Postdoctoral Position in Barcelona on Artificial Intelligence for Disease Prediction

We are offering an exciting postdoctoral position at the University of Barcelona, within the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine lab (www.bcn-aim.org), to develop new trustworthy AI algorithms for predictive modelling of heart disease from heterogeneous biomedical data.

Concretely, we offer:

• A research position in beautiful Barcelona and its Mediterranean climate.
• Research experience within a prestigious university (1^st position in Spain).
• Cutting-edge research in AI for healthcare in one of the most dynamic research groups in Europe (12 active projects including an ERC grant).
• An international research environment by joining a multi-cultural team representing all continents.
• Opportunities to collaborate with international and inter-disciplinary collaborators as part of the European projects.
• Support in career development (e.g. grant applications, supervision of PhD students).
• Travelling opportunities to scientific events, project meetings and international stays.
• Freedom to independently conduct research and contribute with own ideas.
• Flexible working hours, with possibility to telework.
• Competitive salary equivalent to Assistant or Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona, depending on experience.
• Contract duration until the end of the projects (minimum two years), with the possibility to extend the contract as part of other grants within the lab.

The requirements for the position are:

• Machine/deep learning algorithms.
• Biomedical data science.
• Multi-modal data integration.
• Excellent programming skills in Python and/or C++.
• Proficient English, both oral and written.
• Enthusiasm about research and medical applications of AI.
• Aptitude to work independently, lead project deliverables and meet deadlines.
• Good team spirit and participation to the lab’s scientific life.
• Aptitude to collaborate with local and international project partners (including technical and clinical collaborators).

Furthermore, knowledge in any of the following areas are desirable (but optional):

• Probability and statistics.
• Mathematics and/or applied mathematics.
• Bias detection and correction.
• Transfer learning and domain adaptation.
• Uncertainty estimation.
• Federated learning.
• Bioinformatics and/or Biomedical informatics.
• Biomedical engineering.
• Personalised and/or precision medicine.
• Digital health.

The research project:

You will join our AI for cardiology team as part of ongoing projects such as LongITools (www.longitools.org) and DataTools4Heart (www.datatools4heart.eu), funded by the European Commission. In these projects, we are developing new trustworthy AI methods for predictive modelling of heart disease from multi-source biomedical data (including clinical, biological, imaging and environmental data). In particular, we are interested in new AI models which, once applied in real-world practice, will be fair across population groups, generalisable across clinical sites, robust against data variations, explainable for clinical use, and respectful of data privacy. Hence, we are investigating a wide range of approaches, including transfer learning, bias correction, domain adaptation, generative modelling, uncertainty estimation, explainable AI and federated learning. Should you join our team, you will collaborate with several technical and clinical partners within and outside Europe (e.g. in the Netherlands, the UK, Greece, Finland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Peru, Tanzania).

The group:

The successful candidate will join the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (www.bcn-aim.org), which is an integral part of the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. It is a young and dynamic research lab, highly active in international projects, and composed of >25 enthusiastic academics, researchers, students and research managers, with expertise in data science, machine/deep learning, biomedical informatics, trustworthy AI, and health-related applications. The research group has an established track record in coordination and participation in European and international projects (> 10 million Euros over the last 5 years) in biomedical data science and medical AI (e.g. EuCanImage, euCanSHare, EarlyCause, LongITools, HealthyCloud, RadioVal, DataTools4Heart, Youth-GEMs, HappyMums, AIMIX, AI4HF).

The institution:

The University of Barcelona (UB), founded in 1450, is one of the oldest universities in Spain. It comprises a student body of 84,370 and 4,548 research staff members. With 73 undergraduate programs, 273 graduate programs and 48 doctorate programs, UB is the largest university in Barcelona and Catalonia. The UB is ranked the first Spanish university according to several rankings (QS World University Rankings 2022, Shanghai Ranking 2022). It is particularly interested in fostering international relations and, for many years, has managed an average of 150 European projects per year. The University of Barcelona is part of the prestigious League of European Universities Research (LERU).

Gross salary per year: