The annual Spanish call for post-doc and senior researcher positions in Spanish universities and research centres (known as "Juan de la Cierva" and "Ramón y Cajal" programmes) has been recently announced by the Spanish Ministry of Science [1]. These positions are open to young and senior researchers holding a PhD, independently of their nationality.

For young researchers ("Juan de la Cierva" programme), the process for applying to these 3-year positions requires them to contact a Spanish research group before submitting the proposal and making a proposal for a 3-year research project. These applications are evaluated according to the research profile of the candidate, to the quality of the research proposal and to the quality of the research group in which they are willing to carry out their research.

For senior researchers ("Ramón y Cajal" programme), the process for applying to these 5-year positions is independently done by researchers and research groups, who apply separately. However, it is a good practice to contact each other in advance, so that both offers can match if the candidate is evaluated successfully, and so that enough positions are made available by the corresponding research group in case of several candidates positively evaluated.

In the context of this call, the Ontology Engineering Group at UPM is looking for well motivated individuals who would like to carry out research in any of the research topics of the group (Ontological Engineering, Semantic Web, Linked Data, and Semantic e-Science) or who want to contribute their expertise outside these areas and widen the scope of research in the group. These individuals will be able to work in a group with a multicultural background, large experience in research, active participation in international R&D projects (with more than five EU projects currently running), and with a good publication and innovative software development record.

Official deadlines for both calls are February 10th ("Ramón y Cajal") and February 17th ("Juan de la Cierva"). However, in order to prepare the material in advance, we advise people to contact us, if interested, before January 31st, 2011.  Please note that Spanish is not required, and English material is available for those interested in applying.

If you are interested, please contact Asunción Gómez-Pérez or Oscar Corcho.

[1] http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2010/12/28/pdfs/BOE-A-2010-19995.pdf (in Spanish)