UiT The Arctic University of Norway has established «The Arctic MSCA-PF program» (uit.no/project/arcticmsca) to recruit excellent young researchers planning to apply for a Marie Skƚodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) to pursue a career in research. We invite applications from promising young researchers within the field of Aging and MRI. The selected candidate will write a proposal for a 24-month MSCA-PF at UiT together with Prof. Claudia Rodríguez-Aranda. This is an opportunity to accelerate your research career while living in the urban research city of Tromsø, uniquely located at the top of the world surrounded by some of Europe’s last pristine wild nature. 

This call is one of 70 from pre-selected supervisors at UiT The Arctic University of Norway through the “Arctic MSCA-PF program”. Successful postdoc candidates will be invited for a three-day MSCA-PF symposium June 3-5, 2025 (hybrid physical/digital event, see details at https://uit.no/arcticmsca/programstructure). At this event, the candidates will present their past research achievements, discuss future plans with their potential supervisor and learn how to write a successful MSCA-PF application. The selected candidates will, jointly with the supervisor, write the MSCA-PF application by the deadline of September 10, 2025. 

In this call we search for talented, young researchers within the field of Aging and MRI as presented by Prof. Claudia Rodríguez-Aranda:

Our group works on the study of dedifferentiation of motor and cognitive functions in normal aging and dementia. We examine the association of psychomotor function, cognitive declines and brain deterioration in various aging populations. The goal is to investigate longitudinally whether specific associations between psychomotor function, cognition and brain status exist in specific groups of older adults. Psychomotor changes in different activities of daily living including speech, gait and dexterity are investigated through kinematics, speech analysis and spatio-temporal analyses of gait. Neuropsychological assessment is performed for evaluation of cognition. Cognitive and behavioral outcomes are linked to structural changes in the brain by the use of MRI techniques (e.g., DTI, volumetry). We seek to study whether psychomotor and cognitive changes in healthy older adults and MCI/AD patients occur separately or in parallel at different stages of the aging continuum. The objective in the longitudinal evaluation is to compare progression trajectories of patients and controls at baseline and about 4.5 years after initial testing. Because the early detection of dementia is dubious, the present investigation has important implications: a) advance our understanding of normal age-related changes in cognition and motor functions and b) identify new psychomotor markers of pathological aging appearing prior to memory complaints, that may help in the early detection of dementia.

Please send your CV (max 3 pages) and describe a research project that will strengthen and complement the presented research (max 2 pages) to claudia.rodriguez-aranda@uit.no by Feb 16th 2025. Mark your application "Arctic MSCA". Successful candidates will be contacted in late March 2025.