Seeking a postdoc to apply for an MSCA Fellowship 2026: origin and early evolution of life through theory and computation, at CAB (CSIC-INTA) Madrid

I'm seeking a postdoctoral researcher to build and submit a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA PF 2026) proposal with me as supervisor, hosted at the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA) in Madrid. If awarded, the fellowship funds two years of research plus training, mobility, and career development. The deadline is 9 September 2026.

Research area

My group studies the origin and early evolution of life in the universe, using theoretical and computational approaches to understand how complex biological systems emerge and evolve. Strong fits include:

• Prebiotic chemistry

• Molecular evolution and the genetic code

• Origins of molecular chirality

• Fitness landscapes and sequence-function maps

• Machine learning applied to biological sequences

I welcome candidates who want to shape their own project within this space.

Who should apply

• A PhD holder (or someone who will defend before the fellowship starts) with at most 8 years of full-time research experience since the doctorate

• Any nationality

• Mobility: you must not have lived or worked in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years before the 9 September 2026 deadline (this is an EU eligibility rule, not a preference)

• A background in physics, computational biology, chemistry, applied mathematics, or a related quantitative field, with programming experience

What I offer

I'll co-develop the proposal with you, supervise across the fellowship, and give you access to CAB's interdisciplinary environment and CSIC's proposal-support service (formal review and feedback before submission). CAB was the world's first center dedicated to astrobiology and brings together physicists, chemists, biologists, and astrophysicists under one roof.

Next step

If this fits your background and goals, send me a short CV and a paragraph on your research interests at celia.blanco(at)cab.inta-csic(dot)es. Reach out early; a competitive MSCA proposal takes time to prepare well ahead of the deadline.