Description

The group of Predictive Microbial Ecology led by Dr. Josep Ramoneda at CEAB-CSIC invites outstanding postdoctoral researchers to develop 2–3 year research projects under the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF 2026) programme.

Applicants who secure the support of Dr. Ramoneda will benefit from institutional support and specialized MSCA-PF proposal writing training designed to enhance success rates. CEAB-CSIC offers a diverse and dynamic research environment in a natural environment, and has excellent facilities for both laboratory-based and computational work, including an internal high-performance cluster (HPC). The center is located in an attractive spot in the Costa Brava within 1h drive from both Barcelona and Girona, with options for daily commute.

By the MSCA-PF submission deadline, candidates must hold a PhD degree, comply with the MSCA mobility rule, and designate CEAB-CSIC as Host Institution. Researchers specializing in microbial ecology, with emphasis on the use of metagenomics and/or predictive models are welcome. Candidates are encouraged to contact Josep Ramoneda to jointly prepare a competitive proposal for the MSCA-PF call.

Brief profile of the Centre / Research Group / Lab / PI:

The group of Predictive Microbial Ecology at CEAB-CSIC is a young and active group composed of a mixture of PhD students, MSc students, a postdoc, and Dr. Ramoneda with active collaborations with sister groups (Emilio O Casamayor, CEAB-CSIC) as well as international partners (such as Noah Fierer lab, University of Colorado; David R Johnson, EAWAG; Gaofei Jiang, Nanjing University). We promote a horizontal and collaborative atmosphere, flexible hours, and intellectual freedom. The group has sufficient funding for the next years to support all research aspects needed by the candidate.

Idea / Project description:

The main research lines in the group involve improving our genome-based understanding of microbial traits, with emphasis on environmental preferences and metabolism. The main goal of our work is to infer the ecological traits of the vast majority of microbial taxa that remain uncharacterized to predict their responses to ongoing environmental change. Notable works from the group are the characterization of bacterial amino acid biosynthesis capabilities across ecosystems (Ramoneda et al., 2023, Nature Communications) and developing a predictive model of bacterial pH preferences (Ramoneda et al., 2023, Science Advances).

Current projects in the group are oriented towards the identification of the genes and proteome features involved in bacterial adaptation to aridity (involving desiccation and salinization), with the overarching goal of predicting how microbial communities respond to drought. Research involves both field campaigns in the nearby hypersaline lake system of the Monegros Desert (Aragón, Spain), lab-based validation tests with bacterial isolates, and large genomic dataset compilations. We apply machine learning models when prediction requires the inclusion of large sets of predictive features such as taxa, genes, or chemical aspects of proteomes. 

For more information see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=46xlwp0AAAAJ&hl=en

Anyone interested to develop a personal project (or to collaborate with our projects) within these topics is invited to contact Josep Ramoneda and discuss options. 

Contact Person / Scientist in Charge

• Name and surname: Josep Ramoneda
• Email address: josep.ramoneda@ceab.csic.es
• ORCID:  0000-0002-1806-2889

Research Area (according to the evaluation panels):

• Life Sciences

Documents to be submitted by applicants and deadlines:                

• A short description of scientific interests and brief CV by July 30, 2026