MSCA-PF Hosting offer: AIDS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES GROUP

MSCA-PF Hosting offer in the AIDS & Infectious Diseases Group, which hosts researchers from the Tropical and Travel Medicine Unit, a national and international reference for imported and emerging infectious diseases. The unit runs one of Madrid’s most frequented vaccination centres and is the primary national hospitalisation centre for high-risk infections such as Ebola and COVID-19. As global travel increases, tropical and neglected diseases are on the rise and often mismanaged by non-specialists. Our group promotes interdisciplinary, translational research and offers a strong mentoring environment to support the next generation of researchers in tackling the global health challenges of travel and migration.

This interdisciplinary project seeks to integrate infectious diseases, behavioural sciences, and data science to enhance global disease surveillance and health promotion in the context of increasing international mobility. We aim to investigate why international travellers often underestimate health, safety and environmental risks, and how to effectively communicate and mitigate these risks through evidence-based strategies.

Candidates will analyse how psychological, social, and cultural factors influencing travellers' risk perception and behaviours, using mixed methods (surveys, interviews, digital trace analysis). Big Data analytics, machine learning and statistical modelling will be used to uncover disease exposure patterns and build predictive and early-warning models that might help public health authorities to enable an optimal response to threats as the potential establishment of tropical diseases in Spain.

Data on travellers' experiences of risk would be collected (after designing and distributing surveys/interviews), analysing common discussions and narratives (qualitatively and quantitatively) to identify patterns, correlations and recurring themes. Models would be developed by applying pre-existing psychological and sociological theories of risk perception to explain variations, differentiating demographic/cultural groups of travellers. To pair travellers and disease spread information, correlation predictive models will be developed (machine learning/statistical models of disease spread; outbreak risk prediction algorithms) and validated through back testing with historical data.

• Contact person: Dr. Marta DÍAZ MENÉNDEZ marta.diaz@salud.madrid.org

• Documents to be sent before 25/06/2025:

  • Curriculum vitae (2 pages maximum).

  • Letter of motivation (1 page maximum).