- Job Title
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist (Data Science)
- Post Number
- 1006222
- Closing Date
- 17 Nov 2026
- Grade
- SC6
- Starting Salary
- Salary: £39,000 - £46,500
- Funding End Date
- 30 Apr 2028
- Hours per week
- 37
- Project Title
- Gut microbial colonization and adaptation to the human host.
- Months Duration
- 20
Job Description
Main Purpose of the Job
Applications are invited for a Research Scientist to join the Laboratory of Prof Hildebrand in the Food, Microbes and Health programme at Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB), Norwich, UK.
In this project we will investigate relationships between diet, the human gut microbiome and mental health across more than 20 European cohorts within the NUTRIMIND consortium. The successful applicant will harmonise large-scale dietary, metagenomic, metabolomic and mental-health datasets, establish reproducible statistical workflows, apply mediation approaches to investigate potential microbiome-mediated relationships, and develop machine-learning models to identify generalisable patterns using cross-validation. Building on earlier work from the hosting group (doi:10.1016/j.chom.2023.05.024; doi:10.1038/s41531-025-00885-5; doi:10.1016/j.chom.2021.05.008), the project will identify microbial communities, strains and genes associated with diet-microbiome-mentalbhealth relationships.
The successful applicant will work within a diverse, international consortium (NUTRIMIND, https://quadram.ac.uk/quadram-institute-joins-major-new-project-to-understand-gut-microbiome-diet-and-mental-health-connections/), bringing together microbiome researchers, nutrition scientists, clinicians, data scientists and machine-learning experts across Europe. The applicant will also contribute to the FlavourFerm project (https://www.flavourferm.eu/), developing bioinformatic pipelines for fermented food microbiomes. Close interactions with consortium partners are encouraged through workshops and consortium meetings.
The ideal candidate is experienced in bioinformatics, (meta)genomic data analysis and microbiology. Specifically, knowledge in analysing microbial communities, machine learning, AI, statistical modelling and comparative genomics will be of benefit. Experience with large-scale or multi-omics datasets, R or Python, and reproducible computational workflows would also be advantageous. Specialised skills will be developed through mentorship and collaboration.
Long-term, this research will contribute to understanding how diet and the gut microbiome interact to influence mental wellbeing, while developing computational approaches for translating complex microbiome and nutrition data into robust, generalisable biological insights.
Key Relationships
The post holder will work closely with other group members, the line managers Prof Falk Hildebrand and Dr Maria Traka, as well as key collaborators from the Traka group at QIB, the Jozef Stefan Institute, U Cork, U Wageningen, Austrian Institute of Technology, among other NUTRIMIND and FlavourFerm partners.
The applicant is expected to help in the supervision of junior group members and to represent the group at trainings and will have direct access to established in vitro fermentation models, advanced sequencing facilities, state-of-the-art QIB laboratories, local food databanks with integrated AI systems, as well as one of UK’s largest HPC cluster.
Main Activities & Responsibilities
- Percentage
- Integrate public metagenomes and metabolomes with consortia generated data
- 30
- Statistical framework for microbiome-diet and microbiome-mental health associations
- 20
- Mediation analysis of diet-microbiome-mental health interactions
- 20
- Develop AI framework to interrogate metagenomes and diet-microbiome-health associations
- 20
- Support group with tasks such as outreach, student supervision, writing grants
- 5
- Represent group at collaborative meetings (FlavourFaerm, Nutrimind)
- 5
- As agreed with line manager, any other duties commensurate with the nature of the role, for example, contributing to the work of Institute committees
Person Profile
Education & Qualifications
- Requirement
- Importance
- PhD in Bioinformatics, Population Genetics, Ecology or Microbiology, or equivalent experience
- Essential
Specialist Knowledge & Skills
- Requirement
- Importance
- Programming skills (python or R, bash)
- Essential
- Ability to work independently on research projects
- Essential
- Initiative and a desire to learn, to innovate, and to move out of their comfort zone
- Essential
- Ability to troubleshoot and solve problems
- Essential
Relevant Experience
- Requirement
- Importance
- Machine learning/AI knowledge
- Essential
- Proven track-record of research output at the appropriate level
- Essential
- Familiarity with microbiome-related bioinformatics (metagenomics/-bolomics)
- Essential
- Statistical analysis & visualization microbiomes
- Desirable
- Statistical mediation analysis
- Desirable
- Experience of grant writing
- Desirable
- Lab upkeep (supervision, grant writing)
- Desirable
Interpersonal & Communication Skills
- Requirement
- Importance
- Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
- Essential
- Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to work alone and as part of a team
- Essential
- Reliable and conscientious
- Essential
- Promotes and strives for continuous improvement
- Essential
Additional Requirements
- Requirement
- Importance
- Attention to detail
- Essential
- Promotes equality and values diversity
- Essential
- Willingness to embrace the expected values and behaviours of all staff at the Institute, ensuring it is a great place to work
- Essential
- Able to present a positive image of self and the Institute, promoting both the international reputation and public engagement aims of the Institute
- Essential
- Willingness to work outside standard working hours when required
- Essential
- Willingness to undertake any necessary training for the role
- Essential
Who We Are
Quadram Institute Bioscience
The Quadram Institute is at the forefront of a new interface between food science, gut biology and health, developing solutions to worldwide challenges in food-related disease and human health.
