This contract is 40% co-financed by the European Social Fund Plus (FSE+), 2021-2027, as well as by the Community of Madrid.

Specifically, the grant Ref. PEJ-2024-AI/COM-32727, which funds the position, will be co-financed by the European Social Fund Plus (FSE+) at a 40% co-financing rate under the 2021-2027 Program of the Community of Madrid, aligned with Political Objective 4: A more social Europe through the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, Priority 1: Employment, and Specific Objective (a): Improving access to employment and activation measures for all job seekers, particularly young people.

IMDEA Food is part of the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies (IMDEA) Network, promoted by the Community of Madrid. Its mission is to conduct research that is both socially useful and of international scientific excellence. Within this framework, the IMDEA Food Institute aims to strengthen its research groups working in strategic areas for the Community of Madrid. This initiative involves incorporating support researchers into these groups, allowing primary researchers to focus more intensely on their scientific work while also providing young professionals an opportunity to begin their careers in R&D&I environments.

Job description:

The selected candidate will join the Computational Biology Research Group and participate in the group’s various research projects and lines of investigation. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data are transforming digital health and nutrition, leading to a growing demand for highly skilled professionals. Employment for computer and information scientists is projected to grow by 23% from 2022 to 2032 (BLS.gov), significantly faster than the average for all occupations. This position offers an opportunity for professional development in this dynamic and expanding field through active engagement in the group’s activities.

Skills and Competencies to Be Acquired

Technical Skills:

1. Processing, storing, and managing nutritional and health data.
2. Leveraging advanced technologies in artificial intelligence.
3. Applying computational methods to solve research problems in nutrition and health.

Transferable Skills:

1. Teamwork, collaboration, and shared responsibility in designing and communicating experimental strategies.
2. Identifying and using reliable scientific sources to address and resolve health-related issues.

The scientific and technical activities to be undertaken are tied to the research line of the group under the following project: "Digitizing Health Through the Application of Artificial Intelligence to Nutrition."

Main functions to be developed:

The responsibilities fall within the scope of the activities and projects conducted by the Computational Biology Research Group:

• Primary and exploratory analysis of phenotypic, metabolic, metagenomic, and digital data.
• Secondary analysis of variability among collected variables, including calculations of dispersion measures, averages, bias, graphical representation, asymmetry, and hypothesis testing related to food intake response.
• Analysis of data obtained from biological samples: lipid panels, carbohydrate metabolism, microbial markers, metabolomics, inflammatory markers, cardiovascular risk, etc., and their relationships with nutritional and lifestyle variables.
• Identification of correlations among diverse variables.
• Classification of individuals based on their food intake responses using supervised and unsupervised clustering techniques.
• Identification of markers from heterogeneous data for each volunteer to predict critical nutritional aspects linked to health risks.
• Reconstruction of metabolic pathways in the gut microbiome to identify relevant routes and metabolites.
• Establishing multi-layered knowledge graphs to integrate data from various sources (questionnaires, nutritional data, biological samples, and sensors) and applying analysis techniques to explore topological characteristics, networks, and sub-networks of interest.
• Developing machine learning models to estimate potential changes in volunteers' diets and lifestyles.
• Participation in training courses and seminars.
• Conducting research stays in national and/or international partner institutions.
• Participation in national and international conferences.
• Engagement in teaching and outreach activities.

            (PLEASE, SEE THE FULL CALL FOR APPLICATION)

I. Entry requirements: 

Required Qualifications

Education Level: Bachelor's degree in Biology, Biochemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Food Science and Technology, or related fields.

Research Area: Biology, Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology.

II. Evaluation of Merits

Additional Education (Other Degrees and Knowledge): 

• Holding an official Master’s degree in Life Sciences that qualifies for doctoral programs.
• Completion or ongoing studies in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, or similar fields (highly valued).
• Additional training in Microbiology, Clinical Nutrition, Nutritional Genomics, Biomedical Engineering, Health Biology, Molecular Biology, or Biochemistry (positively evaluated).
• Knowledge of English: Demonstrated by an official certificate or, alternatively, through a written and/or oral proficiency test during the selection process.

Professional Experience (Positively Evaluated):

• Internships or work experience in companies or laboratories.
• Knowledge of laboratory techniques such as nucleic acid extraction, PCR, ELISA, and WGS sequencing.
• Completion of bachelor's or master’s theses involving molecular laboratory techniques, bioinformatics, or computational biology.
• Experience with programming languages and tools such as R, Linux, Python, SQL.
• Experience in applying Artificial Intelligence methods.

Other Merits (Positively Evaluated):

• Participation in courses related to molecular biology.
• Receipt of scholarships or awards.

III. Skills and Abilities (Evaluated in the Interview): 

Core Competencies: Results orientation, high proactivity, task management, problem-solving, and responsibility.

Organizational Skills: Effective organization and ability to integrate into a multidisciplinary team.

Teamwork and Interpersonal Skills: Team collaboration with strong interpersonal relationship abilities.

The selection of candidates will be carried out in accordance with the principles of equality, merit, capacity and publicity, as well as objectivity, independence and professional rigor, respecting the confidentiality of the participants' personal data, by means of a merit-based competition.

Once the deadline for the submission of applications has expired, and once the fulfilment of the requirements listed in the second base has been verified, the Selection Committee will proceed to assess the merits included in the curricula vitae related to the post and to select the candidates who best meet the established requirements,  and will then open a second selection phase consisting of a personal interview.

The personal interview will consist of a face-to-face or videoconference interview which will focus solely on the merits put forward by the candidates in the competition phase and will be aimed at assessing the candidate's suitability for the post. The interview will last a maximum of 45 minutes.

Scale - selection criteria:

The evaluation process will be carried out according to the following criteria:

I. Additional training to be assessed: 0-30*.

II. Experience to be assessed: 0-30*.

III. Other merits to be assessed: 0-10*.

IV. Interview: 0-30*

Type of contract:  employment contract for scientific-technical activities (art. 23 bis  Spanish Science Law) in accordance with current legislation, with a probationary period established by law.

Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week, split-shift schedule, Monday to Friday.

The contract is fully incompatible with any other public or private employment, salary, or wages, including part-time or occasional work.

Annual Gross Salary: €20,517 gross/year.

Duration: Permanent, contingent on funding from the call for grants regulated under ORDER 2277/2024, dated May 27, by Counseling of Education, Science, and Universities of the Community of Madrid (two-year grants).

Incorporation: Immediately.

Headquarter of the IMDEA Food Insitute, Madrid (SPAIN)