Postdoctoral Research Scientist (Data Science)

Researcher Profile: Recognised Researcher (R2)

Application Deadline: 17 Nov 2026 - 21:59 (UTC)

Country: United Kingdom

Type of Contract: Permanent

Job Status: Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Postdoctoral Research Scientist (Data Science)

QIB - Quadram Institute Bioscience

Norwich, United Kingdom

GBP 39,000 - 46,500 per year

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Scientist position in the Hildebrand group at the Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB), Norwich, UK.

Background

Poor mental health is a major global health challenge, and growing evidence points to interactions between diet, lifestyle, the gut microbiome and mental wellbeing. This project will investigate their interaction using large-scale cohort data.

The role

Within NUTRIMIND standardised data from >20 European cohorts is being generated, covering dietary intake, metagenomics, metabolomics and mental-health measures. The successful applicant will integrate and analysing these datasets to identify reproducible relationships between data layers, including:

• harmonising heterogeneous dietary, microbiome, metabolomic and mental-health datasets;
• reproducible statistical analysis workflows for longitudinal and multi-omics datasets;
• causal-inference analysis to understand the role of gut microbiomes;
• using validated machine-learning models to develop robust health predictions across cohorts.

Building on previous work from the group (doi:10.1016/j.chom.2023.05.024, doi:10.1038/s41531-025-00885-5, doi:10.1016/j.chom.2021.05.008), the project will investigate microbial communities associated with specific foods and identify bacterial strains and genes associated with diet–microbiome–mental-health relationships. These analyses will help identify candidate mechanisms and potential avenues for future personalised approaches to supporting mental wellbeing.

Part of the role is to also contribute to the FlavourFerm project in analysing microbial communities involved in food-fermentation and subsequent gastrointestinal digestion.

The environment

The successful applicant will work across the Hildebrand and Traka groups.

Prof Falk Hildebrand studies the diversity, interactions and evolution of microbial communities using high-resolution metagenomics, microbial ecology and custom bioinformatic software (https://hildebra.github.io/). Dr Maria Traka leads the UK Food & Nutrition National Bioscience Research Infrastructure, researching data-driven food and nutrition.

The position will involve close collaboration with researchers across Europe, including participation in consortium workshops, meetings and related international activities. International travel is therefore an integral part of the role.

The ideal candidate

The ideal candidate will hold a PhD (or equivalent) in bioinformatics or related. Experience with microbiome data analysis, numerical ecology, neuroscience, machine learning, statistical modelling, mediation analysis, metabolomics would be advantageous. Skills in programming languages (R, Python or comparable) are important. We welcome applicants with different combinations of these skills. Specialised methods and project-specific expertise will be developed through mentorship, training and collaboration within the group and consortium.

Additional information

This is a full-time post until 30 August 2028, with potential for a further 18-month extension depending on funding.

Salary on appointment will be within the range £39,000 to £46,500 per annum, depending on qualifications and experience. A starting salary of £40,100 is guaranteed for candidates who can evidence their PhD certificate at appointment; those awaiting confirmation of their PhD award will be appointed at £39,000 until evidence is provided.

For further information and details of how to apply, please contact the Human Resources team on 01603 450814 or nbi.recruitment@nbi.ac.uk quoting reference 1006222.

This role meets the criteria for a visa application, and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply. Please contact the Human Resources Team if you have any questions regarding your application or visa options.

We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sectors of society. The Institute supports equality of opportunity within the workplace and expects all employees to share and display these values. To support this commitment, we offer a range of family-, faith- and diversity-friendly working arrangements to help all staff achieve excellence in their area of work. As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.

As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.

About the Quadram Institute

The Quadram Institute is an interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to understanding how food and microbes interact to promote health and prevent disease. Our vision is Healthy living by design: promoting lifelong health by decoding the interactions between food science, nutrition, microbes, microbiomes and human physiology, and transforming this knowledge into innovative solutions for society.

A partnership between Quadram Institute Bioscience, the University of East Anglia, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and BBSRC, The Quadram Institute brings together scientists and clinicians in a state-of-the-art building on the Norwich Research Park. This is one of Europe’s largest centres of life sciences and home of the John Innes Centre and The Earlham Institute. (https://quadram.ac.uk/).

The closing date for applications will be 17 November 2026.

The Quadram Institute Bioscience is a registered charity (No. 1058499) and is an Equal Opportunities Employer.

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available: 1

Company/Institute: QIB - Quadram Institute Bioscience

Country: United Kingdom

City: Norwich