Research Personnel in Training - R1 - 2 positions

Dr. Michael Toffolo is the Principal Investigator (henceforth, "IP") of the project PEOPLE (PalaeoEcology and OPen-LandscapE adaptations of Pleistocene humans in South Africa), whose objective is to determine whether freshwater availability exerted key selective pressure on the evolution, ecology, and dispersal of anatomically modern humans in the semi-arid interior of South Africa during the Middle and Late Pleistocene, and ultimately to understand how and when humans settled in the central interior of South Africa.

This project has been selected to receive funding from the European Research Council (ERC) as part of the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement No. 101039711). These funds stand at €1,499,856 and the project will be developed for 5 years starting on September 1st 2022 at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH).

The project PEOPLE will be pursued through an interconnected network of researchers from different fields of geochronology, archaeology, the geosciences, and other related fields, some of whom will work at the CENIEH and be led directly by the IP, while the rest are external collaborators from different European, African, and American research centers.

The selection process will be carried out through the selection by competitive examination system, with respect to the constitutional principles of equality, merit, capacity and transparency, with the valuations and scores specified below, in the corresponding section and annex.

The purpose of these contracts is to train two doctoral candidates.

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Position 1: research personnel in training (R1), Quaternary geoarchaeology of South Africa.

The research line will be focused on the reconstruction of Middle and Late Pleistocene environments in the central interior of South Africa, using sediments and fossils as proxies.

As a trainee researcher, the person will be expected to participate actively in the activities of PEOPLE, including: research stays in South Africa (up to two months per year) and other collaborating centers, laboratory analyses, synthesis and interpretation of results, drafting scientific papers, dissemination of scientific activity, and compliance with the strictest standards of research integrity as required by the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

The PhD student will be trained in micro-geoarchaeological methods (infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, magnetic susceptibility, micromorphology of sediments) and will study the formation and post-depositional processes of the sites investigated in the PEOPLE project under the supervision of the PI.

Position 2: research personnel in training (R1), Quaternary geochronology of South Africa.

The research line will be focused on establishing a chronological framework of environmental change during the Middle and Late Pleistocene in the central interior of South Africa, using luminescence dating.

As a trainee researcher, the person will be expected to participate actively in the activities of PEOPLE, including: research stays in South Africa (up to two months per year) and other foreign collaborating centers, laboratory analyses, synthesis and interpretation of results, drafting scientific papers, dissemination of scientific activity, and compliance with the strictest standards of research integrity as required by the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

The PhD student will be trained in micro-geoarchaeological methods for the characterization of dating material at the CENIEH, and in optically stimulated luminescence dating in other foreign collaborating centers, and will study the chronology of the river catchments investigated in the PEOPLE project under the supervision of the PI.

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The duration of these contracts shall be for 47 months. The start date of the contracts is estimated to be October 1^st, 2023.

This two temporary position will report to the PI of the PEOPLE project, which will finance the entirety of the salary costs of this contract (gross salary, employer's Social Security contribution, raises and incentives, and end-of-contract payout, if applicable).

Both temporary positions lie within the Research Area, Professional Group II, Level B.2, professional category of trainee researcher.

The employment contract to be formalized shall be a predoctoral contract under the terms of Articles 20 and 21 of the Act 14/2011, of June 1st, on Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Royal Decree 103/2019, of March 1st, which approves the Trainee Predoctoral Researchers' Charter, and by virtue of the Law 17/2022, of September the 5th, which modifies Law 14/2011, of June the 1st, of Science, Technology and Innovation. In accordance with article 7 of the Royal Decree 103/2019, which states that when establishing the remuneration, the reference taken shall be the category of Group 1 employees in the salary table set out in the unified collective agreement for employees of central government ("Administración General del Estado"), the remuneration for this contract shall stand at approximately €23,600 gross per annum for 2023.