PhD project on integrated behavioural and EEG data analysis (1.0 FTE)

The University of Groningen has an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative center of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Balanced study and career paths in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 36,000 students and researchers to develop their own individual talents. Belonging to the best research universities in Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

Research environment
Research will be performed in the Neurobiology group at the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), which comprises several other strong, internationally recognized research groups in the field of evolutionary biology and behavioral neuroscience. In addition, the research will be performed as part of a large European project, allowing for active collaborations with excellent and diverse academic and industrial partner organizations. The PhD position is embedded in a large international project funded by an Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) grant from the European Union. The selected candidate will work in collaboration with project partners from 15 national and international academic and industrial organizations.

As part of this larger international consortium, we aim to understand the functional relationship between specific brain neuronal networks and social behaviour using mouse studies. The selected candidate will develop, implement, and apply a data analysis pipeline for integrated EEG-behavioural recoding platforms. This data pipeline will further guide the research to study the relationship between social behaviour and neuronal network activity using molecular, genetic and integrated EEG and behavioral analyses in mice.

You have:

• a Master degree in biology or biomedical science, with relevant experience in the areas of behavioural and EEG experimentation and analyses
• programming skills to develop and implement a data analysis pipeline for multi-channel EEG signals, specifically for statistical analysis of neural time series data with synchronized behavioural data
• experience with complex data analyses methods using tools like R, Matlab and/or the Python data science stack
• article 9 animal course certificate
• preferably, experience with rodent EEG surgical techniques and data acquisition
• a good command of English (oral and written)
• excellent communication skills (indicated by the ability to write scientific papers and deliver presentations).

We offer you, following the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:

• a salary of € 2,434 gross per month based on a full time position in the first year. This salary will show an annual increase within the scale
• a holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income
• an 8.3% end-of-the-year allowance
• a temporary position of one year with the option of a three-years extension, conditional on sufficient progress in the first year. A PhD training program is part of the agreement is part of the agreement and you will be enrolled in the Groningen Graduate School of Science.

For information you can contact:

Martien Kas,   [email protected]

(please do not use the email addresses above for applications)