Principal Researcher in Neuroscience Full-time NEW

Principal Researcher in Neuroscience

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

We are looking for an experienced scientist for a position as Principal Researcher and group leader at the Department of Neuroscience. The research will have a particular focus on understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying human somatosensory perception, with special emphasis on how motor actions influence sensory processing and perception. Research topics include the predictive mechanisms supporting self-touch, the integration of motor and sensory signals during voluntary behaviour, and the neural basis of ticklishness and related somatosensory experiences. The work should be based on integrated behavioural and neuroimaging approaches, including psychophysics, robotically controlled haptic stimulation paradigms, electrophysiology, functional neuroimaging, brain stimulation, and computational approaches. The Department of Neuroscience at KI offers a multidisciplinary and diverse research environment with a strong community and several leading laboratories in cognitive neuroscience.

Neural mechanisms of self-touch, sensory attenuation, and somatosensory perception in humans.

The position as Principal Researcher in cognitive neuroscience has a focus on understanding the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying human somatosensory perception, with particular emphasis on how voluntary actions influence sensory processing and perception. This involves independent and leading responsibility for research projects investigating self-touch, sensory attenuation, sensorimotor integration, and the neural mechanisms underlying ticklishness and related somatosensory experiences in humans.

You should be able to handle and develop projects involving several techniques used in the research, including psychophysical and behavioural methods, robotic and motorized platforms for controlled force and tactile stimulation, electrophysiological recordings, neuroimaging methods, brain stimulation techniques, and computational approaches. You will conduct teaching in the field of neuroscience and supervision of students, doctoral students, and postdoctoral fellows within the research group.

You will be responsible for research in cognitive neuroscience, which requires substantial knowledge of human somatosensory processing and sensorimotor integration. The research questions include predictive mechanisms in motor control, sensory attenuation, tactile perception, self-generated actions, and the neural basis of ticklishness. You will be responsible for managing a laboratory consisting of postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, and Master's students.

Eligibility requirements for employment as Principal Researcher at Karolinska Institutet include holding a Degree of Doctor, PhD, or having a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a Swedish doctoral degree, demonstrated research skills, being a research leader and having established their own line of research, showing documented, high-quality scientific production, particularly in the last six years, having the potential to resolutely drive their research forward as well as be recognised nationally and internationally, obtaining robust, long-term and preferably external funding, having the potential to obtain further external funding, showing teaching and supervision experience, and demonstrating good leadership qualities.

Assessment criteria include experience in studying human somatosensory perception and sensorimotor integration, particularly the influence of voluntary actions on sensory processing and perception, experience in leading cognitive neuroscience research using multiple methodologies, extensive experience in investigating self-touch, sensory attenuation, motor prediction, and related mechanisms of sensorimotor processing in humans, experience with supervision and mentorship of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in experimental design, data analysis, and cognitive neuroscience research, and a track record of internationally recognized, high-impact research in cognitive neuroscience, particularly in human somatosensory perception, sensorimotor integration, and predictive mechanisms underlying self-generated actions and sensory processing.

It is particularly meritorious that the applicant has shown experience with financial management, project and experimental planning, and strategic leadership of independent research programs, and experience with human neuroimaging and brain stimulation methods, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG).

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. Here, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Location: Solna

Application must contain the following documents: PhD certificate, resumé, qualifications and description of planned research, presented in accordance with Karolinska Institutet's qualifications portfolio.

The applications will be reviewed by external reviewers.

KI applies individual and differentiated salary setting in accordance with our collective agreements RALS and RALS-T.

The application must be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.