UiT The Arctic University of Norway has established «The Arctic MSCA-PF program» (uit.no/project/arcticmsca) to recruit excellent young researchers planning to apply for a Marie Skƚodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) to pursue a career in research. We invite applications from promising young researchers within the field of physiotherapy. The selected candidate will write a proposal for a 24-month MSCA-PF at UiT together with Associate Professor Ragnhild B. Håkstad. This is an opportunity to accelerate your research career while living in the urban research city of Tromsø, uniquely located at the top of the world surrounded by some of Europe’s last pristine wild nature.

This call is one of 70 from pre-selected supervisors at UiT The Arctic University of Norway through the “Arctic MSCA-PF program”. Successful postdoc candidates will be invited for a three-day MSCA-PF symposium June 4-6, 2024 (hybrid physical/digital event, see details at uit.no/project/arcticmsca/program-structure). At this event, the candidates will present their past research achievements, discuss future plans with their potential supervisor and learn how to write a successful MSCA-PF application. The selected candidates will, jointly with the supervisor, write the MSCA-PF application by the deadline of September 11, 2024.

In this call we search for talented, young researchers within the field of Paediatic Physiotherapy as presented by Associate Professor Håkstad:

My research field is paediatric physiotherapy, with particular interest in how physiotherapists use play as therapeutic tool, their clinical reasoning strategies and family centred care in primary healthcare settings. Qualitative research is my field of expertise, with collection of data through interviews, observations, and patient video-diaries and journal/ communication documents. My research is grounded in the enactive theoretical/ philosophical approach, a theoretical framework that synthesizes insights from neuroscience, dynamic systems theory, and phenomenology to holistically comprehend human cognition and intersubjectivity. It is well suited to understand the complexities of therapeutic play and sense-making between participants in clinical settings, and how physiotherapists do their clinical reasoning in interaction with children and parents. Knowledge developed through my research can be used to educate physiotherapy students at both bachelor and master level, and for continuing education of clinicians who want to improve their therapeutic skills. In the future, I want to develop research studies to investigate the feasibility, effects, and participant experiences of such improved physiotherapy education and service delivery. Further qualitative research explorations of play as therapeutic tool across children’s age, functional levels and clinical settings are also warranted.  

Please send your CV (max 3 pages) and describe a research project that will strengthen and complement the presented research (max 2 pages) to ragnhild.hakstad@uit.no by Feb 16th 2024. Mark your application "Arctic MSCA". Successful candidates will be contacted in late March 2024.