Universidad San Pablo CEU (CEU) is looking for a highly motivated candidate to apply for MSCA-IF-2017 calls. Together with the selected candidate a proposal will be written and submitted. The involvement of the selected candidate in the proposal writing process will provide ample opportunity to tailor the proposal to her / his research interests. A successful application will result in an appointment under approved conditions.

CEU is a young university founded in Madrid in 1993. CEU is committed to academic and professional excellence, aiming for the best quality in education, research and internationalization. CEU is a specialized University and structures its studies on three main fields of knowledge: “Health and life sciences”, “Social sciences and humanities” and “Architecture and Engineering”.

CEU facilities include 8 Research Centers, 43 Research Groups and 11 Core Research Facilities which sum an area of 3,400 m2 devoted to research. Over the past 3 years, University:

• Has been granted 35 competitive research projects.

• Achieves collaborations with Industry meaning 65% of R&D funding.

• Obtained almost € 1M from European Commission 7th Framework Programme and is participating in three H2020 projects, including a MSCA-IF grant.

The Plant-Microbe Interaction Biotechnology Group (former Biotechnology of the Rhizosphere, www.biotecnologia-rizosfera-ceu.com ) works within the framework of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidad San Pablo CEU in Madrid.

The group is built on the expertise of the plant-microbe interaction, combining plant physiology and microbial ecology as basic and applied disciplines. Our mission is to improve human health by producing high quality plant foods within a sustainable environment. Our group holds a collection of beneficial microorganisms with a demonstrated beneficial effect on plant growth.

Head of the group is Professor F. Javier Gutiérrez Mañero, together with him, a team of three Senior researchers: Dra. Beatriz Ramos Solano, Dr. José Antonio Lucas García, and Dra. Ana García-Villaraco Velasco, have published: 32 indexed scientific papers from 2008-15; 7 book chapters from 2008-13 and 6 patents up to 2017.

The Group has broad experience in teaching and research, being funded by national and international funds and industry.

This Research Project focuses on unraveling the basic mechanisms of the plant-bacteria interaction to achieve a biotechnological improvement of plant production.

The main area of application focuses on Agriculture, paying attention to a sustainable increase in crop yields within regular management practices. In order to achieve these purposes, plant physiology is studied in depth paying specific attention to the photosynthetic process, and to secondary metabolism for its involvement in plant defense, as well as secondary metabolites for being the main source of active molecules to improve human health. At this point, it is especially significant to study crop plants that are directly included in the diet, promoting good health of society. Therefore, an outline of the research carried out is identification of effective bacteria- delivery to plant species (field or controlled conditions)-evaluation of effects- biochemical and genomic-transcriptomic analysis of plants after bacterial challenge-effects of plant extracts on animals. The main objective of this group is to understand the key elements in plant – microorganism interaction, from control of metabolic and signaling pathways to metabolism and epigenetic gene regulation. For these purposes, the use of massive approaches (-omics) is crucial as well as studying processes in model plants (tomato) and other plants of interest like berries.

The Marie Curie Fellow will join a young, dynamic laboratory with PhD and postdoctoral students in a highly motivating environment; teaching experience is available. The candidate will use the latest techniques in plant molecular biology to unravel the mechanisms by which beneficial bacteria or derived elicitors trigger plant metabolism, including from field work to basic analysis and production and analysis of transgenic plants, techniques for gene edition and bioinformatics for gene expression analysis.

The research has biotechnological implications, involves dealing with private companies and results will be published in the highest-rated journals of the area.

At the deadline for the submission of proposals (14/09/2017), researchers (*):

• Shall be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience.

• Must not have resided or carried out their main activities in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the abovementioned deadline.

An expression of interest shall be sent to Beatriz Ramos Solano (bramsol@ceu.es), before 15th of July 2017. Your file should contain the following elements:

• A short CV: Only CVs with considerable scientific achievements will be considered. Candidates should have an excellent track record of research; they should demonstrate the ability to grow into scientific/technological leadership roles.

• A two-page research proposal.

• A short statement explaining why CEU would be the best host institution for your research.

• Two letters of reference.

Contact person:

Dr. Dr. BEATRIZ RAMOS SOLANO

Departamento CIENCIAS FARMACEUTICAS Y DE LA SALUD

Facultad de Farmacia

Universidad CEU San Pablo

bramsol@ceu.es