The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), has announced a fully funded PhD Research Fellowship in Geo-AI for Fine-Scale Ecosystem Accounting, offering a new opportunity for research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, geospatial data, and ecosystem assessment. The position will run for three years and will be carried out at NINA in Trondheim in collaboration with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management.

The research will focus on developing novel deep-learning workflows capable of mapping ecosystem extent and condition at fine spatial scales using multi-source data, including Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, aerial orthophotos, and LiDAR. A key innovation will be the use of embedding vectors from modern foundation models, enabling more robust semantic representations of landscapes beyond traditional pixel-based classification approaches.

More information about the position, requirements, and application procedure is available here.

The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary research environment involving ecologists, geographers, and data scientists at NINA and NMBU, while also engaging with international scientific networks and large European research initiatives. This aligns closely with the objectives of the SELINA project, which aims to advance integrated ecosystem assessment, accounting, and decision-support tools across Europe, and highlights the growing role of Geo-AI and high-resolution spatial data in supporting environmental policy and sustainable resource management.

Applicants are expected to have a Master’s degree in geomatics, computer science, geography, ecology, or a related field, along with strong programming skills in Python or R and experience with geospatial and machine-learning frameworks. Knowledge of ecosystem accounting, cloud computing platforms, or Nordic ecology is considered an advantage.

The application deadline for the position is 15 April 2026, and the PhD enrolment will take place at NMBU as part of its doctoral programme in environmental sciences and natural resource management.