We are now inviting applications for one Early Stage Researcher (Doctoral Student) position in the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Cofund DP project Neuro-Innovation: Research and innovation for brain health throughout life. The position in the Institute of Clinical Medicine will start earliest from October 2022. Read more below and submit your application no later than
5 June 2022.
Role and salary
We are seeking for a highly motivated and talented Early Stage Researcher (PhD student) to join our team for research topic on Beyond the imaging limits – new ways to unveil the pathology of epilepsy. This PhD topic will introduce an advanced MRI methodology to explore tissue pathology non-invasively on samples resected from surgically treated patients with epilepsy. The resected tissue offers a great opportunity to implement and test new MRI methodologies. Moreover, the combination of preoperative evaluation data, MRI data of the resected tissue and the histopathology from the same sample will provide a deeper understanding of the imaging information. Finding more efficient MRI acquisitions and tools will improve the detection of healthy versus abnormal tissue in the brain. Advanced imaging methods translatable to the clinic will push the frontier of diagnostics and surgery planning in epilepsy patients.
You may modify this research topic or suggest your own in your motivation letter. Suggested topic must be in the research area of the Neuro-Innovation DP and the hosting research group.
The selected ESR will work in Clinical Epilepsy Research group. The group is build upon close collaboration between researchers within the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital Epilepsy Center. Professor Reetta Kälviäinen leads the research group with the focus on clinical epileptology including identifying biomarkers of seizure activity, epileptogenesis, progression, and drug-resistancy in cohorts of newly diagnosed and drug-resistant chronic patients. These aspects of scientific projects are combined with therapeutic neuropharmacological and neurosurgical interventions. The group uses genetic data from carefully phenotyped patient cohorts to discover genes related to epilepsy syndromes and to characterize patient disease trajectories. The research profile for the Kälviäinen group: https://sites.uef.fi/clinical-epilepsy-research/.The host research team collaborates closely with the Multiscale imaging group and with the Biomedical Image Analysis group, Neurobiology of Memory reach group as well as the Computational Physics and Inverse Problems research group. All these groups have open position in this call. We encourage all eligible, highly talented applicants to apply all these open positions.
This position is one of the 5 positions available for highly motivated Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in the Neuro-Innovation project in the Kuopio campus of the university. Neuro-Innovation training is a novel effort at University of Eastern Finland to integrate the university’s world class neuroscience with top-level innovation management, social sciences, law, data sciences and applied physics. This integration will produce unique inter/multidisciplinary competence that contributes to brain health innovation in Europe and beyond by training future leaders in this area of research and practice. Neuro-Innovation training will address the translation of research results into clinical adaptation and commercial outcomes in three multidisciplinary research areas:
1. The societal impact of prediction and early diagnosis research area
2. The co-innovation for prevention and treatment research area
3. The transfer of technologies, methods and models research area
See our website: www.uef.fi/neuro-innovation
In the Faculty of Health Sciences, a total of three Early Stage Researcher positions will be filled in this second call. One of these positions will be filled by a person selected for the Doctoral Programme of Clinical Research. The number of ESRs selected in the Faculty of Health Sciences, will be determined during the selection process and may change from what has initially been announced based on the eligibility of the applicants and the scoring of the applications.
The main duty of the ESR is to complete their doctoral dissertation in accordance with their research proposal written in the beginning of the employment period. In the University of Eastern Finland, the objective is to complete the doctoral degree in a maximum of four years of full-time study. The position will be filled for a fixed term of four years starting from early 2022 or as agreed upon with the candidate. ESR positions are always filled for a fixed term. A probationary period is applied to all new members of the staff.
The salary of the position is based on the salary system for the teaching and research staff at universities. The salary consists of the job-related salary element and the personal performance salary element. For this position, the job requirement level used to determine the job-related salary element is 2–4, and the personal performance salary element is 6–50% of the job-related salary element. The estimated monthly salary in the beginning of the employment will be 2,288.17 – 3,163.95 €/per month. The salary of an ESR depends on the phase of the doctoral dissertation and postgraduate studies as well as personal performance.
ESRs will be employed as staff with relevant benefits, such as a pension scheme and benefits for employment injuries, occupational diseases and unemployment. They have a legal right to a leave of absence, for example for maternity, paternity and parental leaves. ESRs enjoy many government-funded benefits in Finland, including free health care for families, low-cost day care and other benefits for families with children (See more information about Family Benefits).
What we expect and wish from you
We welcome highly motivated candidates with an engineering, physics or medical background interested to work in a multidisciplinary project. The project requires a person enthusiastic to push the boundaries of the imaging field and pursue the translation of cutting-edge technology into the clinic. The candidate will learn new skills from different fields of science, and more importantly, he/she will integrate the knowledge to the field of neuroimaging. The project will be performed in a multidisciplinary environment and the candidate will work with researchers with different scientific backgrounds. Good communications skills are also required.
Overall, the candidate must be willing to combine complementary areas of knowledge in neurosciences, data sciences,and applied physics to complete the thesis project. As far as soft skills are concerned, we welcome candidates with a proactive, collaborative attitude, and who are enthusiastic about building, creating, and working in teams. Excellent candidates desire to participate in activities concerning the commercialization of neuroscience research, and willing to spend some time abroad with our international partners and outside the university in our partner institutions.
The person appointed as an ESR must hold an appropriate higher university degree or an equivalent degree that would qualify the person for doctoral studies.
Requirements for doctoral candidates:
- hold a Master’s Degree or (or equivalent) and a research thesis (or equivalent) in neuroscience, engineering, physics or in another related relevant field or has completed studies in medicine
- should not hold a doctorate or PhD
- should have less than 4 years of research experience after graduation (Master’s Degree or equivalent based on which you are applying for this position) by 5 June 2022
- excellent command of the English language is required
Mobility requirements for doctoral candidates:
- fulfil the mobility requirement of the MSCA actions, i.e. ESRs must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies) in Finland for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before 5 June 2022. Compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not considered.
What we can offer you
- An interesting position in an international, creative, participatory and engaging university community
- The possibility of flexible multi-location work
- Staff benefits of the University of Eastern Finland, including comprehensive occupational health care, versatile staff training opportunities, affordable campus restaurant lunches and affordable sports services
How to apply
The application shall be submitted no later than 5 June 2022 by 24:00 hours Finnish time (11:00 pm CEST) by using the electronic application form.
The objective is to offer the position to the most merited applicant by the end of August 2022.
Please note that the application is required to include the following appendices:
- certified copies of BSc and MSc degree diplomas/certificates and copies of these relating to applicant’s language proficiency (if not indicated in the academic degree), transcripts of these records in English
- if the proof of English language skills has not been demonstrated in an academic degree and the applicant has not taken the English language test, the English language skills will be assessed in the interview for the position
- curriculum vitae (CV) (https://tenk.fi/en/advice-and-materials/template-researchers-curriculum-vitae)
- Master’s thesis (in any language), electronic copy (in zip file)
- two-page summary of the Master’s thesis in English (in pdf file)
- motivation letter (max three pages) describes the applicant’s motivation to pursue PhD studies in the chosen research area and topic. When suggesting your own research topic or modifications to the given topic, the research idea needs to be described as part of the motivation letter and research ethics and infrastructure forms provided on the programme website must be attached to the application (for more specific instructions on the motivation letter, see www.uef.fi/neuro-innovation)
- full name, mobile phone number and e-mail addresses of at least 2 referees
Apply:
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