MSCA-PF 2026 – Postdoctoral Fellowship

Email: opeipromo@ual.es, aaguera@ual.es

State/Province: Almeria

Postal Code: 04120

Street: Carretera Sacramento s/n

Description

The University of Almería is pleased to host potential MSCA-PF 2026 applicants! Professor Ana Agüera (Dept. of Chemistry & Physics) welcomes expressions of interest from talented researchers eager to develop an innovative project under her supervision. Applicants must satisfy the MSCA Mobility Rule. Further information regarding the 2026 call requirements is available here.

Our institution

Founded in 1993, the University of Almería (UAL) is a dynamic and modern public institution located on the Mediterranean coast, actively contributing to the European Research Area through international collaboration. Our research community comprises 1,041 professionals and 144 recognized research groups, all committed to excellence, social impact, and high-level knowledge transfer.

UAL is internationally recognized for its leadership in strategic sectors, ranking in the Top 151-200 of the Shanghai Ranking (GRAS) in fields such as Agricultural Sciences, Biotechnology, and Nursing. Our research capabilities are centralized in 12 Specialized Research Centers.

UAL holds a strong international vocation and a solid track record in international research programs (H2020, Horizon Europe) and academic cooperation (Erasmus+ KA2), currently managing 46 active international projects as both a partner and coordinator. We take pride in our leadership capacity, having coordinated 9 Horizon Europe Pillar II proposals and heading large-scale initiatives such as the LIFE ACCLIMATE project, and the EU Reference Laboratories (EURL) network. Moreover, UAL is the Coordinator of UNIgreen, the Green European University—a European Alliance of 8 institutions dedicated to sustainable agriculture and biotechnology.

Our office provides "end-to-end" personalized advice, from the proposal writing phase (including technical reviews) to financial management and final reporting.

The Centre / Research Group

The Solar Energy Research Center (CIESOL) is a joint research center of the University of Almeria (UAL) and the Plataforma Solar de Almeria-Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology (PSA-CIEMAT).

The research group (Environmental Analysis and Water Treatment) is an interdisciplinary team with extensive and proven experience in two main fields:

• Environmental Analytical Chemistry: development of methods for the analysis of organic microcontaminants (OMCs, such as pharmaceuticals, PFAS, pesticides, antibiotics…) in water matrices; analysis of disinfection-by-products (DBPs), assessment of water treatment processes; determination of OMCs in water, wastewater, soil, food,…; sample extraction; analytical techniques (LC-QqQ-MS/MS, LC-QTOF-MS, GC-MS/MS) and strategies (target/non-target analysis, suspect screening).
• Water disinfection and decontamination; study of advanced water treatment technologies (e.g. solar advanced oxidation/reduction processes); water treatment at pilot plant scale; reactor design; photocatalytic solar-driven processes; ecotoxicity of treated wastewater and more recently, solar and/or (photo)catalyst-driven hydrogen production (i.e. photoreforming).

The Project

The activity of the group is focused on the development, optimization and analytical assessment of advanced wastewater treatment processes applied to complex effluents in order to get their regeneration and enable their reuse. The strategic lines of action include:

1. Determination of organic micropollutants in wastewater and drinking water.
2. Development of advanced analytical methods for characterizing complex effluents and its application to monitoring of organic micro-contaminants during wastewater treatment to ensure its elimination.
3. Identification of transformation products generated during wastewater treatments and establishment of routes of degradation.
4. Study of the influence of treatments on the quality of reclaimed water and evaluating the impact of their reuse in agriculture and in the environment.
5. Determination of organic micropollutants in soil and plant.

Special focus is currently on the analysis of disinfection by-producst (DBPs) in new treatments alternative to typical chlorination as well as the identification of unknown DBPs. Moreover, new advanced treatments for the degradacion and defluorination of per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) are also under study, involving the application of new advanced reduction processes (AORs) together with the coupling with existing advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for micropollutant removal.

To this aim, different analytical techniques are applied, such as liquid-chromatography coupled to low and high resolutiom mass spectrometry and gas chromatography coupled to triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry.

Research Area:

• Chemistry (CHE)
• Environment and Geosciences (ENV)

To ensure a comprehensive evaluation of your application, interested candidates are kindly requested to submit the following documentation directly to Professor Ana Agüera. Please ensure all files are provided in English to facilitate the review process:

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)