PhD Position in Computational Neuroscience and Enactive Cognitive Science

[Miguel Aguilera]

Applications are invited for a three-year PhD position (co-funded by a MSCA COFUND grant) in Computational Neuroscience and Enactive Cognition. The successful candidate will be working with Manuel G Bedia and Miguel Aguilera in computational models of cognitive systems, using tools from complex dynamical systems, information theory and Bayesian inference. The position will start in June 2020 in a collaboration between the University of Zaragoza and the University of the Basque Country.

ISAAC Lab. University of Zaragoza, Spain. http://isaaclab.unizar.es/
IAS Research Centre for Life, Mind and Society. University of the Basque Country, Spain. http://www.ias-research.net/


DETAILS
• 3-years contract
• MSCA mobility rule: candidates must not have resided in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the end of the call (30th November 2019)
• Recruitment date: approximately June 2020.
• Funding per fellow: 24.000-26.0000€ gross annual salary + Up to 9.600€ per year for research costs
• Call deadline: 30th November (2019), 14:00 CET


POSITION
A major challenge in cognitive neuroscience is the understanding of how behaviour arises from the dynamical interaction of an animal’s nervous system, body and environment. To comprehend embodied neural activity involves the resolution of various conceptual, technical and methodological issues in explaining how living organisms self-organize at many levels (from neural bio-chemistry to behaviour and learning). A crucial problem in this front is the lack of mathematical tools to model complex brain-body-environment interactions in living organisms.
We are seeking researchers passionate about combining theoretical concepts and mathematical tools from enactive cognitive science, complex systems and artificial intelligence to address central challenges about cognition. Our current research priorities cover a large range of topics, including computational neuroscience, enactive/embodied cognition, machine learning and robotics. We focus on pushing fundamental research towards a thorough mathematical understanding of embodied cognitive processes in nature and artificial environments. We study the interaction between neural self-organization and sensorimotor interaction using dynamical neural network models with information theoretic and Bayesian inference methods for very large systems. Other research topics will be seriously considered if you can make a case for their tractability and relevance to cognitive science.

ELEGIBILITY
Applicants must comply with the following eligibility criteria:
• At the call deadline, candidates must hold a a Master’s degree and a minimum of 300 ECTS credits (or a equivalent non-European degree) and be within the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers.
• Not yet have been awarded a doctoral degree.
• MSCA mobility rule: The candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the end of the call (30th November 2019).

See details here https://www.iberustalent.com/call-for-applicants/

TECHNICAL SKILLS
Although the requirements can be adapted to the different candidate profiles, a strong candidate needs to possess the following skills:
• Background in Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science or related fields
• Strong interest in mathematical modeling and complex systems analysis: e.g. advanced statistics, machine learning, neural networks, dynamical systems and information theory)
• Programming skills, specially in Python and/or C++

COLLABORATIONS
The PhD candidate would work with researchers in the ISAAC Lab (http://isaaclab.unizar.es/) at the University of Zaragoza, in close collaboration with researchers in the IAS-Research Center for Life, Mind and Society (http://www.ias-research.net/) at the University of the Basque Country. The candidate will have geographical flexibility to work between the two groups. Students may benefit from research visits and collaboration with other centers abroad, and the project is open to collaborations and research mobility depending on the interests of the applicants.

HOW TO APPLY
The deadline for applications is November 30, 2019.
Candidates can be directly apply at https://www.iberustalent.com/health-technologies/2019health4/ (note that although the project description in this link is focused on computational approaches to neurodegenerative diseases, the specific PhD topic will be flexible)
However, candidates are encouraged to first contact the project supervisors (mgb...@unizar.es, s...@maguilera.net), briefly describing their background and research interests, and addressing any questions or inquiries.