Email: opeipromo@ual.es, mra887@ual.esState/Province: AlmeriaPostal Code: 04120Street: Carretera Sacramento s/nDescription
The University of Almería is pleased to host potential MSCA-PF 2026 applicants! Professor Miguel Rodriguez-Arrastia (Dept. of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Medicine) welcomes expressions of interest from talented researchers eager to develop an innovative project under his 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
CARE360 brings together a team with complementary expertise in humanised care, innovation and clinical safety. Its activity addresses the care of vulnerable populations, including children, adolescents, older adults, migrants and sexual and gender minorities, with particular emphasis on the factors that influence their wellbeing and quality of life. The group develops innovative educational methodologies, clinical simulation, digital resources and artificial intelligence-based solutions to support safe decision-making in healthcare settings. It also promotes the assessment and strengthening of safety culture, the emotional wellbeing of students and professionals, and the improvement of patients’ and families’ experiences across the life course. In this manner, its multidisciplinary composition fosters knowledge transfer, offering an integrated perspective on care and contributing to the consolidation of emerging research lines.
The Project
The proposal addresses a critical challenge in nursing education: the acquisition of safe clinical skills, with a focus on intramuscular injection technique, one of the procedures most frequently associated with medication errors.
Therefore, the project aims to develop and validate an AI-based automated feedback system to support nursing students during simulation-based practice. The system will integrate computer vision, pose estimation and action recognition to analyse student procedural performance and patient communication in real time, providing instant, objective feedback independently of educator availability.
Additionally, wearable technology will be incorporated to monitor physiological indicators of anxiety during skill performance, enabling a holistic assessment of the learning experience. This initiative aligns with the established research lines of the CARE360 group at the University of Almeria in clinical simulation, AI applications in healthcare and patient safety.
The interdisciplinary supervision team, combining nursing expertise from Dr Rodriguez-Arrastia with computer science knowledge from Prof. Martinez-Ortigosa at the TIC-146 Supercomputing and Algorithms research group at the same institution, ensures both clinical relevance and technical rigour.
In this manner, the project will contribute to reducing variability in clinical competency assessment, empowering students to engage in autonomous, self-directed practice, and generating transferable evidence for nursing education systems across Europe.
Research Area
- Information Science and Engineering (ENG)
- Life Sciences (LIFE)
To ensure a comprehensive evaluation of your application, interested candidates are kindly requested to submit the following documentation directly to Professor Miguel Rodriguez-Arrastia. Please ensure all files are provided in English to facilitate the review process:
- CV
- Letter of recommendation (optional)
