthermore, you must have a strong academic background from your previous studies, i.e., the average grade should normally be B or better from the master's program (120 credits) or equivalent education. Calculation of the average grade is based on the credits for each course and for the master's thesis. Applicants with weaker grades than what is normally required for admission must document that they will be able to complete a doctoral degree. In cases where the education has been approved with the use of the grades passed / failed, the applicant is admitted after an individual assessment. If you have education from abroad, you can contact NOKUT for approval of your education, alternatively, a similar assessment will be made in connection with the application process. Required qualifications The required qualifications are: Prior experience with methods development, including nucleic acid extraction or host cell/DNA depletion. Hands-on experience with sequencing technologies from Oxford Nanopore, including MinION flow cells. Prior experience with the entire sequencing workflow, from sample preparation to bioinformatics analysis. Hands-on experience handling clinical samples. Skilled in analyzing large-scale biological datasets, including whole-genome sequencing and metagenomic sequencing. Desired Qualifications Fluency in scripting in Python and R. Experience with AMR and infection biology. The can