Scholarship position in logistics with a focus on bottlenecks in the petroleum sector

Norway | July 15, 2026

Report as Closed

Company: HØGSKOLEN I MOLDE AVD MOLDE

Country: Norway

Type: Onsite

Employment: Contract

Description: About the position / tasks

While the energy transition from the traditional fossil-based economy to greener alternatives is underway, the petroleum sector contributes to this transformation by supplying the necessary raw materials (polymers and chemicals) that are used in new renewable-based solutions. The petroleum sector also covers, to a certain extent, the energy needs linked to the production of new systems.

Geopolitical tensions in recent years have led to a strategic redistribution of global energy flows. This has forced reliable energy producers such as Norway to rapidly increase production. Such an increase in production is often limited by the physical capacity of production infrastructure as well as transport and transmission networks. This creates a need for strategic measures to remove bottlenecks ("debottlenecking") in the petroleum sector so that the sector can adapt to global changes in the energy market in an efficient manner.

It is therefore important that the development of the petroleum sector in the coming years takes place as smartly and efficiently as possible in order to facilitate the green transition and secure the energy supply. This leads to the following research challenge:

How can existing oil and gas facilities increase production while maintaining the energy efficiency of the production and transmission units under different operating modes, exogenous economic uncertainties and endogenous process uncertainties, as well as when coordinating between different parts of the supply chains?

This issue is expected to be central to the research of the person employed as a research fellow. Other topics that can contribute to smarter operation can also be considered, for example:

• combination of petroleum production with carbon capture and storage (CCS)
• electrification of platforms
• increased use of renewable energy
• similar measures

For a fellowship position, the goal is to complete a doctoral education consisting of 30 credits (ECTS) in doctoral subjects as well as a successful defense of the doctoral dissertation.

The candidate is expected to have a solid quantitative background in energy logistics or energy engineering. Background in applied mathematics will also be an advantage. The candidate is expected to master high-level programming languages, such as Python, or software such as MATLAB.

Your higher education must correspond to five years of full-time studies beyond the admission requirements for bachelor's education in Norway. For some countries, this means that you must have more than five years of higher education in your home country. See the GSU list for relevant information about your home country: https://hkdir.no/en/foreign-education/lists-and-databases/higher-education-entrance-qualification-gsu

Your master's degree (or equivalent) must be at least one full academic year (60 ECTS) and must contain an independent student project, normally a master's thesis. The average grade for the master's degree must be at least B according to the ECTS scale, or equivalent on other grading scales.

We will also emphasize personal qualities and very good skills in written and spoken English.

The employment period is 3–4 years. If employed for 4 years, the position will include 25% work duty (teaching, guidance or administrative tasks).

The position is paid with a gross annual salary from NOK 550,800, of which 2% is deducted to the State pension fund. Higher wages may be considered for particularly qualified candidates.

The appointment is made in accordance with current Norwegian rules for temporary employment in the public sector and the guidelines for the employment of research fellows at universities and colleges.

Submit your application via https://jobbnorge.no/.  Together with the application, you must submit:

• A description of the proposed research topic (maximum 5 pages). The description must contain:

  • title
  • outline of the research
  • research problem/research question
  • theoretical framework
  • research method
  • explanation of the research's novelty value compared to existing specialist literature

  
  Proposals that do not meet these requirements will be rejected. The quality of the project description will be the most important criterion when ranking qualified applicants.

• CV (summary of education and work experience).
• Certified copies in English of diplomas, transcripts and certificates that clearly show degrees obtained, number of credits and grades from both bachelor's and master's studies.
• Master's thesis or equivalent independent student work. If the thesis is not written in English or a Scandinavian language, a confirmed summary (abstract) in English must be attached.
• Any other scientific publications (for example conference articles) that the applicant wishes to be considered.
• Name, position and e-mail address of three references who can be contacted regarding professional and personal qualifications.

Application deadline 15. September 2026

Diversity and inclusion
Molde University College believes that inclusion and diversity is a strength. If there are qualified applicants with a disability, gaps in the CV or an immigrant background, at least one applicant from each of these groups will be invited to an interview. In order to be assessed as belonging to these groups, and thus to be covered by this scheme of positive discrimination, certain requirements must be met. Read more about the requirements on the Employer Portal. We encourage applicants to state in the job portal if they have a disability, gaps in their CV or an immigrant background. This information is only used for anonymised statistics that state enterprises report annually.

Public applicant list
According to the Civil Service Act section 25 second paragraph, the applicant list can be made publicly available. Requests for exemption from the public applicant list must be justified in writing, but cannot be guaranteed to be granted.

About the employer:

Molde University College (HiMolde) is a leading educational and research institution in several subject areas, with the vision "Knowledge and ambitions" which is reflected in all our activities. We offer more than 40 study programmes, from annual studies to doctoral programs in areas such as health and social sciences, informatics, law and social sciences, logistics, sports management and economics. We have approximately 315 employees and 3,800 students on our campuses in Molde and Kristiansund. Read more about us here.

The Department of Logistics offers a PhD program in logistics. Read more about the department here.

Apply here:

Web: Apply here

Emails: