Postdoc in social rodent neuroscience: understanding social and brain dynamics of multiple individuals

Both human and rodents live in complex environments that include the necessity to interact with other conspecifics. To better understand how the brain responds to this level of complexity, neuroscience is moving from analyzing brain and behavioral responses of single individuals to the simultaneous recording of brain, behavior and physiological responses in two or more individuals freely interacting. In this postdoctoral position, you would have the opportunity to work with leaders in the field to pioneer methods and paradigms that unravel how information flows across individual rodent brains to determine adaptive social behavior. This effort will leverage the unique competence and technological might of the Dutch Brain Interface Initiative consortium.

The Dutch Brain Interface Initiative (DBI2; Dutch Brain Interface Initiative (dbi2.nl))

Your Postdoc will be embedded in the DBI2 program, which brings together expertise in neuroscience, neuro-engineering and computation sciences to foster novel approaches to brain-machine interfaces. During your Postdoc you’ll therefore have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas with many other PhD students, postdocs and leaders from all over the Netherlands, with a great diversity of background knowledge.

Work description

Your Role.

During your postdoc you will have the opportunity to:

• Develop paradigms and experimental set-ups that allow for simultaneous behavior and brain recordings of small interacting groups of N≥3 rodents
• Collaborate with the engineering DBI2 cluster to develop or refine tools to add long-term recording in freely moving animals of physiological measures to be paired with brain activity
• Collaborate with the artificial intelligence and computation DBI2 cluster to identify the best algorithms to classify social dynamics
• Establish closed loop systems that allows to identify causes and effects of a particular brain-behavior dynamic
• Advance your analytical skills of functional connectivity and brain-2-brain and brain-2-behavior dynamics
• Publish your findings in open access scientific journals.

You should expect from us

We will:

• Help you acquiring the skills to manage challenging, varied projects with major scientific and societal impact
• Have access to state of the art techologies
• Offer the opportunity to develop a unique profile at the forefront of social neuroscience
• Offer a wide collaborative network within and outside the Netherlands
• Facilitate the interaction with world-wide leaders in the field of neuroscience, bio-engineering and computational neuroscience
• Offer the opportunity, within DIB2, to touch base with a wide network of post-docs working on related topics and with non-academic companies
• Facilitate the interaction with other big consortia within the Netherlands, to for instance deepen the discussion bout ethical consequences of the use of interactive technology
• Offer guidance, support and mentoring from at least two PIs
• Offer guidance and mentorship in the supervision of more junior scientists, in order to help you develop as a successful leader
• Support you during grant applications you may want to consider
• Offer a contract for 3 years for 1.0 fte conform the CAO NU for post-doc.

Your Profile

We are looking for an enthusiastic team-player, who:

• Has a PhD in the field of neuroscience or related fields;
• Enjoys and has extensive experience in advanced data analyses and statistical inferences;
• Enjoys and has hands-on experience in setting up rodent experimental set-ups
• Has experience with brain imaging using fiber-photometry or imaging techniques in freely moving animals
• Experience with handling rodents and establish social paradigms
• Functions well both in a team and independently, and possesses good communication skills;
• Has extensive experience in programing
• Is willing to travel within the NL for short collaborative stays or regular visits to collaborative labs;
• Enjoys finalizing projects and writing papers, also visible from successful past work

Information about the procedure

Only applications that have filled in the current application form ('Apply now' button at the end of this page) + the form at https://forms.gle/sAn4WfU9QfpBy5ZB6 (or press here) will be considered

Fixed-term contract: 1-3 Years.

Terms of employment
Depending on education and experience the minimum salary is € 3226,00 and the maximum salary is € 5090,00 gross per month for a full-time appointment (scale 10, cao Nederlandse Universiteiten/KNAW). This is exclusive of 8% vacation allowance, 8.3% year-end bonus, travel allowance, internet allowance, home working allowance and pension accrual with ABP.

The KNAW offers its staff an excellent package of secondary benefits. A package that meets the different needs of employees depending on their stage of life, lifestyle or career ambitions. For example, by working an extra two hours a week, it is possible to increase the number of days off from 29 to 41 days a year (with full-time employment).

For a complete overview of the terms of employment, please refer to the web page: werken bij de KNAW.

Applying for a Certificate of Good Conduct can be part of the employment procedure.

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

About the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience is the country's leading fundamental neuroscience research institute, in the international and progressive city of Amsterdam. It provides a critical mass of scientists (spanning more than 27 nationalities) and neuroscience facilities, in a highly interactive, dynamic, multi-cultural environment, with English as the working language.

The Social Brain Lab

The Social Brain Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

This will be your main home, in which your direct supervisor will be working on a daily base and where you will be appointed.

The Social Brain Lab is the results of the joint venture of the research groups of Valeria Gazzola and Christian Keysers aiming at shedding light on the neural mechanisms of empathy by combining studies in humans and rodents. The SBL is funded by multiple European (ERC, Marie Curie) and Dutch (VIDI, VICI, Gravity, XL) grants, and is characterized by an unusually diverse environment, with members from all over the world, backgrounds (ranging from philosophy to engineering with an emphasis on biology and psychology), and neuroscientific techniques (spanning from ultra-high field fMRI in humans to single-cell recordings in rodents). The SBL is appreciated for its collaborative, enthusiastic and supportive environment, where people strive to become successful, recognized and appreciated scientists. We value an open culture where everybody feels free to ask questions and make suggestions.