• Country: Lyon, France
• No of vacancies: N/A
  
• Salary: N/A 
• Organization: WHO
• Gender: Both
• Deadline: 2024-02-08

PURPOSE OF POSITION

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization. The objective of the IARC is to promote international collaboration in cancer research.

The goal of the Nutrition and Metabolism Branch (NME) is to provide robust scientific evidence on the role of nutrition, obesity, and metabolic dysfunction in cancer development that can translate to both clinical and population-level interventions and to public health policy. NME aims to go beyond what may be considered the traditional domains of nutrition in cancer research and fully exploit methodological advances in molecular techniques to implement an integrated, multidisciplinary programme of research. Given the potential for advances in molecular profiling to help overcome methodological challenges in nutrition research and delineate the underlying biological pathways, emphasis is placed on conducting molecular epidemiological research that integrates metabolomics, hormone measurements, the microbiome, and genomics, within population-based cohorts and intervention studies.

The aim of the position is to:

• Manage, harmonize and consolidate epidemiological and molecular data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study, and other projects within the Nutrition and Metabolism (NME) branch;
• Assist NME scientists in the acquisition, management, and analysis of epidemiological and molecular data;
• Identify, develop and apply software tools for efficient data management, integration, analysis and visualization for mining diverse types of biological data;
• Exchange with IARC and external collaborators;

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Under the supervision of NME scientists, including the NME Branch Head, the incumbent will perform the following tasks:

1. The management of complex databases from large international epidemiological studies coordinated by the Branch. The task will include:
2.     the centralization of epidemiological and molecular (biomarkers and -omics) sets of data through regular contacts with external collaborators;
3.     the harmonization according to defined protocols;

                iii.    the finalization of internal consistency via data quality control checks.

2. The organization of databases for downstream analyses integrating multiple data types, including epidemiological and molecular data. This task will include:
3.     the documentation of data structure and contents;
4.     the creation of study datasets by writing ad hoc programmes and merging the necessary data;

                iii.    the dissemination of study datasets to the collaborators in agreement with FAIR principles and data protection policies

3. The assistance to NME scientists in statistical analyses of epidemiological data, through the use of classic statistical software (e.g. R, SAS, Python) to
4.     the computation of descriptive statistics;
5.     the generation of graphs and tables for data visualization in scientific reports and grant applications;

                iii.    the finalization of additional quality control based on data analyses.

4. Perform any other related duties assigned by the supervisor.

WHO COMPETENCIES

• Producing results*
• Teamwork*
• Communication*
• Moving forward in a changing environment
• Technical expertise

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION

Essential: Graduation from secondary school or equivalent, and subsequent training (BTS, DUT or equivalent) in the field of bioinformatics, life sciences, computer science/programing, statistics or related field.

Desirable: University degree in bioinformatics, computer science, statistics or related field.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Essential: At least three years’ experience with data management or statistical analysis of epidemiological data using scripting/programing languages (e.g., R, Python, SAS, SQL).

Desirable: Experience in research environment. Experience in other programming languages using Unix/Linux environment.

USE OF LANGUAGE SKILLS

Essential: Expert knowledge of English.

Desirable: Intermediate knowledge of French.

FUNCTIONAL SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

• Data management of epidemiological, clinical and large sets of biomarker and -omic data.
• Knowledge of scripting/programing languages for data management and statistical analyses (e.g., R, Python, SAS, SQL) and their application in appropriate computational environments.
• Hands-on knowledge of large sets of health-related data analysis.
• Ability to work with external collaborators.
• Ability to learn new tools for database management statistical analyses.
• Ability to adapt to a rapidly changing computing environment.
• Ability to create documentations, figures, slides for documentations and publications.
• Ability to work harmoniously as a member of a team with people of diverse cultural backgrounds.

 OTHER SKILLS ( IT SKILLS)

• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft 365 package.

REMUNERATION

The fixed remuneration for the above position currently amounts to EUR 3,396 per month, and is expressed net of income tax but before deduction of the employee share contributions for mandatory participation in the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) and in the Organization’s private insurance plans covering health, accident, illness and disability.

Other benefits include different types of leave and allowances for dependent family members.Employment status is that of an international civil servant.

Note: due to the legal status of WHO/IARC as an international organization, its staff do not contribute to and do not generate benefits in French mandatory schemes for health insurance (“assurance maladie”), pension (“assurance vieillesse/retraite or unemployment (“Pôle-Emploi”) throughout their period of employment with the Agency.

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