Job offer

European Commission; España; Presencial; EUR 30.000 - 50.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

The European Commission is seeking a motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to join their Sustainability in Biosystems Program. This role focuses on research into plant and soil ecology, particularly in relation to crop domestication and drought resilience. The successful candidate will engage in both experimental setups and data analysis, working within a collaborative research environment to drive innovations in sustainable agriculture.

Servicios

22 vacation days

3 days of family & work conciliation

45h of personal time

Friday afternoon off

Compressed Summer schedule

Formación

• Proven experience analysing ‘omics’ data.
• Experience measuring plant and soil traits.
• Strong quantitative skills using R.

Responsabilidades

• Collaborate in designing and executing large-scale experiments.
• Analyze plant and soil parameters.
• Write scientific articles for international journals.

Conocimientos

Statistical analysis

Plant ecology

Soil ecology

Data handling

Teamwork

Communication

Educación

PhD in Biology, Ecology, or related discipline

Descripción del empleo

Organisation/Company IRTA Department Human Resources Research Field Biological sciences Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions Postdoc Positions Country Spain Application Deadline 18 Jul 2025 - 23:39 (Europe/Madrid) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 37.5 Offer Starting Date 1 Oct 2025 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? Yes

Offer Description

IRTA is currently seeking an enthusiastic and motivated Postdoctoral Researcher with a PhD related to Biology, Ecology, or equivalent to join the Sustainability in Biosystems Program. We invite applications from ambitious candidates with relevant research experience and passion to conduct research and innovation activities on plant and soil ecology in the ERC-funded project ‘WILD-ROOTS’.

The main goal of the WILD-ROOTS project is to uncover how crop domestication has influenced belowground traits and processes, across a wide variety of crops and their wild relatives. This understanding will then be applied to enhance the drought resilience of agroecosystems. Our work integrates methods from soil ecology, plant ecophysiology, microbiology, and metabolomics. The candidate should be a keen plant and/or soil ecologist or eco-physiologist, skilled in the statistical analysis of large-scale ‘omics’ datasets.

In the first year, the main objective of the successful candidate will focus on the integrated analysis of an already-assembled dataset relating to root exudates and the rhizosphere microbial community, as well as contributing to experiments (in greenhouse, field and lab). The exact tasks for the subsequent years can be adapted to the skills and interests of the selected researcher, but would include experiments on the role of roots and rhizospheres in drought tolerance, and/ field testing to provide support for related crop modelling tasks.

Head of the Program: Dr August Bonmatí

Program’s key researcher/s for this position: Dr Catherine Preece.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

-To collaborate with the design, set-up, and running of large-scale experiments (greenhouse, field and lab).

-Measurement and analysis of a wide variety of plant and soil parameters, relating to plant performance, root morphology and physiology, and the soil and rhizosphere microbial community.

-Perform advanced statistical analysis (including multivariate analysis), and interpretation of results.

-Literature review and writing of scientific articles for publication in international peer-reviewed journals.

- Seek opportunities to collaborate with other IRTA researchers, as well as other external academic and industrial partners active in the measurement of plant-soil interactions and sustainable agriculture.

-Assist in supervision of students working on related projects.

-Ensure timely execution of all tasks, and participate in the respective technical meetings.

-Contribute to the teamwork and team-spirit in the Sustainability in Biosystems research program, fostering collaboration and integration activities.

• PhD in Biology, Ecology, or a related discipline.
• Proven experience analysing ‘omics’ data, e.g. genomics or metabolomics datasets.
• Strong quantitative and data-handling skills, using the R Statistical package.
• Experience measuring plant and soil traits in experiments or in the field.
• Proven knowledge of plant-soil interactions, crop domestication and/or agroecosystems.
• Experience in writing high quality scientific (peer-reviewed) articles.
• Strong organizational capability and ability to learn.
• Ability to establish and build relationships that will allow pursuing the objectives of the R&D activities.
• Strong teamwork skills, ability to adapt to multidisciplinary environments and a focus on professional growth and development.
• Proficiency in English, both spoken and written.

Specific Requirements

• Track record of publications with a significant omics component.
• Experience performing field campaigns in challenging conditions.
• Capacity to work in a multidisciplinary group, and a cooperative nature.
• Good communication skills within the group and with the scientific and general public.
• Ability to work efficiently and complete tasks within agreed timeframes.
• Curiosity and energy to work independently and find novel approaches and solutions.
• Knowledge of Spanish and/or Catalan is valued.

Languages ENGLISH Level Good

Research Field Biological sciences » Biology Years of Research Experience 4 - 10

Additional Information

• Job location:IRTA Cabrils
• Full-time position: 37.5 h/week
• Terms of appointment: full-time position for 3 years with the possibility to extend it for 1 year extra.
• Employee Benefits: 22 vacation days, 3 days of family & work conciliation, 45h of personal time, Friday afternoon off, Compressed Summer schedule from 15/06 to 15/09, Work and Family conciliation schedule.

Selection process

Publication and diffusion of the job advertisement on IRTA’s website, EURAXESS Jobs, social media and other specific recruitment places.

5 following working days

Distribution of the pre-selected CVs which matching eligibility criteria to the Recruitment Committee. Communication via e-mail with the not pre-selected candidates who will not be further included in the process.

20 following working days

Recruitment Committee:

- Communication via e-mail with the not-selected candidates by the Recruitment Committee.

- Interview with selected candidates by the Recruitment Committee.

- Accord of the Recruitment Committee stating the selected candidate and detailed reasoning for the decline of the rest of the candidates.

- Communication via e-mail with the interviewed and not-selected candidates

10 following working days

Provision by the selected candidate of requested legal and official documentation to the HR department to coordinate the start of the candidate.

Start of contract: October 2025 (approximately)