Are you an innovative thinker eager to develop novel tools, methods and technologies for the life sciences? Are you driven by curiosity and impact? Do you wish to become an expert in service development, provision and research infrastructure management in academia or industry? If so, we would like to hear from you! Here is why.

The life sciences are increasingly relying on advanced technologies and services provided by the core facilities, synchrotrons, data services and other research infrastructures. This creates a greater need for trained experts who know how to develop and operate scientific services. To meet this need, the ARISE programme (Career Accelerator for Research Infrastructure Scientists) at EMBL, is the first Fellowship programme of its kind in Europe that trains engineers and scientists for the high-level careers in research infrastructures in academia or industry.

You are invited to apply for one of the 20 three-year Fellowships to

• work at EMBL on a method, tool or technology development of your choice which will have a potential to be provided as a service to external life science researchers
• get trained in the operation and management of research infrastructures and service provision.

For the ARISE programme, we encourage applications from individuals who can complement our teams – we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and personal experiences reflect the diversity of the populations that our science serves. We are particularly interested in the strengths and lived experiences of women, and all genders, different ethnic groups and cultures, and all demographics to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights at this transformational point in our people strategy.

ARISE receives funding from Horizon 2020 under the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie action COFUND (grant agreement No 945405).

What you will be doing

As an ARISE Fellow, you will be developing a method, technique or technology of your choice which is the field of expertise of EMBL groups who are participating in ARISE, e.g.:

• Bioinformatics, computational modelling, software development, data management, data science, AI and machine learning.
• Imaging and image analysis, optical engineering, detector development, microscopy, X-ray optics, X-ray crystallography.
• (Bio)chemical engineering, chemistry or chemical biology, omics technologies.
• Automation, high-precision mechanics, microfluidics, robotics.

Your development should facilitate research in life science fields of genome, structural, developmental and planetary biology, cell and tissue biology, translational research, or drug design and have the potential to be integrated into the service catalogues of research infrastructures.

You will get trained for the jobs in research infrastructures (core facilities, data services, synchrotrons etc.) and attend over 60 courses on how to provide and plan services, how to manage the operation of diverse infrastructure, manage staff and finances, handle innovation and collaboration with industry, do strategic planning, and understand science policy and funding system.    

You will also be able to network with a diverse group of professionals working at EMBL and in ARISE partner organisations. 

The fellowship duration is 36 months.

You have

• At least four years of full-time equivalent research or development experience in the fields mention above (including first experience in technology development), after the university degree.
• University degree in natural sciences or related STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) at the level that theoretically entitles to enrol into a PhD (PhD is not mandatory).
• A high level of skills or expertise, gained either in academic or non-academic sectors, relevant to the research fields of our groups and teams that are participating in the programme.
• Strong research and innovation potential that can be shown through eg., example of your work on (scientific) software, unique or problematic data sets, technical documentation or similar, though scientific publications, contributions to patents, examples of management of technology development projects or detailed description of any other innovative research you have performed and your achievements or through other ways to demonstrate experience relevant to technology development and scientific services.
• Capacity to work independently and think creatively.
• Fluency in English (written and oral).
• Ability to work collaboratively, and communicate and work with a diverse group of individuals across the organisation.
• Good time management and organization skills.

You might also have

• Experience relevant to improvement or development of methods, techniques or technology that can be used for service provision.
• A PhD degree.

Why you should join us

EMBL is Europe’s flagship research laboratory for the life sciences – an intergovernmental organisation performing scientific research in disciplines including molecular biology, physics, chemistry and computer science. We are an international laboratory with more than 1800 employees from many nations, operating across six sites, in Heidelberg (HQ), Barcelona, Hinxton near Cambridge, Hamburg, Grenoble and Rome. One of our missions is to provide access to advanced technologies and engage in technology transfer activities.

EMBL is a curiosity-driven, community-oriented and international organisation. As an inclusive, equal opportunity employer, we believe that diversity enables us to collaborate more effectively and be innovative in our approaches. We are, therefore, committed to creating an inclusive and flexible culture - one where everyone can realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to our organisation. We operate by our values of: openness, inclusion, integrity, transparency, fairness.

At EMBL, as per our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, we actively encourage applications from people who are currently underrepresented in science.

We value our collegial and family friendly working environment, and offer excellent health insurance, pension contributions, flexible hybrid working arrangements, family allowances, diverse training opportunities and other social benefits.

Salaries and allowances offered to the ARISE fellows are competitive and a full overview of salaries at different EMBL sites for ARISE fellows can be found here. 

Our working language is English.

How to apply

You will need to select the group you wish to join and prepare the short project proposal which you would like to do in the group. We strongly encourage you to contact the groups before applying, to inform them about your interest and learn about their future plans.

For details on how to apply, please visit our ARISE website. The application with all required documents should be submitted using the online submission system.

• We accept applications from 1 July - 30 September 2022.
• Interviews of top candidates are planned for late November 2022.
• Start of the fellowship: ideally by May 2023.

Please contact the ARISE project management team (arise@embl.org) if you have any questions or would need any kind of advice.