PhD-positions at the NTNU University Museum
PhD positions at the NTNU University Museum
PhD positions within predetermined research projects are regularly announced on NTNU's vacancies page.
In 2025, we announce two positions for open-ended PhD projects within the Museum’s research areas. Application deadline is the 15th of August 2025. The application must be connected to a specific research group at the Museum and suggest a main supervisor for the PhD project. Applicants must have been in contact with the research group prior to applying. As such, it is recommended to contact the group early in the process.
Below, you will find information about the research groups with current main supervisors involved in the 2025 announcement.
A project description of 4-6 pages including references must be written in English using the following template: Template for project description
The following research groups are included in the open announcement for 2025
Land-use and climate changes are shaping nature alarmingly rapid. The BLUES group works to understand how land use interacts with climate to determine the distribution of species in time and space and diversity patterns, including species, phylogenetic diversity and functional diversity. We investigate how environmental variation affects the structure and dynamics of different ecosystems, communities, and populations. This provides knowledge on how to preserve biodiversity, important ecosystem functions and ecosystem services.
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Read more about BLUES - Biodiversity, Land Use and Ecosystem Services
Our main aim is to increase knowledge about terrestrial boreal nature, and to contribute to knowledge-based management of species and habitat types with a focus on processes that lead to speciation in bryophytes, and ecological processes in intact and disturbed mires. Peat bogs, mire restoration, nature management and carbon storage are central themes here.
We combine state-of-the-art genomic resources and bioinformatics, combined with morphology and extensive knowledge of the biology of mosses. We use peat mosses (Sphagnum) as our main study system.
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The Environmental Archaeology Research Group seeks to enhance the knowledge of human–environment and human–animal interactions throughout prehistory and early history, taking a point of departure in the unique collections housed at the NTNU University Museum, and bringing together an interdisciplinary node of expertise.
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Potential Main supervisors:
- James H. Barrett
- Heidi Mjelva Breivik
- Michael D. Martin
- Sarah L. Martin
- Bente Philippsen
- Helene Løvstrand Svarva
Read more about Environmental Archaeology Research Group
The freshwater group combines basic and applied research with a focus on human impacts on the habitats of brackish and freshwater species. We want to provide environmental authorities and politicians with knowledge so decisions can be made on a scientific basis.
A major part of our activity is to map migratory behaviour of salmonid fish using telemetry in order to detect how individual fish are affected by various factors such as river and lake regulations, physical disturbances in the coastal zone and open netpen salmonid aqua culture. We also investigate fish genetics, fish parasites and analyze stabile isotopes to get a better understanding of fish movements.
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The Research group covers the Stone Age (9500-1700 BCE) and Bronze Age (1700 – 500 BCE). During this 9000-year timespan comprehensive landscape and climate changes contributed to fundamental cultural transformations, change in resource exploitation, settlement patterns and population composition – the neolithization process being the most radical and formative. The ambition is through material culture studies and multi-proxy approaches to be a dynamic platform for investigating long-term cultural changes, and development of complexity and stratified societies.
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The Holomuseomics research group uses novel genomic tools to answers exciting questions concerning the evolutionary processes responsible for biodiversity, both past and present.
We apply diverse approaches from paleo-genomics, metagenomics, population genomics, phylogenomics, and multi-omics (e.g. metabolomics) to non-model organisms, including plants and animals, as well as their microbial communities. By utilizing genetic material in natural history (museum) collections, we can track these processes in both space and time.
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The overarching goals of Integrative Taxonomy and DNA Barcoding (TAXA) is to conduct integrative biosystematic research of excellent quality. This encompasses for instance description of species and their distribution, analysis of evolutionary relationships and understanding of processes leading to speciation. We use our expertise in the field to implement high-end infrastructure and develop methodology for molecular analysis of single taxa and species communities. The improvement, maintenance and use of scientific collections is central to this work.
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Potential Main supervisors:
- Torkild Bakken
- Torbjørn Ekrem
- Emily A. Hartop
- Kristian Hassel
- Elisabeth Stur
- Kristine B. Westergaard
- Frode Ødegaard
Read more about Integrative Taxonomy and DNA Barcoding (TAXA)
The Iron Age to Historical Archaeology Research Group (IAHA) strives to increase the use of interdisciplinarity to answer archaeological questions between the Early Iron Age and recent history. It includes and bridges the traditional subdisciplines of later prehistoric, Viking Age, Medieval and Historical Archaeology. The research group focuses on connectivity and transformation, including key topics such as: environmental change, agrarian economies, the importance of natural (mountain, forest and marine) resources, human-wildlife interactions, monetisation, urban living, health, rural-urban networks (at scales ranging from the local to global), religious practises and social stability/instability.
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The Machine Vision for Natural History research group focusses on using computer vision and machine learning to extract ecological and taxonomic data from images of natural history specimens, including plants and invertebrates. This includes data on the timing of flowering, specimen size and species’ traits including leaf area and wingspan. We develop and train models to classify specimens and segment and measure key traits. By applying these models over large numbers of specimens collected over long periods and wide spatial extents, we can test how species have changed over time and in response to global environmental changes.
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The marine environment is vast, highly connected and the life within it diverse and mostly uncharacterised. The Marine bIOdiversity and Molecular Ecology group applies multidisciplinary approaches to investigate marine biodiversity. We investigate the genetic, taxonomic and functional diversity of organisms and communities, with emphasis on defining processes at different scales and how these are influenced by changing environments and human impacts.
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Read more about Marine biodiversity and molecular ecology (MIOME)
Terrestrial, Marine and Aerial Remote sensing for archaeology (TEMAR) research group is composed of experts in terrestrial, marine and airborne sensing technologies, working in archaeological applications. They use, test and develop methods and advanced technologies in order to investigate buried, submerged or visible cultural heritage in a non-destructive and minimally-invasive manner. In doing so, they apply the best survey strategies using sophisticated multi-sensor technologies to explore subsurface and submerged environments.
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Read more about Terrestrial, Marine and Aerial Remote sensing for archaeology
The National Laboratory for Age Determination conducts research on the methodology and applications of stable isotope analyses, radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology. Research in our laboratory involves both the development of techniques and their applications. The development of techniques aims to improve the precision and accuracy of the measurements and of existing preparation techniques, as well as to develop new preparation methods and research in new materials that can be dated.
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Read more about The National Laboratory for Age Determination