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This is NTNU NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus in professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim. At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 43,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world. You will find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.     Video: https://youtu.be/Xt-yHCN5QS0 About the project Norway is facing an increasingly complex maritime security environment. Effective responses to threats against coastal and underwater infrastructure are becoming critically dependent on unmanned vehicles (UxV) — UAVs, USVs, and UUVs — operated from Remote Operation Centers (ROC). A key knowledge gap is our limited understanding of what is required for the humans operating these systems to function reliably under defence and preparedness pressure. Research consistently shows that human cognitive capacity is the binding constraint in multi-vehicle remote operations. Managing two to four UxV systems simultaneously pushes operators toward and beyond their cognitive limits, with consequences for situational awareness, decision quality, and authority sharing. Yet the human factors of ROC-based multi-UxV supervision remain largely unstudied in maritime contexts. NTNU Ålesund is developing state-of-the-art Remote Operation Center infrastructure through the MIND & SHELL project, combining high-fidelity simulation with full-scale testing at Fjordlab — a unique outdoor maritime test environment with multi-sensor infrastructure including hydrophones, land-based radars, oceanographic sensors, and an UxV fleet. This infrastructure provides an exceptional basis for empirical research on ROC operator performance. Are you motivated to take a step towards a doctorate and open up exciting career opportunities? As a PhD Candidate with us, you will work to achieve your doctorate, and at the same time gain valuable experience that qualifies you for a further career in higher education and research, in and outside academia. Your immediate leader will be the Head of Department. About the position The PhD candidate will investigate how ROC operators construct situational awareness — understood as skilled sensework across cognitive, strategic, and organisational axes — when managing multiple UxV systems simultaneously in defence and preparedness scenarios. The research will examine how cognitive load, autonomy level, authority sharing, and interface design affect decision quality as vehicle count and scenario complexity increase. A second and complementary focus is the extent to which sustained screen-based multi-UxV supervision suppresses operators' awareness of their immediate physical environment — a phenomenon with direct implications for ROC survivability in contested settings where the operating crew must remain alert to threats beyond the screen. The candidate will design and execute simulator-based experiments and full-scale field studies at Fjordlab, using established human factors methods such as SAGAT, NASA-TLX, and eye-tracking. The research will draw on and extend Endsley's situational awareness model, Haavik's sensework framework, and Parasuraman's taxonomy of automation, applying these to the emerging domain of maritime ROC operations. The candidate will work in a multidisciplinary research environment at NTNU Ålesund, and collaborating closely with another PhD candidate — who develops the physical design and for deployable, survivable ROC units — as well as defence and preparedness stakeholders and technology partners. Findings are expected to contribute to design principles for ROC interfaces, operational guidelines for multi-UxV supervision, and serve as a foundation for future European-scale research initiatives. The candidate must be prepared for changes to your work duties after employment. Duties of the position Complete the doctoral education unt