PhD Position in Translational Neuroscience: Neuroimaging Biomarkers for Psychiatric Disorders, Forschungszentrum Jülich
Job Description
Forschungszentrum Jülich has a PhD position in translational neuroscience. You will combine MRI, PET, EEG and fNIRS data to find brain markers of psychiatric disorders. The post runs for three years and is paid at 65% of TVöD-Bund grade 13. Apply by 15 November 2026.
At a glance
- Position: PhD candidate, 1 post (index 2026D-0814)
- Institute: INM-4, Medical Imaging Physics, Multimodal Imaging in Clinical Neuroscience
- Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Irene Neuner and Dr. Ravichandran Rajkumar
- Pay: TVöD-Bund pay grade 13 at 65%, plus a year-end bonus
- Duration: 3 years, start as soon as possible
- Apply: 15 November 2026
What the neuroimaging PhD involves
- Combine MRI, PET, EEG and fNIRS datasets from the MINDset platform, which holds over 1,000 multimodal datasets
- Analyse brain networks with graph theory and connectivity methods
- Apply multivariate statistics and machine learning
- Study markers for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment monitoring in single patients
- Help run long-term studies with patients and healthy people, including recruitment and assessments
- Coordinate MRI scans, keep data quality high, and curate data to standards such as BIDS
Why this role matters
Psychiatry still diagnoses mostly by interview. Brain imaging markers could give earlier and more personal care. This project has a large dataset and clinical partners in Aachen, Ulm, Günzburg and Cologne. That mix of data science and patient work is rare in a PhD.
What Forschungszentrum Jülich is looking for
- An excellent master’s degree in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, medical physics, psychology, cognitive science, computer science, physics, data science or a related field
- Interest in translational psychiatry, neuroimaging and computational neuroscience
- MATLAB and/or Python
- Very good English, at least B2 level, ideally with a certificate
Nice to have
- Structural or functional MRI experience, with tools such as SPM, FSL, FreeSurfer, AFNI, MRtrix or CONN
- Preprocessing and quality control, graph theory, connectomics, statistics or machine learning
- German at B1 level
Pay and location
The ad pays 65% of pay grade 13 of the TVöD-Bund federal pay scale. It adds a year-end bonus worth 75% of a monthly salary and capital-forming benefits. The ad prints no euro figure. It points to the federal pay table. The post has 30 days of leave a year. Jülich offers an advisory service for international staff. Patient study work makes some German useful.
How to apply
Apply through the official Forschungszentrum Jülich page. The closing date is 15 November 2026. Use the online application button on the posting.
See all our PhD positions, or browse more research jobs on ResearchJobs.in.
Hiring institution: Forschungszentrum Jülich
Official advertisement: recruiting.fz-juelich.de
How to prepare for this application
- Show one imaging pipeline you built, with its quality checks
- Revise graph-theory measures of brain networks
- Mention any work with patients or human subjects
- Add an English certificate if you have one
- Read recent work from the INM-4 clinical imaging group
About Forschungszentrum Jülich
Forschungszentrum Jülich is a member of the Helmholtz Association, Germany's largest research organisation. Its campus is in Jülich, between Aachen and Cologne. Its Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine runs MRI and PET facilities.
