Humans are exposed to chemicals from conception and throughout life. For the majority of chemicals no hazard or exposure data are available making it very challenging to assess health risks. The European Commission has launced a program for advancing the safety assessment of chemicals without the use of animal testing and developing further Next Generating Risk Assessment (NGRA). Three projects received funding under this program and are working closely together in the ASPIS cluster. The department is involved in one of these projects called ONTOX  (https:  https://ontox-project.eu/). ONTOX is mechanisms of toxicity focused  and uses machine learning for predicting the toxicity of selected chemicals for human health.

In ONTOX, NIPH has many tasks including the delivery of probabilistic exposure assessments and probabilistic risk assessments on a number of of chemicals. The exposure and risk assessment is devided into two steps. The first step includes relatively data-rich chemicals, while step two will include  data-poor chemicals. 
Probabilistic exposure assessments  will be performed by combining existing data from a number of data sources to estimate oral, inhalation and dermal exposure, and translate these to target organ doses. For a limited number of compounds biomonitoring in an existing study (the EUROMIX biomonitoring study) will provide additional data for  the exposure assessments. Hazard data on the developmental neurosystem, the liver and the kidney will be collected from literature or  generated in the project by a combination of New Approach Methods and PBPK modelling. Methods for problastic risk assessment will be developed and applied together with other partners within ONTOX.

Division of Climate and Environmental Health, Section for Chemical Toxicology  has a national role in conducting hazard and risk assessment on chemicals for human health for organisations like the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the Norwegian Environment Agency as well international organisations like ECHA, SCCS and EFSA. In order to perform these  assessments we have a research portfolio that is mainly funded by the EU. Exposure assessment and risk assessment using NGRA  is a focus area in the EU Partnership for the Assessment of Risk from Chemicals in which the department participates. The department is involved in a number of H2020 projects, including EXIMIOUS (https://www.eximious-h2020.eu), POLYRISK, HBM4EU, Ulthras  (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/955390) and ATHLETE (https://athleteproject.eu) to study exposure and health risks of chemicals.

The person to be hired will work in Oslo. Preferred start date is in the Q1 of 2022, and the project will last for a 3 year period.

   

Kvalifikasjoner:

• PhD degree with a focus on probabilistic modelling of data. Experience with exposure assessment/risk assessment  of chemicals is an advantage.
• Hands-on experience with relevant bioinformatics and biostatistics methods, network analysis and  R programming skills is needed.
• Knowledge of PBPK modelling is an advantage
• Experience or strong interest in data collection from the literature or from biomonitoring studies (Euromix, Athlete, HBM4EU)  in compliance with legal and ethical regulations.
• Knowledge of PBPK modelling is an advantage
• Research experience demonstrated with publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
  
• Good English oral and written communication skills. Ability to communicate orally and written using Norwegian or an other Scandinavian language is an advantage

 Please upload a complete publication list with your application

Personlige egenskaper:

Strong collaboration and social skills
High work capacity and a positive attitude are important
Highly motivated and strong problem-solving skills
Structured, exact and result-oriented work approach

Vi tilbyr:

• An interesting position in a multidisciplinary, engaged and competent advisory and research environment
• Opportunities to contribute to public health challenges by cutting edge science
• Opportunity to translate data into knowledge that can be used in the regulation of chemicals/particles
• Salary based on qualifications following the state regulations
• Pension scheme in the Government Pension Fund
• Flexible working hours