The Director of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School announces the recruitment to the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School of Agricultural Sciences within the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Action PhD Fellowship in:

„Personal genetic and epigenetic signatures of immune cells in context of plant-based meals”

Within the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA), the new Doctoroal Network project NUTRIOME is offering 10 positions as PhD fellowship/Research Doctoral Candidates (RDC). The positions are for 36 months and are funded by Horizon Europe.

NUTRIOME – Precision nutrition and postprandial immune responses is a MSCA Doctoral Network. The NUTRIOME network involves academic partners at nine European academic institutions and six associated partners from industry across Norway, Poland, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The purpose of the NUTRIOME network is to train 10 RDCs in data-driven precision nutrition through human intervention studies, omics-technologies and advanced data analyses, in order to evaluate personal responses to foods and diets.

One of the PhD fellowships is open at the Institute of Animal Reprorduction and Food Research (IARFR) of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) in Olsztyn, Poland, under the supervision of Prof. Carsten Carlberg who runs international group of interdisplinary resarchers with the goal to investigate the effect of vitamin D and other nutritional compounds on changes of the epigenome and transcriptome of tissues and cell types of healthy and (pre)diseased individuals. Professor Carlberg has expertise, projects and interests in gene regulation, epigenetics and vitamin D in the context of nutrigenomics, immunology and cancer.

What to expect from the project:

Project applies dual training strategy:

  1. Use available dietary interventions and omics data:
    • learn how to manage, share and utilize open data,
    • learn to harmonize and integrate different type of data and subsequently handle large-scale data,
    • make extra sense of the data and realize the challenges and limitations.
  2. Perform a proof-of-concept precision nutrition meal intervention study:
    • intervention study will be performed at three dedicated centres and via secondments,
    • participation in the data collection phase and in the data analysis phase
    • participation in hands-on international joint training project,
    • exposition to all elements of conducting forefront multi-disciplinary research at the intersection of nutrition and food science, medicine, omics technologies and data science
    • perform three secondments to an industry partner and research institute/university, each of two months duration.

What to expect from the EU:

  • a living allowance
  • a mobility allowance
  • if applicable, family, long-term leave and special needs allowances

What we expect from you:

  • excellence of educational degree
  • specialization and additional knowledge
  • quality of previous research studies and reports
  • authorship in scientific publications
  • analytical skills motivation and attitude toward carrying out the individual training/mobility project
  • excellent communication skills in both spoken and written English
  • compliance with the general mobility rule: that you haven’t resided in Poland for at least 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date
  • all nationalities are welcomed to apply
  • not have a doctoral degree at the date of their recruitment

Terms of employment

  • employment as RDC is full time for maximum 4 years (of which 3 years are financed by the EU)
  • terms of appointment and payment accord to the agreement between the specific country and university of the partners in NUTRIOME
  • accepted candidate will be enrolled in a IARFR PAS doctoral programme during the project
  • start date is expected to be as soon as possible and not later than 1st May 2024

Responsibilities and tasks in the PhD programme

  • Carry throughan independent research project under supervision
  • Complete PhD courses corresponding to approx. 30 ECTS / ½ FTE
  • Participate in active research environments including external research stays at other research teams (secondments)
  • Teaching and knowledge dissemination activities
  • Write scientific papers aimed at high-impact journals
  • Write and defend a PhD thesis on the basis of your project

Call for applications and method of submission:

IAR&FR PAS Olsztyn

Traditional mail – to the following address:

Interdisciplinary Doctoral School of Agricultural Sciences,
Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences,
10 Tuwima Street, 10-748 Olsztyn, Poland

by February 23rd, 2024

By e-mail – to the following address: szkoladoktorska@pan.olsztyn.pl

by February 23rd, 2024

The Institute reserves the right to invite selected candidates to the next stage of the recruitment process.

Schedule:

  • Verification of applications in formal terms: 26-27.02.2024.
  • Interviews (possible changes of the deadline will be placed on the School’s website): 4-5.03.2024
  • Publication of a detailed schedule of interviews, including information about the time of the examination of the candidate concerned: 28.02.2024
  • Publication of ranking lists: 8.03.2024