Planetary Research Jobs

Please, send your CV to acb@ua.es and paula.benavidez@ua.es, indicating which position you are interested in (important).

1. Position #1.

Our Regional Government (Generalitat Valenciana, GV, Spain) has just issued a call for postdoc positions (APOSTD), for candidates holding a PhD since later than Jan 1st 2022. You are also eligible if your thesis will be defended after the call deadline, but it is already deposited at your University by then.

The position is 18 to 24 months, with a yearly salary around 35 k€ (full health coverage included, as in most EU countries). The outcome is expected by June/July 2027, and the beginning of contract by October 2027.

Link to the call (in Spanish) (Anexo IV): https://dogv.gva.es/datos/2026/07/24/pdf/2026_24905_es.pdf

I can provide you with further details if you are interested.

*** Application due: NOVEMBER 2nd to 22nd 2026. ***

If you are interested in that position, please let me know asap, so that paperwork can be started soon to meet the deadline.

Our group is mainly studying the physics and dynamics of small bodies, is involved in the Hera, RAMSES and LUMIO space missions, and has a branch working on observations and TNOs.

RELEVANT NOTE:

We can only support one candidate for this position, so a pre-selection needs to be done based on real chances of success and real interest in this position.

Normally, only 20 to 30% of applications are successful, because there is a limited number of grants available (on the order of 30) for all areas, and many applicants. 40% of the score is based on the candidates' CV; 20% on the proposed project. For this reason, we are kindy asking you to provide us with your CV, in free format, as soon as possible (not later than September 15th), so that a (painful) choice is made on whom to support for this call to maximize chances of success. When the formal call will be out, you will need to fill in a specific format CV and set up a research project for the contract period.

Also, we kindly ask you to go on with this process only if you really mean to accept the position in case of being eventually selected. Please, do not consider this just as another application that you may be trying at different institutions. We understand that supporting you means that you are prioritizing this option. In fact, if we support you, you get selected, and you give up, we miss our opportunity to hire anyone in this call. Of course, if you are also running for a ERC, MSCA or similar prestigious fellowships, we fully understand that at the end you will prioritize any of those if you are eventually successful.

Our group has been quite successful in this call so far: all 4 supported candidates obtained this fellowoship in the last 7 years (and waiting for last years's outcome...), the last four in a row.

If you wish to chat with me to explain your situation before taking a decision on whether going on with the selection process, just feel free to let me know and we can set up a Zoom chat.

Feel free to pass this information to potentially interested candidates.

1. Position #2.

In the frame of the research project INTERPOLATE (Prometeo/CIPROM) by our regional government, we are hiring a postdoctoral fellow for 24+ months on the following topics:

Data processing, analysis and interpretation of data from Hayabusa2#, Hera, Lucy, and RAMSES space missions. Knowledge of ML and/or AI applied to astronomical data are welcome as well as software skills for modelling and interpretation of data.

The Universidad de Alicante is leading this project, and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Tenerife), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (Granada), Centro de Astrobiología (Madrid), Universidad Politénica de Valencia (Alcoy, Alicante) are part of the project as well and will be the institutions -along with the UA- with which the selected candidate will be working. This position is handled directly by the INTERPOLATE project, so the call will be likely out in September and the outcome will be in October this year, the selected candidate will start asap, upon agreement. Salary is around 32 k€ (full health coverage included).

Please, reach out to me (acb@ua.es) and/or Paula Benavidez (paula.benavidez@ua.es) for your expressions of interest, including a CV in free format, not later than the first week of September. When the formal call will be out (September), we'll inform you and you will need to fill in a specific format CV. The selection process will include an interview with the committee (it can be online).