The doctoral fellowship programme INPhINIT ”la Caixa” is devoted to attracting talented Early-Stage Researchers—of any nationality—who wish to pursue doctoral studies in Spanish or Portuguese territory. Sponsored by ”la Caixa” Foundation, it is aimed at supporting the best scientific talent and fostering innovative and high-quality research in Spain and Portugal by recruiting outstanding international students and offering them an attractive and competitive environment for conducting research of excellence.

The Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona is a research centre accredited with the Spanish Seal of Excellence María de Maeztu in 2020, the perfect place to carry out your PhD project through an INPhINIT Incoming fellowship.

Research Project:

The proposed research topic, in the exciting area of quantum technology, is on dense atomic arrays where interference between radiated photons gives rise to collective spontaneous emission, such as in the well known phenomenon of super-radiance, a very different situation from the typical dilute atomic ensemble where atoms emit incoherently. The ability to control atom-light interactions is a cornerstone in fundamental physics and applications, ranging from precision measurement to quantum information processing, and this project will bring advances in these exciting developments. The novel quantum many-body phenomena to be investigated, with no analogue in traditional condensed-matter physics, arise from
light-induced correlations between atoms in an array.

Proposed goals include devising protocols to harness new effects in dense atomic arrays, with special focus on the interplay between external (center-of-mass motion) and internal (spin) atomic degrees of freedom leading to novel quantum many-body phenomena, such as self-organisation and crystals of entangled atoms and light. These states can be useful for quantum applications (e.g. quantum metrology). New numerical tools to tackle these systems that are not hindered by the exponential growth of the Hilbert space with system size can also be developed, including variational neural networks describing the density matrix of an open system, or tensor networks efficiently describing one-dimensional quantum systems.

The project will be carried out in the Quantum Technologies group at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (University of Barcelona). The thesis advisor, M. Moreno-Cardoner, is an expert on atom-light interactions and collective phenomena in dense atomic arrays, and is working at the forefront of the research in this area. The student will also interact with many other experts and researchers in quantum technology at the ICCUB, including professors M.Guilleumas, B.Julià-Diaz and A. Rios.

Job position description:

More information:

Employment conditions 

The ”la Caixa” Foundation will sign an agreement with the host institution, which will receive the fellowship payments directly: 

• An annual payment of €35,800 to the institution to cover the Fellow’s contract, who will receive a minimum annual gross salary of €25.000. This amount might vary if there are modifications in the legal framework.
• €3,500 per year, as an additional amount for conferences, courses, research stays, consumables, equipment, charges for the use of intellectual property, etc.
• The tuition fees to the official doctoral programme 

In addition to financial support, the fellowship includes a training programme on transversal skills, which has been specially designed by leading international institutions in the sector. 

For more information on the employment conditions, please refer to this document.

Working at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences

The Institute of Cosmos Sciences is a research institute of the University of Barcelona. It is an interdisciplinary centre dedicated to fundamental research in the fields of cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics. In addition, the institute has a strong technology program through its participation in international collaborations in observational astronomy and experimental particle physics.

Moreover, the ICCUB participates in many key international scientific consortia and projects, such as the Large Hadron Collider, the Gaia astrometric space mission, the MAGIC / CTA high-energy astrophysics telescopes, and the Virgo gravitational wave detector, among others. Additional information about the Institute and the University of Barcelona can be found here.

You will be encouraged to contribute and interact with other researchers in the vibrant and international research environment as well as to participate in our outreach initiatives, more information at serviAstro and serviParticules.

As part of the University of Barcelona, the ICCUB is a recipient of the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research (HRS4R) Award, which recognises, among other achievements, respect for equal opportunities and the capacity to attract talent in a positive working environment that promotes the pursuit of successful research careers. The ICCUB respects the principles of open, transparent, merit-based selection. We strongly encourage women and underrepresented minorities in physical sciences to apply. For additional information please see the Diversity, equity and inclusion Commission.

The ICCUB is located in Barcelona, considered the 8th World's Best Cities 2021: one with near-perfect weather year-round, miles and miles of beaches, iconic parks, striking architecture and colourful neighbourhoods that march to their own beat—artistic, sophisticated, bohemian. Moreover, it is a pole of attraction for the technology sector, a top choice to establish a company in this sector, and it hosts some of the world's major technological events, such as the Mobile World Congress and the Smart City Expo. In addition, Barcelona and its metropolitan area is a leading destination on the map of global technological ecosystems and has infrastructures such as science parks, universities and the 22@ district.

Requirements

In order to be accepted, candidates must meet the following eligibility requirements:

• Experience: candidates must not have carried out more than four years of research activity before the closing date of the call.
• Studies pursued: Applicants must hold a higher education degree that makes them eligible to enroll in a doctoral programme before starting at their host institutions.

The host university will verify, upon starting the admission process to the doctoral programme, that the studies taken up by the selected candidates make them eligible to enroll in an official doctoral programme in accordance with the regulations in force in Spain or Portugal. Should they be found not eligible after verification, the fellowship will be withdrawn. 

Under no circumstances may candidates have previously enrolled in the same doctoral studies for which they are applying for the fellowship.

• Geographic mobility: Candidates must not have resided or have carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call deadline. Short stays, such as holidays, done in a country other than their country of usual residence (where they carried out their main activity), will be considered as time spent in their country of usual residence.
• Level of English: Candidates must have a demonstrable level of English (B2 or higher).

For more information on the candidates requirements, please refer to this document.

Application Procedure

All applications must be submitted online through the following link in English. For more information on the application procedure, please refer to this document.

Deadline: Please submit your applications by January 24th 2024 at 2 pm. 

Selection process:

The process is comprised of three phases:

• Eligibility screening: all applications received are reviewed to check the accomplishment of the eligibility criteria published in the rules for participation
• Remote evaluation (shortlisting): an evaluation panel will review the applications and those that receive the highest scores will pass to the next stage.
• Personal interviews: shortlisted candidates are invited to a remotely interview before a multidisciplinary committee on May 27, 28 and 29 2024.

The rating criteria that govern the selection process can be found in the Selection process guidelines section of the ”la Caixa” Fellowship Programme website.

For more information on the selection process, please refer to this document.

Funding: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No713673.

The co-funded part of the programme runs from 01/10/2016 to 30/09/2021 and finances the researchers recruited under Call 2017 and 2018.