The IPsiUS is a recently created research centre (2024) that brings together the most active research groups in Psychology at the University of Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, Spain. Our institution is recognized with the HR Excellence in Research award, which identifies organisations that have successfully incorporated the HRS4R principles into their policies and practices.
We are open to receive postdoctoral researchers interested in boosting their careers in our centre. In this framework, several of our senior researchers offer the possibility of contact for a joint Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship 2025 proposal. Researchers with a PhD who wish to research at the IPsiUS can contact us to co-elaborate a proposal before 16 June 2025. Below, you can find the host offers.
The application must contain information of the research background and work experience, including:
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A complete CV, including personal contact information.
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A motivation letter, outlining the 5 most relevant research results (1-page).
Scientific agenda
The IPsiUS scientific agenda is articulated around three challenges that meet the needs of this environment in alignment with the priorities defined in regional, state, and European R&D&I policies:
- Promoting health and well-being is a first challenge of providing new and improved strategies for prevention and psychological intervention in health, particularly in the most pronounced problems in our social environment, including the deterioration associated with ageing, the challenges of chronic illness, or addictions. Axis 1.1. Healthy ageing. Axis 1.2: Intervention in disease processes. Axis 1.3: Risk behaviour and addictions.
- Developing inclusive and diverse societies addresses the processes that affect the social adaptation of vulnerable groups, intending to provide them with strengthening resources that facilitate inclusion, taking into account their psychological, social, and functional diversity. It also addresses the processes of political participation in contemporary contexts of crisis, and the psychosocial study of phenomena that threaten coexistence. Axis 2.1: Psychosocial vulnerability and resilience. Axis 2.2: Equity and diversity. Axis 2.3: Changing society.
- Contributing to the digital society and sustainability is another challenge, which can be addressed through the design, adaptation, and validation of digital tools for psychological assessment and intervention in the framework of e-Health developments, the design of programmes that improve the cost-efficiency of psychological prevention and intervention, or the development of psychosocial risk management strategies in the workplace. Axis 3.1: Digital tools (e-Health) for psychological assessment and intervention. Axis 3.2. Cost-efficiency of prevention and psychological intervention. Axis 3.3: Digital and linguistic divides.
- Transversal axis. Cognitive and affective processes. Knowledge of psychological processes (perception, attention, learning, memory, language processing, reasoning and decision making, etc., all of which are permeated by motivation and emotions) is essential for any practical application of psychology, which is why this line is transversal to the whole agenda. Line T.1. Learning processes and cognitive control. Line T.2. Language processing. Line T.3. Neurocognitive characterisation of psychological processes.
IPsiUS host offers for the MSCA 2025 postdoctoral fellowship
Dr. Susana Cid Fernández
Website | susana.cid [at] usc.es (E-mail)
We investigate the effects of the integrated intervention with cognitive stimulation and neurostimulation (using transcranial stimulation) in healthy aging, subjective memory complaints, and mild cognitive impairment groups.
We are currently investigating how combined theta-gamma transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) affects working memory and episodic memory in older adults, both with and without cognitive impairment. To assess the effects of tACS, we employ a range of behavioral, EEG, and TMS-EEG measures, allowing us to objectively characterize the observed changes with the highest possible level of detail.
Dr. María T. Carrillo-de-la-Peña
Website | mteresa.carrillo [at] usc.es (E-mail).
This multidisciplinary team aims to improve the quality of life of people with chronic diseases. Our current Brain and Pain lab research line focuses on improving the assessment and intervention strategies in patients with chronic pain. We use psychological and neuroscience tools for assessment (questionnaires, EEG/ERPs, quantitative sensory testing, fMRI) and intervention (health education, multicomponent pain management programs based on e-health tools, transcranial neurostimulation...). We coordinate the Horizon EU project Painless, which is focused on oncological pain (https://palliativeprojects.eu/painless/).
Dr. Sonia Doallo
Website | sonia.doallo [at] usc.gal (E-mail).
Our research group investigates cognitive and emotional processes across populations at different developmental stages who are at risk for psychopathology, with a long track record of studying the risk factors associated with alcohol binge drinking from a multidisciplinary perspective. Findings from our group have underscored the critical role of emotion regulation and psychological distress as mediators/moderators of risky alcohol consumption.
Our current project focuses explicitly on how vulnerability to depression and anxiety affects the recognition of both basic and complex social emotions, which is critical for maintaining adaptive social behavior. Utilizing an integrative methodological approach that includes eye tracking, EEG/ERP, fMRI, and neuropsychological assessment, we seek to identify early behavioral, cognitive, and emotional markers of psychopathology that would potentially allow us to develop preventive strategies to improve young individuals’ well-being.
Dr. Mónica Alzate García
Website | monica.alzate [at] usc.es (E-mail).
The COSOYPA research group participates in the IPsiUS challenge “Developing inclusive and diverse societies”. Our current project represents the continuation of a research trajectory on political action and extremism, initiated years ago, for which we have obtained funding on different occasions at national and international levels (SEJ2005-02302, EUI2008-038120; PSI2012-31667; PSI2015-66608; PID2022-142291NB-100). The object of study of this project is extremist actions, understood as those forms of political participation that seek the imposition of ideas in a non-democratic way. This project's main objective is to explain the psychosocial motivations for this participation and propose specific strategies to discourage it. Specifically: 1) To increase the explanatory capacity of the current models of extremist actions, incorporating known variables such as hatred or identity fusion with novel ones such as Monopoly of Truth, moral obligation, and recognition. A longitudinal design will be used to examine the causality of the proposed relationships. 2) To test, through experimental designs, the effectiveness of strategies aimed at discouraging extremist actions. According to their feasibility and theoretical contribution, the strategies considered are a training program in cognitive flexibility, a re-elaboration of the conflictual framework responsible for extremism, and the alignment of the group's moral foundations with Human Rights.
Dr. Estrella Romero
Website | estrella.romero [at] usc.es (E-mail).
The development of conduct and emotional problems in children and adolescents from a longitudinal perspective is the primary focus of our research lines. Since 2016, we have been conducting the ELISA study, which has followed up more than 2,000 preschool-aged children with annual assessments through preadolescence (https://www.personalitydevelopmentcollaborative.org/project-page-elisa/).
We are currently entering the adolescent phase of the ELISA participants, with a particular interest in the continuities and discontinuities that emerge as children grow up. We aim to delineate various developmental trajectories and turning points, while also addressing key challenges associated with the teenage years, including aggression, substance use, problematic technology use, loneliness, and self-destructive behaviors.
Aligned with our focus on developmental mechanisms, another objective of our work is the design and evaluation of prevention programs, both universal and tailored to the specific manifestations and developmental pathways of child psychopathology.