Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA)

Organisation/Company Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) Research Field Biological sciences » Biology Chemistry » Biochemistry Technology » Biotechnology Medical sciences » Other Computer science » Other Environmental science Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 19 Nov 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 40 Offer Starting Date 1 Jan 2027 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Other EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? Yes

Offer Description

JOB CHARACTERISTICS

- Number of positions available: 1
- Expected start: January 1st, 2027 (*)
- Temporary Position. The position is for maximum 4 years

(*) This offer and contracting are subject to the obtaining of the project (Concession Resolution), the availability of economic funds and the effective start of the project.

JOB DESCRIPTION

ICRA is looking for a highly motivated person to join as a predoctoral researcher (R1) and develop a doctoral thesis within the framework of the FOODTRACK project (PID2025-172036NB-C21), funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities / State Research Agency (MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by FSE+ within the Knowledge Generation Projects 2025 and Actions for the training of predoctoral research staff 2025.

FOODTRACK is an interdisciplinary and ambitious project that aims to understand how chemical and microbiological exposures from food relate to the human exposome, the gut microbiome and resistome, and to the signals observed at the population scale in urban wastewater.





The project is based on the integrated analysis of three types of samples and complementary scales:

– Representative food baskets, designed to characterize dietary exposures in different socioeconomic contexts.

– Human biological samples from a well-characterized population cohort, especially fecal samples and other biological matrices.

– Wastewater collected directly from urban collectors and wastewater treatment plants, together with sewage sludge, providing a population-scale perspective.

By combining microbiology, molecular biology, metagenomics, bioinformatics, human biomonitoring, and wastewater-based epidemiology, FOODTRACK will investigate how microbial communities, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and chemical exposures are distributed and connected along the food–human–wastewater continuum.

The selected person will join the ICRA research team and develop a doctoral thesis focused mainly on the microbiome, resistome and mobilome components of FOODTRACK. The thesis will not focus on a single type of sample. The candidate will work with samples from food baskets, human samples, and wastewater and sludge samples, which will allow for direct comparison of microbial communities and determinants of antimicrobial resistance between these interconnected matrices.

The research will analyze which microorganisms,



determinants of antibiotic resistance, and mobile genetic elements are shared or specific to food, human, and wastewater; explore possible connections between these matrices; and assess the extent to which dietary, individual, environmental, and socioeconomic factors may contribute to observed microbiome and resistome patterns.

The position offers an especially attractive opportunity to work at the interface between environmental microbiology, food microbiology, human microbiome, antimicrobial resistance, metagenomics, environmental epidemiology, and public health.

The selected person will work within the framework of a multidisciplinary collaboration that includes ICRA, IDAEA-CSIC and Dipsalut, and will have access to complementary datasets and sample collections generated specifically within the framework of FOODTRACK.

The researcher will receive training in experimental, computational and quantitative approaches and his/her scientific independence, participation in international scientific conferences, publication of results in scientific journals and the development of a competitive profile for a future research career will be progressively encouraged.

The position corresponds to a four-year full-time predoctoral contract, with guaranteed minimum salary conditions in accordance with the Statute of Predoctoral Research Staff in Training (EPIF).

The call for applications and subsequent contracting are subject to the decision to grant the FOODTRACK project, the availability of funding and the effective start of the project.

MAIN FUNCTIONS

- Extraction, quality control and preparation of DNA from samples of food baskets, human biological samples, wastewater collec

📌 PREDOCTORAL RESEARCHER (España)
🏢 Catalan Institute For Water Research (Icra)
📍 España