Professor Nancy Babio and Professor Jordi Salas-Salvadó, established at the at Human Unit (http://www.nutricio.urv.cat/ca/) from of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology at Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Tarragona, Spain), are interested in receiving Expressions of Interest of potential candidates for the Marie Sklodowska – Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF-2022) call. Selected candidates will receive dedicated support from my group to write a successful proposal.

The title of the proposed project: Dietary, environmental and lifestyle determinants associated with the seminogram and other parameters related to male fertility: the LED-FERTYL study

The overarching goal of our project is to analyze in a cohort of healthy male participants the potential determinants of seminogram parameters including food and nutrient intake, physical activity, sedentarism, tobacco and alcohol use and presence of persistent organic pollutants and to assess potential age-related mechanisms including sperm DNA methylation profiles, leucocytes and sperm telomere length and oxidation.

For the Marie Curie PD call of 2022, we are looking for postdoc(s) with experience in:

● Biosciences disciplines (a PhD in this field is compulsory)

● Epidemiology and statistical analysis

● Laboratory skills in cell and molecular biology

We are looking for talented and innovative self-motivated young scientists, strongly committed to high quality frontier and multi-disciplinary research and able to add new insights to the existing URV core expertise. Only candidates with an outstanding record of research achievements and publications in top-quality journals will be considered.

URV as Hosting Institution located at Scientific Campus of Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain), has all the technical and scientific facilities for carry out this project.

Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) is well positioned both nationally and internationally due to the Excellence of its research and the commitment and internationally recognised staff. URV is made up of 12 Faculties and Schools, with 24 Departments, which welcome annually 11.400 undergraduate, 1.500 master and 1.200 PhD students (20% of them full time employees). In 2019, it was named World’s 78th Best Young University aged less than 50 years and 401-500 Best University in the World (by Times Higher Education World University Rankings), and 501-600 by Academic Ranking of world Universities. Being the within the top 10% universities in number and impact of its publications is a clear measure of the quality of the research we can offer to the future MSCA-PF fellows.

Testament to the quality of its research is the fact that URV is host for around 100 MSCA fellows, in different programmes (COFUND, ITN, IF), displaying a strong bond to the principles of the MSCA programme.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

At the attempted deadline for the submission of the proposals (14/09/2022), researchers:

- Experienced Researchers: In possession of doctoral degree. At the call deadline, supported researchers must have a maximum of 8 years fulltime equivalent experience in research, measured from the date that the researcher was in a possession of a doctoral degree and certified by appropriate documents.

- Nationality: Any.

- Mobility: The researcher must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the host organization for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the deadline for submission of proposals (a relaxed rule for Career restarting and Reintegration).

- Must be fluent in English (both written and spoken).

SELECTION PROCESS

Researchers willing to apply should check that they fulfil the eligibility criteria and then send an expression of interest, consisting of:

● A detailed Curriculum Vitae including their experience in mentoring students, research communication, and research management.

● A summary presentation of their research proposal / A motivation letter by highlighting the complementarity between their skills and the research group expertise.

Expressions of interest must be submitted to uspir@urv.cat (Title of the e-mail “URV - MSCA-PF-2022 Prof. Nancy Babio”).

Proposals will be pre-selected on the basis of internal evaluation. Candidates will be informed of the results of the pre-selection a week after the deadline.

WEB of the research group: http://www.nutricio.urv.cat/ca/