Postdoctoral Researcher in Health Data Policy and Innovation

Do you want to contribute to better health for all?

The Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics (LIME) works in some of the key areas that are important to fulfill Karolinska Institutet's mission "to improve human health". We focus on research, development, and education in the following areas: medical pedagogy, informatics, management, ethics, and suicide prevention. LIME has approximately 110 employees and is located at the Solna Campus.

LIME is looking for a postdoctoral researcher for 2 years, full-time, with a focus on a large EU-funded project on how the European Health Data Space (EHDS) will be a critical enabler of health innovation while promoting responsible secondary use of data.

Your mission

The postdoctoral researcher will work within IHI FORTIFY, a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action that contributes to the implementation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). IHI FORTIFY develops an integrated legal, technical, and governance framework to enable the secure and innovation-friendly sharing of IP-sensitive health data, while safeguarding intellectual property, trade secrets, and trust among stakeholders.

Key responsibility

The postdoctoral researcher will be involved in all relevant parts of the project. Tasks include:

• Coordinating and contributing to stakeholder engagement activities across Europe, including the FORTIFY Multistakeholder Forum involving public authorities, health data holders, industry, researchers, and patient representatives. 
• Designing, conducting, and analysing qualitative and mixed-methods research (e.g. interviews, workshops, consultations, Delphi consensus processes). 
• Contributing to the design and qualitative evaluation of real-world use cases, with a focus on governance processes, decision-making, and stakeholder roles in IP-sensitive data sharing.
  
  
• Synthesising insights from use cases, stakeholder engagement, and consortium research into policy briefs, guidance documents, and best-practice recommendations relevant to EHDS implementation. 
  
  
• Contributing to the development of training materials, playbooks, and capacity-building activities for EHDS actors. 
•  Supporting dissemination and impact activities, including scientific publications, workshops, and presentations to European and national stakeholders.
  
  
• Contributing to project coordination and administrative tasks, including documentation, reporting, and interaction with other work packages. 

Your profile

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctor, a PhD or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a Swedish PhD is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. Completion of your doctoral degree within the last three years is considered an advantage. If there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

We are looking for those who have:

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher with strong expertise at the intersection of health data governance, policy analysis, stakeholder engagement, and/or social science methods relevant to digital health ecosystems. The ideal candidate will have:

• A PhD in medical science with a focus on management and innovation.
• Medical degree and experience of practical work within healthcare.
• Demonstrated experience with qualitative research, case study research, stakeholder consultations, and co-creation approaches.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate technical and legal content into accessible materials for diverse audiences.
• Experience in designing or delivering training, capacity-building activities, workshops, or policy-oriented outputs.
• Experience in working in a multidisciplinary and international consortium, engaging stakeholders ranging from policymakers and industry to patient organisations.
• The successful candidate will be independent, collaborative, and comfortable working across legal, technical, and governance domains.
• Experience in writing and publishing scientific articles and presenting results at scientific conferences.
• Excellent skills in English, both spoken and written.

It is an advantage if you have the following skills:

• Strong understanding of topics such as health data sharing, privacy, IP protection, data governance frameworks, or regulation of digital health infrastructures (experience with EHDS-related topics is an advantage).
• Experience in administrative tasks related to the research process, including establishing routines related to research documentation.
• We also place great emphasis on your social competence, ability to collaborate, and willingness to provide service.

What do we offer?

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Location: Solna

Choose to work at KI – Ten reasons why

LIME

Application

An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

• PhD certificate
• A complete resumé, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
• A complete list of publications
• A summary of current work (no more than one page)

Welcome to apply at the latest 2026-02-05

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

Want to make a difference? Join us and contribute to better health for all!