We are engaged in fundamental and translational food and health research, alongside clinical studies, endoscopy and industry, working together to become a leading international hub for food and health research, combining scientific excellence and clinical expertise, delivering impacts on patient care and accelerating innovation.
The Quadram Institute is a diverse and multicultural scientific community. We thrive on our international and European links, appointing staff from across the world. Any candidate who would like further information on current or anticipated immigration requirements can contact the HR Team on +44 (0)1603 450888 or nbi.recruitment@nbi.ac.uk.
For more information about working at Quadram Institute Bioscience, please click here.
Department
Food, Microbiome and Health
Group Details
The Hildebrand group uses metagenomics to research the diversity, community interactions, and evolution of microbes in communities. Currently the group has projects in both human associated and environmental (food, soil) microbiomes, for which custom bioinformatic solutions are developed in-house to enable a wholistic microbiome exploration (e.g. doi:10.1111/1462-2920.15314). The group explored the limits of using strain-resolved metagenomics for medical gains, and to understand microbiome structures (doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2023.05.024 , 10.1101/2024.09.09.24313184 , 10.1016/j.chom.2021.05.008). See https://github.com/falklab for group information.
The Quadram Institute is based on the Norwich Research Park, which is one of the largest single-site concentrations of research in food, genomics, and health in Europe. The Park hosts 4 BBSRC Institutes (including Quadram), 17,000 students, 3,000 full-time researchers and clinicians, and over 115 companies. The outstanding reputation of our researchers is internationally recognised, with 10 of the Park's scientists in the top 1% of the "most highly cited" in the world.
Living in Norfolk
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Postdoctoral Research Scientist (Data Science)
Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Scientist position in the Hildebrand group at the Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB), Norwich, UK.
Background
Poor mental health is a major global health challenge, and growing evidence points to interactions between diet, lifestyle, the gut microbiome and mental wellbeing. This project will investigate their interaction using large-scale cohort data.
The role
Within NUTRIMIND (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101287404) standardised data from >20 European cohorts is being generated, covering dietary intake, metagenomics, metabolomics and mental-health measures. The successful applicant will integrate and analysing these datasets to identify reproducible relationships between data layers, including:
• harmonising heterogeneous dietary, microbiome, metabolomic and mental-health datasets;
• reproducible statistical analysis workflows for longitudinal and multi-omics datasets;
• causal-inference analysis to understand the role of gut microbiomes;
• using validated machine-learning models to develop robust health predictions across cohorts.
Building on previous work from the group (doi:10.1016/j.chom.2023.05.024, doi:10.1038/s41531-025-00885-5, doi:10.1016/j.chom.2021.05.008), the project will investigate microbial communities associated with specific foods and identify bacterial strains and genes associated with diet–microbiome–mental-health relationships. These analyses will help identify candidate mechanisms and potential avenues for future personalised approaches to supporting mental wellbeing.
Part of the role is to also contribute to the FlavourFerm project (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101181661) in analysing microbial communities involved in food-fermentation and subsequent gastrointestinal digestion.
The environment
The successful applicant will work across the Hildebrand and Traka groups.
Prof Falk Hildebrand studies the diversity, interactions and evolution of microbial communities using high-resolution metagenomics, microbial ecology and custom bioinformatic software (https://hildebra.github.io/). Dr Maria Traka leads the UK Food & Nutrition National Bioscience Research Infrastructure, researching data-driven food and nutrition.
The position will involve close collaboration with researchers across Europe, including participation in consortium workshops, meetings and related international activities. International travel is therefore an integral part of the role.
The ideal candidate
The ideal candidate will hold a PhD (or equivalent) in bioinformatics or related. Experience with microbiome data analysis, numerical ecology, neuroscience, machine learning, statistical modelling, mediation analysis, metabolomics would be advantageous. Skills in programming languages (R, Python or comparable) are important. We welcome applicants with different combinations of these skills. Specialised methods and project-specific expertise will be developed through mentorship, training and collaboration within the group and consortium.
Additional information
This is a full-time post until 30 August 2028, with potential for a further 18-month extension depending on funding.
Salary on appointment will be within the range £39,000 to £46,500 per annum, depending on qualifications and experience. A starting salary of £40,100 is guaranteed for candidates who can evidence their PhD certificate at appointment; those awaiting confirmation of their PhD award will be appointed at £39,000 until evidence is provided.
This role meets the criteria for a visa application, and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply. Please contact the Human Resources Team if you have any questions regarding your application or visa options.
We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sectors of society. The Institute supports equality of opportunity within the workplace and expects all employees to share and display these values. To support this commitment, we offer a range of family-, faith- and diversity-friendly working arrangements to help all staff achieve excellence in their area of work. As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.
As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.
About the Quadram Institute:
The Quadram Institute is an interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to understanding how food and microbes interact to promote health and prevent disease. Our vision is Healthy living by design: promoting lifelong health by decoding the interactions between food science, nutrition, microbes, microbiomes and human physiology, and transforming this knowledge into innovative solutions for society.
The closing date for applications will be 17 November 2026.
The Quadram Institute Bioscience is a registered charity (No. 1058499) and is an Equal Opportunities Employer.