2025 Tenure-Track Group Leader Position in Computational Biology

Description

The Department of Medicine and Life Sciences (MELIS) of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) aims to fill a Junior Group Leader position in the field of Computational Biology. We are looking for candidates in the early stage of their career with a strong background in computational biology, statistics and/or machine learning/AI techniques, and an excellent track record of computational research in the life sciences, focused on developing and/or applying methodologies for the analysis of multimodal biological data, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, or imaging, at the single-cell and/or spatially resolved levels.

The Department of Medicine and Life Sciences at UPF

MELIS (https://www.upf.edu/web/biomed) is an internationally renowned biomedical research center in Barcelona, Spain. It is located at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB, https://www.prbb.org) with other research institutes, including the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (HMRI), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL Barcelona), and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). With a staff of more than 300 scientists, MELIS combines the creation and transfer of knowledge through the seamless integration of research and teaching, well in line with the vision and values of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (https://www.upf.edu), which holds top-level positions in national and international rankings for teaching quality and scientific productivity (first Spanish university in the Times Higher Education and U-Multirank rankings, 2023). The trajectory of MELIS in research excellence and innovation in education has been twice recognized with the “María de Maeztu” Unit of Excellence award by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Research at MELIS

Understanding complex biological systems, particularly in human biology and disease, requires interdisciplinary approaches integrating experimental, computational, and engineering approaches. The scientific focus of MELIS is to strengthen and expand our research horizons under the broad overall scope of molecular biomedicine, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations among our research teams. Our department is organized in Research Programs that address this challenge from an integrative perspective through all biological scales (https://www.upf.edu/web/biomed/programmes). Our research groups are supported by cutting-edge core facilities in scientific computing, flow cytometry, proteomics, genomics, and advanced light microscopy (https://www.upf.edu/web/sct).

MELIS promotes diversity in an inclusive environment that welcomes applicants regardless of age, disability, gender, nationality, race, religion, or sexual orientation. Women are especially encouraged to apply.

Further information regarding our department and the group leader recruitment & selection process can be found at https://www.upf.edu/web/biomed.

The Offer

●        Tenure-track position to be consolidated to a permanent faculty position upon external peer review.

●        Startup package that includes a part-time technician, a PhD student, computing equipment costs, and access to our computing facility.

●        Office space for up to 4 people.

●        Start date: June 2025.

Qualifications

Successful candidates will be highly accomplished young scientists with a PhD in Biology, Bioinformatics, Physics, Statistics, Computer Science or a similar field, and a strong capacity to lead high-impact research projects. The future group leader should be driven by a desire to contribute to questions of biological and/or medical relevance, independently and in collaboration with other researchers from the department. The selected candidate is also expected to attract national and international research funds, supervise doctoral theses, and should be able to teach subjects such as computational biology, systems biology, statistics and/or machine learning/AI techniques, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Application Instructions

Applications should include:

1. Motivation letter, describing explicitly how your research goals fit with those of MELIS.
2. Curriculum vitae, including the information listed in the guidelines below.
3. List of 5 selected publications, with a brief description of each of them.
4. Brief proposal of your future research plans at MELIS (max. 2 pages).
   Please include an estimate of the equipment and facilities needed for your research.
5. Contact details of 3 references (name, affiliation, and email address) in a single document. 

CV guidelines

Please make sure that your CV includes the following information (although you do not need to follow this exact format, and feel free to include further information if relevant).

Maximum length: 15 pages.

1. Brief summary of academic and scientific background
2. Education/training
3. Professional academic positions
4. Publications   Specify if publications are original research articles, reviews, book chapters, or books. Provide evidence of impact (e.g., number of citations according to any citation indexing service). Please do not include conference abstracts.
5. Teaching experience   Include the course type (i.e., conventional lectures, practical courses, online courses, MOOCs, graduate or undergraduate level), name of the course, approximate number of students attending, hours per course, and whether the candidate was course coordinator or participant teacher.
6. Grants and funding   Include only grants in which you are/were the Principal Investigator. Please specify title, year, funding agency and amount granted (in US$ or €).
7. Invited conferences and talks   Include only invited talks given personally by you
8. Technology transfer
9. Other merits (courses, honors and awards, project management experience, etc.)

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

UPF promotes a diverse and inclusive environment and welcomes applicants regardless of age, disability, gender, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation.