Hosting Information
- Offer Deadline
- EU Research Framework Programme
- H2020 / Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Country
- Spain
- City
- Jaén
Organisation/Institute
- Organisation / Company
- Universidad de Jaén
- Department
- Psychology
- Is the Hosting related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?
- No
Contact Information
- Organisation / Company Type
- Higher Education Institute
- Website
- Postal Code
- 23071
- Street
- Campus Las Lagunillas
Description
Description of Hosting Institution (UJA – Spain)
Jaén University (UJA) was created in 1993 and is in the Top 50 of the world’s best young universities according to THE (Times Higher Education). This ranking analyzes aspects such as teaching, research work, the university’s international outreach, or integration into industry. Besides, the UJA has received the distinction of Campus of International Excellence in the fields of Agrifood (CEIA3) and Climate Change (CamBio), plus it also leads the Andalusian CEI project on historical heritage PatrimoniUN10.
Jaén University has five faculties (Social and Legal Sciences; Humanities and Education Sciences; Health Sciences; Experimental Sciences and Social Work) and two higher polytechnic schools for engineering (Linares and Jaén). In turn, these centers are organized into 35 departments. It also has three Postgraduate educational centers (Doctorate School, Advanced Study Center in Modern Languages and Postgraduate Study Center).
In regards to its research, there are several specialized centers at Jaén University (https://www.ujaen.es/servicios/ofipi/uja-ri-expertise). Besides, the full picture of the over 100 UJA groups covers the following research fields of expertise: Agrifood (AGR); Biology (BIO); Health (CTS); Social Sciences, Business, Law (SEJ); Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics (FQM); Humanities (HUM); Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (RNM); Information and Communications Technology (TIC); and Engineering Production Technology (TEP).
As far the UJA hosting offer is concerned, Prof. ÁNGELES AGÜERO ZAPATA (aaguero@ujaen.es) would be willing to host post-doctoral researchers that are eventually funded through the MSCA-IF 2020 call for applications to be part of the following research team: https://www.ujaen.es/servicios/ofipi/uja-ri-expertise/cts-283-psychobiology.
Project description
Alcohol is probably the most consumed psychoactive drug in the world. Controlled drinking is common, but for many individuals alcohol consumption leads to addictive disorder. An important explicative factor for that fact could be the differential sensibility to the rewarding and aversive effects of alcohol that each person owns. Thus, the study of these effects is particularly important for understanding alcohol addiction.
Research in this field seems to point out that alcohol effects are determined by a set of inner factors (sex, alcohol intake history, etc.), as well as by environmental conditions surrounding the individual (i.e., stress) and, of course, the interactions between all these factors.
Our research project intends to be a first approach to this important and complex subject. We have ended the first phase of this project. This phase was directed to studying the aversive and the rewarding properties of alcohol, in neutral environmental conditions (i.e., without induced stress), taking into account variables as the sex of animals and the alcohol intake history of them. Once completed this phase, we will begin the study of the alcohol effects in stressful conditions. We will induce the state of anxious/stress pharmacologically using Yohimbine (YOH), which enhances anxiety in human beings as well as in animal models of anxiety.
As a whole, the experiments included in the project are expected to provide a set of data that help to understand: first, how the stress could affect the perception of the aversive and rewarding properties of alcohol; second, whether the ethanol intake depends on the previous experience with the aversive and rewarding properties of the drug and, especially, if the stress could modulate such a relation and in what direction.
Application procedure
CV, Motivation letter and Summary of project proposal (250 words) should be sent by the offer deadline to ofipi@ujaen.es. Further information regarding the application requirements can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/msca-if-2020 & https://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/actions/individual-fellowships_en. Please, take into account that interested candidates should comply with the MSCA-IF programme mobility rule before applying: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2018-2020/main/h2020-wp1820-msca_en.pdf.