Department and Faculty：

Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS) at the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence (ISTBI) at Fudan University, Shanghai, P.R. China and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, UK.

Information about the PONS Early Career Award (ECA)：

The PONS-ECA is a personal award for talented post-doctoral researchers to lead their own research plans and establish their own research interest and team to make the transition from post-doctoral researcher to independent investigator. This fellowship scheme provides competitive salaries, allowing fellows protected time to fully concentrate on their research, training and development. Applicants are expected to take advantage of the full four years' funding available.

We are seeking talented, energetic and highly motivated individuals with a track record of the highest standard in their respective fields and a very good command of the English language. He/she is expected to have a strong knowledge of statistical genomics and/or computational neurosciences, expertise in at least one major programming language (e.g. R, Matlab and Python), a deep familiarity with the application of statistical techniques to biological data and be experienced in several, but not all of the methods required in this programme.

The award aims at applying and developing novel (multimodal) genomic and computational neuroscience methodology to identify and characterise brain structural and functional networks for mechanistic characterisation and stratification of behaviour and mental disorders. The successful candidate will develop a research programme developing comprehensive computational models to describe and explain human behaviours and mental disorders based on multimodal -omics information, such as genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics and/or computational neuroscience and neuroimaging. The research project will be based upon large scale neuroimaging genomic datasets and innovative environmental characterisations, including mobile Health and remote sensing satellite data. The research will involve comparative analyses of big cross- sectional and longitudinal datasets in Europe, US and China, as well as data from cohorts currently recruited in Shanghai. The investigation of genomic and environmental determinants of brain structure and functions related to psychopathology are of particular interest. This research will be based on a series of recent discoveries and methodological advances published by our group in top journals, including Nature and Science.

PONS-ECA offers a unique opportunity to work with a worldwide network of collaborators and develop cutting-edge approaches in the rapidly growing field of population neuroscience in one of the leading research environments in Europe and the world.

Key Objectives：

Take a leading role in the analysis of multimodal –omics data (e.g. genetics and MRI radiomics) and their relation to behavioural measures.

Apply statistical techniques to dimensionality reduction and prediction using –omics, neuroimaging and environmental data

Supervising and carrying out genetic and/or neuroimaging analyses, including gene expression, methylation, fMRI functional connectivity, data preprocessing etc.

The publication and dissemination of data arising from this project

Attend and present at academic meetings and contribute to the visibility of the project and its aims.

Work as a conscientious and committed member of the team in order to achieve the aims of the project

Liaise with the administrative team for the support of the project

Undertake any other reasonable duties that may be relevant to the role outline

Assist with the supervision of PhD and MSc candidates

Qualifications：

1) Researchers who will receive PhD soon or graduated within last five years.

2) Under 35 years old. Excellent candidates aged 35 to 38 may be considered.

3) Experience in analysing multimodal –omics (e.g. genetic, gene expression, epigenetics) and/or Neuroimaging (fMRI, structure MRI and DTI) data.

4) Experience and/or interest in behavioural imaging genetics and epigenetics.

5) Evidence of the ability to publish in high-impact scientific journals.

6) Very good English language skills.

Benefits：

1) The initial employment period is 4 years with 2 years at the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence (STBI), Fudan University, Shanghai and 2 years at Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), Kings College London.

2) Salary is ¥300k ~400k/year (£34k~£44k/year).

3) Additional research funding up to £23k provided to support researchers with excellent ideas and independent capability.

4) Opportunities to top-up salaries up to £10k / year with grant from Shanghai Government.

5) Opportunities to transfer to faculty position with start-up of £55k~£110k.

6) In accordance with the policies of Fudan University, assist children of the candidates to apply for admission to kindergartens or primary school affiliated to Fudan University.

Application Procedure：

Please send your application consisting of a personal statement and a CV in English language, as well as contact information of referees and PDF of key publications to wcheng.fdu@gmail.com. For an informal discussion to find out more about the role please contact Prof Gunter Schumann: gunter.schumann@kcl.ac.uk or Dr Jia Tianye: tianyejia@fudan.edu.cn.

Additional Information

Fudan University is one of the top five universities in China, and ranked at #109 in Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020. ISTBI is a leading institute in brain-inspired artificial intelligence, neuroimaging, biomedical big data and neural engineering in China. More information can be found from https://www.fudan.edu.cn/en/ and https://istbi.fudan.edu.cn/lnen/.

King's College London is one of the top univerisites in the UK and worldwide (#36 in Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020) and part of the "Golden-Triangle" of elite universites in London, Cambridge and Oxford. IoPPN is a world-class top institute in the field of psychiatry (ranked #2 in psychiatry/psychology in US News Ranking 2020). More information can be found from https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/ and https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/research/centres/pons/about.