Italy
Commitment & contract: collaboration contract, 2 years reneawable
Location: Genova, Italy
Step into a world of endless possibilities, together let’s leave something for the future!
At IIT, we are committed to advancing human-centered Science and Technology to address the most urgent societal challenges of our era. We foster excellence in both fundamental and applied research, spanning fields such as neuroscience and cognition, humanoid technologies and robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and material sciences, offering a truly interdisciplinary scientific experience. Our approach integrates cutting-edge tools and technology, empowering researchers to push the limits of knowledge and innovation. With us, your curiosity will know no bounds.
We are dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities and fostering diversity in all its forms, creating an inclusive environment. We value the unique experiences, knowledge, backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives of our people. By embracing diversity, we believe science can achieve its fullest potential.
THE ROLE
You will be working in a multicultural and multi-disciplinary group, where junior and senior scientists collaborate, each with their expertise, to carry out a scientific activity with a shared research goal.
The Genetics of Cognition Research Unit (website: https://geco.iit.it/) is coordinated by Dr. Francesco Papaleo. The research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying cognitive and social alterations relevant to psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. This includes a multidisciplinary multilayer research approach that tightly links behavioral outputs (e.g., social tasks including emotion recognition, cooperation social decisions) with cell-specific circuit-level manipulations using in vivo chemo- and opto-genetics, in vivo miniscopes, in vivo fiber photometry, and in vivo electrophysiology.
For reference to recent work, please see: Maltese et al., Nature Neuroscience 2025; Dautan et al.,Nature Neuroscience 2024; Scheggia et al., Nature Neuroscience 2022; Scheggia et al., Nature Neuroscience 2020; Ferretti et al., Current Biology 2019; Scheggia et al., Nature Communications2018.
Within the research team, your main responsibilities will be:
- Design and perform in vivo miniscope and/or in vivo electrophysiology recordings during socio-cognitive behavioral paradigms.
- Cell-type and circuit-specific recordings and manipulations during socio-cognitive tasks.
- Analyze datasets.
ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
- A PhD in Neuroscience, Biology, Pharmacology, Statistics, Medicine, Genetics, Bioengineering, Biology, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science or related fields.
- Documented experience on in vivo experimentation.
- Strong publication record.
- Good command of spoken and written English.
ADDITIONAL SKILLS
- Experience in coding and, ideally, signal processing.
- Knowledge of data analyses, and circuits manipulations.
- Ability to work in a challenging and international environment.
- Capacity to work autonomously and collaboratively in a highly interdisciplinary environment.
- Possess Analytical Reasoning skills and attitude in troubleshooting.
COMPENSATION PACKAGE
- A yearly gross salary ranging between 30K and 33K
- Private health care coverage
- Candidates from abroad or Italian citizens who have carried scientific research activity permanently abroad and meet specific requirements, may be entitled to a deduction from taxable income of up to 90% from 6 to 13 years.
Please submit your application using the online form and including a detailed CV, cover letter, and contact details of at least 2 references.
Application’s deadline: August 1st 2025.
To discover more about life at IIT, visit the dedicated section here:https://www.iit.it/en/work-at-iit