Open Position PhD Student Position for TH SM Group

About IFAE

The Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) is a public consortium of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB, a public university) whose main objective is to carry out research and to contribute to the development of high energy physics from a theoretical, experimental and technological point of view. IFAE has the status of a “University Institute" attached to the UAB and its premises are within the campus of the University. IFAE is an internationally recognized center for fundamental research in Particle Physics, Astroparticle Physics, and Cosmology. IFAE offers an international, dynamic, and competitive environment for the training of young researchers. IFAE has been accredited three times with the “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” distinction, most recently for the 2025-2029 period.

About Theoretical Physics group

The Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE) in Barcelona is opening a call for applications for a PhD position within the Theoretical Physics Group, aligned with the strategic research areas of the SM and flavour group teams. The IFAE Theoretical Physics Group offers an international and dynamic research environment. Some of its members include R. Escribano, J. Matias, A. Pineda, P. Masjuan, S. Peris, among others. Further information about the group can be found on the IFAE website: https://www.ifae.es . The research lines of the Theoretical Physics Group are complemented by close collaborations with the IFAE experimental groups, which are active in areas such as Collider Physics, Cosmology, Gravitational Waves, Astroparticles, and Quantum Technologies. For more details on these groups, please visit: https://www.ifae.es

Required skills and evaluation criteria

The process of evaluation and selection guarantees the principles of competition, publicity, and transparency. The recruitment of fellows consists of an open selection and the evaluation of candidates will be carried out according to the criteria of the call

Candidates must be enrolled or admitted to a doctoral program at a Spanish university, for the 2025/2026 academic year, o hold a degree that allows admission to the official doctoral programme on the date the contract is formalized.

The successful candidate is expected to have:

• Master’s in Physics or satisfy the requirements to be admitted in the Physics PhD program of the UAB (https://www.uab.cat/en/phds/physics ) before the start of the grant
• Proficiency in the English language
• Pro-active attitude and good communication skills

The evaluation criteria and their weighting for the submitted applications will be the following:

• Academic and / or scientific-technical trajectory of the candidate, 50 points:
  • Subcriterion 1.1: Scientific-technical contributions (up to 45 points): The academic record and other curricular merits of the candidate.
  • Subcriterion 1.2: Mobility and internationalization (up to 5 points): The relevance and impact on the candidate’s research career stays in national and international centers and / or in the industrial sector.
• Adequacy of the candidate to the research activities to be carried out, 50 points

What will be your role?

We invite applications for a PhD Position in Theoretical Physics. The PhD research topic will be along our strategic research lines: SM physics, flavour physics and formal aspects of quantum field theories, effective field theories, QCD.

Offered contract:

• Full-time contract (40 hours/week).
• Predoctoral Contract
• The position will correspond to “Predoctoral Researcher (R1)” within the professional categories of the IFAE.
• Salary will be proportional to experience and qualifications within the corresponding category range.
• Travelling to scientific singular infrastructures. Opportunity to gain experience learning first-hand. Personal growth, innovation, and learning every day.
• The selected candidate is expected to join the IFAE as soon as possible.

Application and Selection process:

Applications should be submitted to Dr. Joaquim Matias (matias@ifae.es ) and rrhh@ifae.es stating the job reference IFAE2025/37_THSM_SO_PhDStudent as the subject of the message. The mail should include an up-to-date CV, a motivation letter and a full list of university grades, and arrange to have two letters of reference sent to the above e-mail addresses.

Sending CVs to the above addresses implies consent to the IFAE’s legal warning on data privacy.

The application must contain a personal identification number (DNI, NIE or passport) in order to proceed to the verification of absence of conflict of interest required by Recovery and Resilience Mechanism of the Spanish Government.

IFAE is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity in the workplace and social integration of people with a disability. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates. People from groups that are typically underrepresented in the labour market in general and in Science and Engineering in particular, such as women, minorities, or people with a disability, are particularly encouraged to apply.

A Selection Committee will evaluate the received applications. If more than one candidate seems equally suitable for the position, the Selection Committee will arrange an on-line interview with each one of them as part of the Selection process.

In compliance with article 121 of the Spanish Public Sector Legal Regime Act, staff with a pre-existing relationship with the Consortium administration (Generalitat de Catalunya and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) will have priority in the awarding of the position.

You may contact Dr.Joaquim Matias (matias@ifae.es ) for any questions related to this job opening.

Funding Statement

Esta plaza está financiada en el marco de la acreditación Severo Ochoa de IFAE CEX2024-001441-S (2025–2028), concedida por el MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.