The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) is one of the largest universities in Finland. The UEF is a
multidisciplinary university, which offers teaching in more than 100 major subjects. The university
has approximately 15,000 students and some 2,800 members of staff, and the university’s campuses
are located in Joensuu, Kuopio and Savonlinna. In international rankings, we are ranked among the leading 300 universities in the world.

The Faculty of Science and Forestry operates on the Kuopio and Joensuu campuses of the University of Eastern Finland. The mission of the faculty is to carry out internationally recognised scientific research and to offer research-education in the fields of natural sciences and forest sciences. The faculty invests in all of the strategic research areas of the university. The faculty’s environments for research and teaching are international, modern and multidisciplinary.  The faculty has approximately 2,700 Bachelor’s and Master’s degree students and some 450 postgraduate students. The number of staff amounts to 650. http://www.uef.fi/en/lumet/etusivu.

The Faculty of Science and Forestry is inviting applications for 33 Early Stage Researcher (PhD student positions) in the faculty’s doctoral programmes.

The doctoral student positions are intended for persons doing their doctoral dissertation at the University of Eastern Finland. The goal is to complete the doctoral degree in four years of full‐time study.

The Faculty of Science and Forestry offers doctoral training in three doctoral programmes
http://www2.uef.fi/en/lumet/tohtoriohjelmat1. Doctoral student positions may be applied for in all doctoral programmes of the faculty.

The person to be appointed to the early stage researcher position is required to be eligible to pursue doctoral studies and to hold a relevant Master’s degree. Early stage researcher positions are always filled for a fixed term (UEF Administrative Regulations, Section 30).

The language requirements associated with the position are defined in the Government Decree 770/2009. Members of the university’s teaching and research staff are required to have command of the language they give teaching in (Finnish or Swedish). The Dean of the faculty may grant an exemption from the language proficiency requirements laid down in the Government Decree.

The language of research and teaching associated with the positions can also be English. If the selected person carries out research and gives teaching in English, his or her language skills in the English language are required to be excellent.

The doctoral student positions will be filled as from 1 January 2016, or as agreed. The maximum duration of the doctoral student position is four years. The persons selected to the doctoral student positions will, as a rule, be hired as early stage researchers by the UEF academic departments and schools. The main duty of the doctoral students is to complete their doctoral dissertation in
accordance with their approved research plan.

The salary of the early stage researcher is based on levels 2‐4 of the job requirement level chart for
teaching and research staff in the Salary System for Finnish Universities (i.e. the job requirement
component amounts to €1,972.55–2,462.01/month). In addition to the job requirement component,
the salary includes a personal performance component, which may be up to 46.3% of the job
requirement component. The salary is determined on the basis of the phase of the doctoral
dissertation and the person’s personal performance.

The doctoral student positions may be applied for by persons who according to the Universities Act
of Finland (558/2009, Chapter 5, Section 37) are eligible for studies leading to a scientific
postgraduate degree. The doctoral student positions may be applied for by persons already are
enrolled as doctoral students at the University of Eastern Finland and by persons planning to
complete their doctoral studies at the University of Eastern Finland.

The following criteria will be considered in the selection of the doctoral students: the relevance of
the applicant’s research to the doctoral programme he or she is applying for, the innovativeness of
the research proposal, earlier research achievements, and an estimation of the applicant’s
possibilities to complete the research and the doctoral studies, as well as progress of studies in the case applicant holds a study right in the University of Eastern Finland. The persons to be selected are
required to fulfil the student admission criteria of the doctoral programme concerned.

A probationary period is applied to all new members of the staff.

For further information on the doctoral programmes and supervision, please contact the programmes: http://www.uef.fi/en/web/guest/research/doctoralschool/

For further information on the application procedure, please contact Head of Administration Kaisa Laitinen, tel. +358 50 432 7573, e-mail kaisa.laitinen(at)uef.fi.

The electronic application should contain the following appendices:

• a curriculum vitae (instructions:  http://www.tenk.fi/en/template-researchers-curriculum-vitae
• a list of publications (instructions: http://www.aka.fi/en/funding/how-to-apply/appendices-required/guidelines-for-list-of-publications/
• a research plan. A research plan is a short scheduled description on the doctoral thesis research, two pages in maximum. The applicant prepares the research plan together with his/her proposed supervisors. Research plan includes a short description of the background of the research, the aims of the research, the methodology, and the scientific significance of the study. Research plan also includes a financial plan. The instructors proposed for the doctoral thesis shall approve the research plan. Students already enrolled at the University are required to submit an updated research plan.
• a motivational letter in which the applicant describes his or her motivation to pursue postgraduate studies and to conduct research.
• persons who do not have an existing right to pursue postgraduate studies at the University of Eastern Finland are also required to submit a copy of their degree certificate and the official translation in English, indicating that they are eligible to pursue doctoral studies.

The application needs to be submitted no later than 2.10.2015  (by 24.00 hours Finnish time) by using the electronic application form.