The National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is an outstanding infrastructure initiative for the science communities in Germany with the aim to harness the great potential of Research Data as a valuable resource for science and research. As of 1st October 2020, the first round of NFDI consortia will receive funding for a period of five years, with the option of a five-year extension. The TIB will play a key role in shaping the NFDI from the very beginning.
Within this network the Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology – is looking to employ a
Cheminformatician / Ontology Engineer in the area of Research Data Management (m/f/d)
to join the Lab Linked Scientific Knowledge at the earliest possible opportunity. The position is initially limited to 3 years with envisioned extension in the context of NFDI. The regular weekly working time is 39.8 hours (full-time). The position is only suitable for part-time work to a limited extent. The remuneration is based on pay scale group 13 TV-L.
You will work in a team to build a national research data infrastructure for chemistry in Germany (NFDI4Chem). NFDI4Chem will be a distributed infrastructure project with more than 30 FTEs from IT and science and operates in the wider context of the NFDI in collaboration with eventually 29 further consortia from all areas of science. A detailed project description of NFDI4Chem can be found at https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e55852.
Your challenges
The vision of NFDI4Chem is the digitalization of all key steps in chemical research to support scientists in their efforts to collect, store, process, analyze, disclose and re-use research data. This overall goal is addressed by several task areas (TAs). You will be assigned to TA6 Synergies, which is responsible for the coordination of the cross-cutting topics within the NFDI, including cross-domain metadata standards, semantic data annotation and cross-domain mapping of ontologies, as well as the provision of terminology services. You will work closely together with developers, scientists and infrastructure experts from over 25 university and non-university research institutions in a dynamic and inspiring environment. A special focus will be on the collaboration with TA5 Community and TA4 Standards.
Your activities will include
- Development and curation of ontologies for chemistry
- Extension, adaptation and integration of existing ontologies to the needs of NFDI4Chem
- Development of controlled vocabularies and classifications to standardize data for research data management (RDM)
- Community outreach to collaboratively develop and curate ontologies with domain experts and ontology users
- Organization of ontology workshops for and with the scientific community
Your qualities
You have knowledge in chemistry or a related field and you are competent in using controlled vocabularies and ontologies to describe chemical concepts. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are essential in order to collaboratively develop ontologies together with the scientific community during workshops and discussions. You should be able to think creatively, grasp new knowledge quickly, and be interested in innovative software systems and in mastering complex challenges.
The following qualifications are mandatory:
- Successfully completed university degree (Master’s degree, university diploma or equivalent) in chemical informatics, chemistry, bioinformatics, life sciences, computer science or a comparable relevant subject
- First relevant professional work experience
- Excellent knowledge in ontology development and with core semantic technologies (RDF, OWL, SPARQL)
- Excellent knowledge with ontology tools like Protégé, Web Protégé or WebVOWL
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Desirable qualifications are:
- A completed PhD in chemistry, computer science or in a related field
- Familiarity with chemical data formats and concepts of research data management
- Experience in the development of software applications and modern programming languages (Java, JavaScript, Python)
- Familiarity with best practices of modern software development, including iterative/agile development, scientific software development lifecycles and version control
What we offer:
The Lab Linked Scientific Knowledge is embedded into the Research Group Data Science & Digital Libraries. TIB’s Research and Development Department offers a scientifically and intellectually inspiring work environment with an entrepreneurial mindset embedded in a leading technical university and one of the largest technical information centers being part of the Leibniz Association.
The research department at the TIB is relatively young and offers many opportunities. In our vision we strive to rethink the representation and provision of data and information and to organize them in an Open Research Knowledge Graphs (ORKG) in the future. In this context, there is a close cooperation with the L3S Research Centre at Leibniz University Hannover, one of the world’s leading research institutes in the field of Web & Data Science, within the Leibniz Joint Lab Data Science & Open Knowledge.
Last but not least, we attach great importance to an open and creative working atmosphere in which it is fun to work.
Furthermore, we offer
- Funding of business trips, the necessary technical equipment and conference and research stays
- Candidates will work in the context of a national research and innovation project
- A portfolio of technology components to build on, including ORKG, org, TIB AV-Portal, DBpedia.org, VIVO and others
- A modern workplace in a central location of Hanover with a collegial, attractive and versatile working environment
- Comprehensive and intensive training in an interesting, varied and future-oriented field of activity
- Flexible working hours (flexitime) as well as offers for reconciling work and family life, such as mobile work, home office and remote work
- An employer with a wide range of internal and external further education and training measures, workplace health promotion and a supplementary pension scheme for the public sector (VBL)
- Discount for employees in the canteens of the Studentenwerk Hannover as well as the possibility to use the various offers of the University Sports Hannover
- A job in the public service with a salary in pay scale group 13 TV-L according to the provisions of the collective agreement for the public service in Germany (TV-L), including a special annual payment and 30 days of vacation per year
If you are interested, questions regarding the position can be addressed to Dr. Oliver Koepler (oliver.koepler@tib.eu), head of the Lab Linked Scientific Knowledge.
Link: https://www.tib.eu/en/tib/careers-and-apprenticeships/vacancies