Description
Alejandro Romero, Department of Biotechnology welcomes expressions of interest from Postdoctoral researchers with an excellent track record of research and publication to apply jointly to the European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme in 2026 (MSCA-PF-2026).
Our Morphology Unit provides a comprehensive range of facilities for morphological studies, as well as 2D and 3D image acquisition and processing. We host a state-of-the-art laboratory specialized in hard tissue histology, 3D digital modeling, and surface topographic mapping, with a specific focus on dental analysis. Advanced molding, casting, and embedding techniques are fully available for the microstructural study of biological tissues.
Our specialized infrastructure includes:
- Microscopy unit: Equipped with two Leica ES2 stereomicroscopes and three Leica DMRB Fluorescence Light Microscopes, all fitted with digital measurement modules.
- 3D Modeling & Analysis Unit: Featuring portable scanners for high-resolution 3D digitization, including SHINING 3D and HP DAVID Structured Light Scanners. We make extensive use of advanced software (Geomagic, MeshLab, Amira, and Avizo) for object modeling, alongside custom R scripts for morphometric and topographic metrics.
- Dental Cast Collection: We hold an extensive cast collection sourced from institutions worldwide, enabling high-impact comparative morphological studies of extant non-human primates, diverse human populations, and fossil hominins.
Furthermore, researchers will have full access to the high-end Technical Scientific Services of the University of Alicante (sstti.ua.es), which include Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Confocal Microscopy, and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).
THE PROJECT
Our research focuses on the evolution and function of cranio-dental characters in primates. We aim to develop and apply advanced 3D computer visualization techniques for comparative morphometric and topographic analyses. The ultimate goal of the project is to provide innovative evolutionary and ecologically adaptive models of dental masticatory functionality and biomechanics.
If you are interested in developing with us a project, email your CV and cover letter as soon as possible. Questions and applications should be sent to arr@ua.es.
Warning: Applicants should check eligibility and mobility conditions of MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships, such as:
- a) To be eligible should have a PhD at the time of the deadline for applications and must have a maximum of eight years’ experience in research.
- b) Comply with mobility rules: Not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the Host for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.
HOST INSTITUTION
The University of Alicante (UA) was created in 1979. In 2024-25 UA educated and trained 26.473 students (58,79% women) who are enrolled in any of the 54 undergraduate and 96 postgraduate programmes, being one of the fastest growing universities in Spain. UA employs 4.293 researchers and management staff (47% women), with an annual budget of 269 million Euros in 2024. Currently, UA is investing near to 68M Euros to boost frontier research and technology transfer processes via spin off, licensing and international promotion mainly. In 2024, the University received 41.5 million Euros at National, Regional, European level and private R&D thanks to 1.016 new agreements achieved by researchers working in 251 research groups hosted in 13 Research Institutes, most of them multidisciplinary based. Despite its youth, the University of Alicante is already present in the three main university rankings in the world, as shown here.
In 2024, the University of Alicante has consolidated its position in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU-FIELD), known as Shanghai Ranking, in its classification by fields of knowledge. In the 2024 edition, the University of Alicante has managed to further improve on last year’s excellent performance in the field of Tourism and Hotel Management, when it was ranked 76-100th in the world. Excellent performance has also been achieved in other fields of knowledge, such as in Nursing (151-200) and Chemical Engineering (401-500); Ecology (201-300) and Economics ranked 401-500th in the world classification.
Amongst this international activity, UA´s involvement in European Programmes has been increasing since CECA Programme and improving leadership, taking part in 50 FP5 and FP6, 49 FP7, 51 H2020 and 41 Horizon Europe projects. This activity is not only limited to DG Research, but also intensive in other Programmes: 31 Erasmus, 3 DG Justice Actions, 2 CERV, and 3 LIFE Grants among others (Funding and Tenders EC data). Also, UA is strategically involved in several EU initiatives: BBI, Hydrogen Europe Research, EERA, EOSC, etc.
In terms of international proposal and post grant award, UA offers a tailor made support to researchers at legal, financial and administrative level provided by the International RTD Projects Unit with a strong track record in supporting European RTD-consortia in proposal preparation, communication with the funding authorities and project reporting. UA is also partner of the European IP Helpdesk and coordinates the Latin America and India IP SME Helpdesks and is the Regional Node of Enterprise Europe Network for 17 years now.
UA has been awarded with the HRS4R seal, that endorses our commitment to the principles of “The European Charter for Researchers” and “The Code of Conduct for the recruitment of Researchers”.