PhD fellowship in Early Detection of Infection in PRRS-free herds at Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences

We are offering a PhD fellowship in Porcine Herd Health Management commencing 1 January 2025 or as soon as possible hereafter.

Our group and research
Our research group is working within different areas of Porcine Herd Health Management, including herd diagnostics, prevention and prudent use of antibiotics for infectious and non-infectious diseases in pigs.

The group consists of professors, senior researchers and research assistants, post docs, PhD students and residens of ECPHM.

Project description
The PhD project is part of a new GUDP-project starting 1 January 2025 with the title “Early Detection of Infection in PRRS-free herds”.

The aim of the project is to develop methods for early detection of new PRRS infections in herds that are free of this disease. This is key to achieving freedom from the disease in Denmark as the national reduction plan is rolled out and we approach a large number of negative herds.

Today, this type of surveillance is only carried out by practising veterinarians taking 20 blood samples per herd, which is costly, time-consuming and does not have the necessary high sensitivity and ability to quickly detect infected herds.

The project thus aims to develop new methods based on data from the herds, air sampling, slurry sampling and liquid from dead pigs, as well as sensor technology based on automatic cough monitoring.

The scientific knowledge for using these techniques for national surveillance of PRRS re-infection is not available. Results of the scientific work performed in the described project will provide this knowledge and make it possible to make recommendations for a national plan in Denmark.

The effect of the overall project will be to keep Denmark free from PRRS by early detection of the re-infections that are expected to occur in the future. It is expected that the project will contribute to a total reduction of dead pigs between 350,000 and 400,000 pigs per year going forward. At the same time, there will be secondary green benefits as CO2 emissions are reduced and antibiotic consumption is reduced.

The PhD fellow will be expected to organise and perform herd visits on pigs farms for collection of clinical and diagnostic data.

More information on the GUDP project can be found here: https://gudp.lbst.dk/nyheder/nyheder/2024/jun/frisk-sommerindsproejtning-paa-113-mio-skal-skubbe-yderligere-til-foedevaresektorens-groenne-omstilling.

Principal supervisor is Professor Ken Steen Pedersen, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, [email protected], Direct Phone: 30576336.

Start: 1 January 2025

Duration: 3 years as a PhD student

Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at SUND are:

• Carry through an independent research project under supervision
• Complete PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approx. 30 ECTS points
• Participate in active research environments including a stay at another research team
• Obtain experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Teach and disseminate your knowledge
• Write a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project

Key criteria for the assessment of applicants
Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree related to the subject area of the project e.g. Veterinary Medicine. Please note that your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years).

Other important criteria are:

• The grade point average achieved
• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
• Previous publications
• Relevant work experience
• Other professional activities
• Curious mind-set with a strong interest in Porcine Herd Helath Management
• Language skills

Place of employment
The place of employment is at Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment.

Terms of employment
The employment as PhD fellow is full time and for 3 years.

It is conditioned upon the applicant’s success­ful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree. Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agree­ment between the Ministry of Taxation and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 30,700 DKK/Roughly 4,090 EUR (April 2024 level) plus pension.

Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor.

General information about PhD study at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/.

Application procedure
Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)

2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position

3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science

4. Publication list (if possible)

Application deadline: 15 September 2024, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicants will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held in week 44-45.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.