Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for the project “Truth, Information, Democracy and Law”

Job description

A Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (SKO 1352) is available as part of the project Truth, information, democracy and law (TIDAL) - Department of Private Law (TIDAL) funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN) and Norid AS. 

The fellow will be responsible for their own research and work closely with the TIDAL team at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law - Department of Private Law, UiO (NRCCL).

The project runs from April 2026 until March 2030. In addition to researchers at the NRCCL, the project team includes researchers at Queen Mary University of London, University of Bergen, University of Tromsø, Lund University, Bond University, BI Norwegian Business School, and Boston University. 

At the NRCCL, the core project team comprises four people, including the postdoctoral fellow. The project is led by Professor Lee A. Bygrave.

The appointment period lasts three years without teaching and administrative duties, or four years with teaching and administrative duties making up 25% of the total workload. 

A four-year fellowship requires that the candidate can contribute to the Faculty of Law's current teaching needs. 

If the Postdoctoral Fellow does not already have qualifications that meet the requirements for an associate professor position, UiO shall facilitate the acquisition of such competence during the employment period.

More about the position

The TIDAL project concerns the legal preconditions for a well-functioning democracy in an age marked by increasing generation and dissemination of disinformation, misinformation, and other forms of information disorder (ID). Drawing upon cross-disciplinary insights and approaches, including a policy field study of stakeholder viewpoints in Norway and the United Kingdom, the project tackles the fundamental question of whether the law needs to be reformed in order to tackle ID more effectively and, if yes, what avenue(s) of reform would be most sensible. It does so in light of the vexing problem that measures to combat ID in the name of securing or promoting democracy can end up undermining democracyʼs bedrock by tightening various freedoms and accountability frameworks that help buttress democracy and the rule of law. 

The TIDAL project not only examines how best to overcome the latter problem, but elucidates a range of other related matters. These include: the effects of recent legal initiatives by the European Union (EU) to curb ID; the interaction of hard law and soft law codes in this regulatory domain; and current geopolitical tensions at the global level over appropriate legal-regulatory strategies for tackling ID. 

At a more fundamental jurisprudential level, the project interrogates the relationship between law and the promotion of truth, analysing the borderlines between when law penalizes the dissemination of lies, “untruths” and other false or misleading information and when it abstains from doing so, along with the rationale(s) for either course of action.

As part of elucidating the relationship of ID and the law with a view to identifying optimal regulatory strategies for reducing the deleterious effects of ID, the project pursues five main sub-objectives:

(1) to map the non-legal structural factors causing ID, drawing upon scholarship in the social sciences and information sciences;

(2) to develop an holistic understanding of ID that bridges insights from the social sciences and information sciences with insights from legal-regulatory scholarship;

(3) to assess how the law, in light of these insights, currently facilitates and impedes ID;

(4) to evaluate what role law should play to remedy ID in the future and to develop and assess new norms, legal concepts, and regulatory frameworks, innovating legal treatment of ID;

(5) to assess the legal innovations within the wider geopolitical situation which Norway finds herself in, with a view to minimizing jurisdictional “overreach”.

The postdoctoral fellow is expected to work closely with TIDAL team members in pursuing the above-listed objectives. The postdoctoral fellow is also expected to engage in international dissemination activities and collaborate with key scholars in the field, outside the project group. Part of these activities will involve participation in the collection, coding, and analysis of data from policy field studies, writing research articles and other publications (e.g. book chapters, blogposts), participating in the ongoing reporting from the project, and assisting the project leader in the daily operation of the project.

Qualification requirements

• Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree (PhD) in Law or another relevant social science discipline, such as Political Science or Sociology.
• Applicants must have submitted their doctoral dissertation for evaluation at the time of application and the dissertation must be approved by the time of appointment.
• Applicants must have an excellent command of English, necessary for publishing in high-level international journals and participating in international conferences, seminars, and similar events; additionally, an excellent command of Norwegian, alternatively Danish or Swedish, necessary for studying Norwegian policy discourse, is an advantage.
• Applicants must have a demonstrated knowledge of, and experience with, research containing significant cross- and interdisciplinary elements.
• Experience with carrying out policy field studies is desirable.
• Experience with legal research containing significant cross-jurisdictional elements, especially in relation to the regulation of information flows, is desirable.

Personal skills

• Applicants must be able to work independently and in a structured manner.
• Applicants should possess good collaborative skills and demonstrate the ability, willingness, and commitment to contribute to the development of the research field.
• Applicants should be able to take initiative and actively participate in an international and multidisciplinary research team.

Assessment of the applicants

In assessing applicants, priority will be given to their academic achievements, previous relevant publications, the project description, and their professional and personal qualifications, especially regarding their ability to complete the proposed project within the specified timeframe.

Applicants who progress through the selection process will be invited to interview for the position, either in person or digitally.

Applicants are assessed by an assessment committee that ranks them according to the above criteria and interviews the most suitable candidates. A separate interview committee may be used. The final decision is made by the faculty’s appointment board.

The applicant must submit a project description but a final plan for the research of the postdoctoral fellow will be developed in consultation with the project leader following the appointment.

We offer

• Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organization with an important societal mission, contributing to knowledge development, education, and enlightenment that promote sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development.
• A workplace with good development and career opportunities.
• Opportunity of up to 1.5 hours a week of exercise during working hours.
• Committed colleagues and an inspiring, friendly, and inclusive working environment.
• Pension scheme in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.
• Good welfare schemes.
• Salary in position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow (SKO 1352) in the range NOK 610 000 - 690 000 depending on competence and experience. From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund.
   

The application must include

• A cover letter describing the applicant’s qualifications and motivation for the position.
• A project description of 4-7 pages (excluding the list of references) outlining how they would approach their research tasks within a 3-year project plan. This should include a description of the theoretical background, objectives, methodologies, and reflections on potential ethical challenges. The proposal must clearly demonstrate how the research will contribute to the aims of the TIDAL project. Further information on the project aims can be received from the project leader upon request.
• A CV providing a comprehensive overview of education, previous positions, teaching experience, list of publications, and other relevant activities.
• Copies of diplomas with all grades included in the degree and certificates (if the original language of diplomas/certificates is not English or a Scandinavian language, an English language translation must be provided in addition to a copy of the original). Foreign diplomas must include official documentation about the grading system, together with the official grading scale.
• Up to three academic works that the applicant wishes to be considered. If a publication has been authored by multiple individuals, the division of work must be documented with a declaration from the co-author(s).
• Names and contact details for at least two references.
• A written assessment of the doctoral dissertation may also be submitted. If the assessment is not ready in time for the application deadline, the assessment can be submitted after deadline.

Please note that all documents must be in English or a Scandinavian language. The application with attachments must be submitted through our electronic recruitment system; please follow the link “apply for this job”. The tentative starting date is January 2027.

We need different perspectives in our work 

UiO is an open and internationally oriented comprehensive university that strives to be an inclusive and diverse workplace and academic environment. You can read more about UiO’s work on equality, inclusion, and diversity at uio.no.

We fulfill our mission most effectively when we draw upon our variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We are looking for great colleagues—could you be the next one?

We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Relevant adjustments may include modifications to working hours, task adaptations, digital, technical, or physical adjustments, or other practical measures.

If you have an immigrant background, a disability, or CV gaps, we encourage you to indicate this in the job application portal. We always invite at least one qualified candidate from each group for an interview. In this context, disability is defined as an applicant who identifies as having a disability that requires workplace or employment-related accommodations. For more details about the requirements, please refer to the Employer portal (Norwegian).

The selections made in the job application portal are used for anonymized statistics that all state employers include in their annual reports.

More information about gender equality initiatives at UiO can be found

here.

We hope you will apply for the position with us. 

General information

Please see the guidelines concerning appointment to recruitment positions at the University of Oslo. 

No one can be appointed for more than one Postdoctoral Fellowship period at the University of Oslo. 

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act §25 information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure. 

The University of Oslo has a transfer agreement with all employees that is intended to secure the rights to all research results etc.