Postdoctoral Fellowship Juan de la Cierva 2022

This call aims to hire one postdoctoral researcher to promote the internationalization of research at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC).

 We are looking for someone to apply for a two-year Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellowship to work with professor Dr. Maite Garolera and Psychology and Mental Health Area. The objective is to contribute to the development of UIC BRAIN LAB together with the group Brain, Cognition, and Behavior (C3-CST) (https://neuropsicologiacst.cat) at the Consorci Sanitari de Terrassa. The UIC BRAIN LAB is a project of UIC's Psychology and Mental health Area ( Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at UIC's Basic Science Department https://www-uic-es.sire.ub.edu/en/faculty-medicine-and-health-sciences) for integrating technology to behavioral and cognitive science.

 Dr. Garolera is professor at UIC Barcelona since 2022. During the last eight years, Dr.Garolera leading the  C3-CST group has received 15 grants for financing their research projects as Funding from Marató TV3 (2015) to lead a computer vision technology project on ICTs and cognition (Rememory). She has also participated in a European project (SMART4MD) from the Horizon 2020 Health Program. In 2017, they received a grant from FEDER founds-EU for an ICT solution for loneliness (T'ACTIVA). Moreover, she received grants (2017) from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to study the neurobiological bases of obesity. In 2019, she participated in an international consortium awarded by EIT ICT research using IOT (Infinity). In 2020, Dr. Garolera participated in a national project (Anomaly) to identify risk behaviors using artificial intelligence, funded by ACCIÓ. Recently, she led and coordinated the multicenter project NAUTILUS, to research the neurobiological basis of the cognitive, emotional, and functional changes and brain connectivity associated with COVID-19 funded by Marató TV3 (2021). In addition, Dr. Garolera participates DIANA's project supported by AGAUR to study the neurobiology of long COVID in people with severe COVID. In 2022 she coordinated the Rehab COVID project, financed by the Ministry of science and innovation, to study the efficacy of digital rehabilitation (mindfulness, cognitive training, and physical activity) for people with long covid. Currently, she uses immersive virtual reality to improve cognition in a diverse population, such as people with cancer with chemobrain effects, people with mild cognitive impairment, and long Covid.  Dr. Garolera's research coordinates with groups from different institutions with different profiles, such as engineers, computer science, physicians, optometrists, and biologists, that provide analysis methods (e.g., artificial intelligence) and outcome measures (e.g., eye tracking, microbiota, neuroimaging, or blood biomarkers). 

The development of the UIC BRAIN LAB will look into and assess the technologies that can enhance psychology and neuroscience research. It will collaborate with other laboratories and experts to integrate different perspectives and research methodol ogies. It will develop innovative research projects with cutting-edge technology to generate screening tools to identify psychological vulnerability and the risk of mental health problems. It also aims to promote innovation and exploration of new interventions and rehabilitation tools for emotional and cognitive difficulties.