UiT The Arctic University of Norway has established «The Arctic MSCA-PF program» (uit.no/project/arcticmsca) to recruit excellent young researchers planning to apply for a Marie Skƚodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) to pursue a career in research. We invite applications from promising young researchers within the field of Human Microbiome. The selected candidate will write a proposal for a 24-month MSCA-PF at UiT together with Associate Professor Veronika K. Pettersen. This is an opportunity to accelerate your research career while living in the urban research city of Tromsø, uniquely located at the top of the world surrounded by some of Europe’s last pristine wild nature. 

This call is one of 70 from pre-selected supervisors at UiT The Arctic University of Norway through the “Arctic MSCA-PF program”. Successful postdoc candidates will be invited for a three-day MSCA-PF symposium June 3-5, 2025 (hybrid physical/digital event, see details at https://uit.no/arcticmsca/programstructure). At this event, the candidates will present their past research achievements, discuss future plans with their potential supervisor and learn how to write a successful MSCA-PF application. The selected candidates will, jointly with the supervisor, write the MSCA-PF application by the deadline of September 10, 2025. 

In this call we search for talented, young researchers within the field of Human Microbiome as presented by Associate Professor Veronika K. Pettersen:

Humans have a long-standing coexistence with microorganisms. In that respect, DNA sequencing techniques that map the taxonomical composition and genomic potential of microbial communities have become invaluable for microbiome research. Several metagenomic studies provided initial insights into the strain persistence in the infant gut microbiome. However, a comprehensive understanding of how different factors (e.g., diet, mode of birth, medication use) affect strain persistence in the human gut is missing. For example, it is currently unknown how long bacterial strains persist in the gut and how often related strains replace them. Similarly, do strains diversify into coexisting lineages, or does one dominant lineage exist? And are dynamics of genomic changes species-specific? These questions would be the drivers of the future MSCA-PF project.

KEYWORDS: Gut microbiome, metagenomics, strain persistence, adaptive evolution

Please send your CV (max 3 pages) and describe a research project that will strengthen and complement the presented research (max 2 pages) to veronika.k.pettersen@uit.no by Feb 16th 2025. Mark your application "Arctic MSCA". Successful candidates will be contacted in late March 2025.