Research possibilities for two MSCA SEAS postdoctoral research fellows in safety and working conditions for maritime workers

The two positions are open to either incoming or outgoing candidates, see mobility rules. The successful candidates will be employed at the Department of Psychosocial Science, at the Faculty of Psychology.

The positions are open for research on working conditions for maritime workers, where one position is dedicated to ‘maritime safety’ and the other position is dedicated to ‘non-standard work schedules’.

• Position 1: Research related to maritime safety will be associated with the Operational Psychology Research Group, supervisor: Professor Bjørn Sætrevik
   
• Position 2: Research related to non-standard working hours will be associated with the Bergen Sleep and Chronobiology Network, supervisor: Professor Ståle Pallesen

If there is more than one qualified applicant for one of the positions, and no qualified applicants for the other one, UiB will consider employing two fellows within the same research area.

More information about the supervisors and research possibilities can be found below. For further details about the research possibilities please contact the relevant supervisor.

Working conditions for maritime workers - Maritime safety (supervisor Bjørn Sætrevik)

Research group
The Operational Psychology Research Group (OpPsy) is a research group at the Department of Psychosocial Science, UiB. A description of the group’s structure, research aims, theoretical framework, and applied settings can be found on the research group’s website.

Research interests
The main supervisor and point of contact for a post-doctoral fellow on maritime safety will be professor Bjørn Sætrevik. His research interests are related to applied decision making in safety critical environments. He has published on:

• factors influencing human performance,
• situation awareness and mental models,
• perceived risk, reliability and error prevention,
• leadership, teamwork, collaboration, and communication, and
• judgement and decision-making.

Research directions that are particularly relevant for the current position could be:

• research on interface design, VR and AR for facilitating collaboration and safety in maritime work. This would integrate into the currently ongoing “Bridge AR” project.

• to examine shared mental models and shared decision-making in maritime settings (along the lines of a previous project).
• to examine how cognitive styles impact safety critical performance in maritime work settings (along the lines of an ongoing project).

Other relevant collaborators at UiB
The other researchers in the OpPsy group (listed on the group website here) could also be relevant as co-supervisors for the advertised position.

Relevant collaborators could be Morten Fjeld at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, Floris Van den Oever (PhD candidate in the “Bridge AR” project), and various collaborators at Media City Bergen (as well collaborators external to UiB, as suggested below).

Possibilities for international collaboration
We will encourage and support incoming and outgoing candidates for the position to participate in international research visits during the post-doctoral fellowship. This can happen through their already established collaboration networks, or through the collaborations of the OpPsy research group.

Relevant industry and public sector collaborators
The OpPsy research group has a history of extensive collaboration with industry partners in maritime, transport and energy sector. There has also been extensively collaboration with public sector entities such as military, police, medical units and first responders. Relevant for the current position, we have collaborations with:

• a number of ship-owning companies involved in safety-critical maritime work,
• energy companies that are clients for maritime operations,
• Norwegian regulatory bodies for maritime work,
• organizations involved in maritime training, and
• organizations involved in design and engineering of maritime control systems.

Further, the “Bridge AR” project has extensive collaborations with various industry and public sector partners, among others through the OpenBridge network.

Venues for innovation
In addition to the academic potential of the topic, we see clear possibilities for developing the advertised post doc in directions of industrial innovation. Among these possibilities could be

• to developing training programs for improving various aspects of maritime safety (traditional or VR-based training),
• to develop AR interfaces for maritime control systems, or
• to developing measures for shared mental models and other psychological factors relevant for maritime safety that can be used by the maritime operators.

Lab facilities and infrastructure
The Department of Psychosocial Science have a number of dedicated lab rooms and equipment, as well as administrative staff. There are:

• labs rooms for individual testing,
• lab rooms for simultaneous individual testing of more participants, and
• lab rooms for testing of small groups.
• equipment for desk mounted eye-tracking and eye-tracking in field or simulator
• multiple VR set-ups (HTC Vive Pro and Oculus Quest 2)
• additional HCI and AR equipment is currently being acquired
• equipment for psychophysiology, and possibilities to collaborate with other departments for brain imaging.

Further lab facilities for research on interfaces are available through collaborations with OpenBridge and Media City Bergen, and possibilities for naval simulators and field trips through collaborations with maritime educational institutions, civilian ship-owning companies and naval academies.

There are department and institution funding for travel, research visits and data collection.

Working conditions for maritime workers - Non-standard work schedules (supervisor Ståle Pallesen)

Supervisors for the projects related to non-standard work schedules are Professor Ståle Pallesen, Professor Anette Harris and Professor Olav Kjellevold Olsen. Pallesen and Harris are both affiliated with the Bergen Sleep and Chronobiology Network (BeSCN), thus that group will be emphasized in the current description.

Non-standard work schedules and long shifts are highly prevalent in the maritime sector, both within the civilian (including oil installations in the North Sea) and military entities. Hence, safety challenges related to shift and night work and sleep deprivation are immanent in the maritime sectors.

The three supervisors are highly familiar with research on sleep, non-standard work schedules and sleep deprivation. In terms of specific research interests, we can mention effects of non-pharmacological interventions to improve functioning and adaptation to non-standard work schedules and effects of sleep deprivation on social interaction, moral judgement, social cognition and team functioning. Another potential topic encompasses personality and genetic factors contributing to shift work tolerance.

The supervisors have extensive collaboration with researchers internationally, both related to basic and applied research. Hence, the opportunity for research stays abroad (both short- and long term) for incoming post doctors would be great. 

We have active and current collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Navy and with civil shipping companies. In addition, we have several contacts within the Norwegian oil industry. In terms of innovation, we have established collaboration with Norwegian companies such as VitalThings that among other produces contactless sensors (e.g., for remote sleep registration) and Glamox who produces lights (e.g., human centric lighting).

In terms of relevant and available infrastructure we have access to a light lab, a naval simulator, and we are also in the process of establish a driving simulator lab. We have also access to sleep assessment devices (polysomnography, actigraphy and sleep radars).

The BeSCN is a cross-disciplinary and cross-facultary research group with strong connections to the Faculty of Medicine (prof Bjørn Bjorvatn and postdoc Siri Waage) and also to the Norwegian Competence Center for Sleep Disorders, situated at the Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen (see www.BeSCN.no). Hence, the plan is to recruit co-supervisors from these research environments.

The full advertisement in Jobbnorge will be available from august 1, 2022, until call deadline October 31.

Please be aware

• That until August 1st 2022 (official call opening), the information on this page must not be considered as final, as adjustments may be done! There might also be minor adjustments in the Guide for applicants and the templates needed for applying.
• That the application process is time-demanding and requires a close dialogue with name-given available faculty supervisor or contact who, close to the deadline, must sign a supervisor match declaration if an application is to be eligible.
• That some fields of research, especially within sensitive technology areas, might be enforced by Norwegian and international regulations regarding Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in these regulations might be prohibited from recruitment to UiB.