MSCA-PF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Sport and Health.
Professor Irene Esteban Cornejo, from the Department of Sport and Health at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) in 2026 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (for more information about the 2026 call, please consult this link).
Brief description of the institution:
The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. With more than 57,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and almost 7,000 members of staff, the UGR offers 97 undergraduate degrees, 157 master’s degrees (7 of which are double degrees) and 28 doctoral programmes via its 124 departments and nearly 50 centers. Accordingly, the UGR offers one of the most extensive and diverse ranges of higher education programmes in Spain.
The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the institution’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also internationally renowned for its excellence in diverse research fields and ranked among the top Spanish universities in a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, and international funding.
The UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking - Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The 2025 edition of the ARWU places the UGR in 301-400th position in the world and as the 3-8 highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings, the UGR is outstanding in Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence and Dentistry & Oral Sciences (ranked between 51th-75th position), Computer Science & Engineering, Education and Hospitality & Tourism Management (between 76-100th position), and in the areas of Food Science & Technology and Business Administration (between 101-150th position). A little lower in the ranking, the UGR also stands out in the areas of Earth Sciences, Law, Management, Nursing, Psychology and Statistics, in which the UGR is positioned in the 151-200th position.
Additionally, the UGR counts with 4 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list, most of them related to the Computer Science and Mathematics scientific areas. It is also well recognised for its presence in the top 200 Universities in Europe at 83th place.
Internationally, the University of Granada is firmly committed to its participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the prevoius Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, the UGR obtained a total of 124 projects with a total funding of more than €30 million. For the current Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, the UGR has obtained 136 projects, so far, with a total funding of more than €38 million.
Brief description of the Centre/Research Group:
The PROFITH Research Group (http://profith.ugr.es/?lang=en) is a young, enthusiastic, and highly competitive group. Our overall goal is to advance the current scientific knowledge in a way that contributes to create a healthier society by means of examining the beneficial effects of physical activity on individuals’ health with and without disease, of any age. To achieve this aim, the PROFITH Research Group has several consolidated research labs. Exercise neuroscience is one the key research labs in our group, and is developed in several subareas:
- Exercise, fitness and brain health in youth: longitudinal and interventional studies.
- Exercise neuroscience and healthy aging: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) studies.
- Exercise and brain-heart connections in patients with Coronary Heart Disease: implementing new brain sequences on exercise neuroscience.
Project description:
The exercise neuroscience and healthy aging research line focused on dementia prevention through tailored exercise interventions is framed within the TEIDe project (Tailored Exercise Interventions for Dementia prevention: bridging research evidence and primary care practice), ERA4Health JTC2024.
TEIDe combines:
- Predictive Medicine: Development of simple and valid dementia risk scores based on large-scale cohort data (>3 million participants) for primary healthcare implementation.
- Precision Medicine: Identification of optimal exercise types and doses for cognitive benefits depending on individual factors such as sex, age, education, and cognitive/functional status, using harmonized data from 8 randomized controlled trials (n ≈ 3,000).
- Mechanistic Approach: Investigation of the cellular, brain (MRI and PET imaging), and behavioral pathways linking exercise with cognitive aging, including the analysis of Alzheimer’s disease blood biomarkers.
- Clinical Application: Pilot testing the feasibility of dementia prevention strategies in a primary healthcare setting.
For these well-designed randomized controlled trials, we have high-quality datasets including brain MRI (T1-weighted MPRAGE, resting-state fMRI, diffusion tensor imaging, arterial spin labeling), PET scans, blood biomarkers (e.g., Aβ, tau proteins, NfL, GFAP), and cognitive and behavioral assessments. Data management follows open science principles, using platforms like XNAT and Datalad.
We are seeking motivated researchers or postdoctoral candidates with strong expertise in biostatistics/data science/data analysis. Skills in R, Python, bash, and neuroimaging tools (e.g., FSL, SPM) are valued.
Research Area:
- Information Science and Engineering (ENG)
- Life Sciences (LIFE)
For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Irene Esteban Cornejo (ireneesteban@ugr.es):
- CV
- Letter of recommendation (optional)
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