Want your computations to matter before the next pandemic hits? Build the next-generation methods that can shape public-health decisions in the first weeks of an outbreak — when the data are heterogeneous in nature and quality, noisy, biased, incomplete... and everything depends on getting it right!
We are recruiting a high-potential postdoc to join the PReViX project – Pandemic Preparedness for Respiratory Virus X –, a nationally funded flagship program (€1.4M) to help France respond optimally to future respiratory virus threats.

> What you’ll do: the Early Risk Assessment work package
You will help design an evidence-driven, quantitatively calibrated early-risk framework for newly emerging respiratory viruses:
• Analyze a multidisciplinary and multisector expert survey on health crisis - potential pathogen features and related thresholdsRun systematic review + statistical synthesis to infer joint distributions of key bio–clinical–epidemiological parameters
• Perform time-aware meta-analysis of parameter estimates across the first 200 days of historical outbreaks, and develop bias-correction procedures for early estimates
• Create an early-risk warning tool blending mathematical epidemiology and machine-learning approachesDeliver a user-friendly software tool for public-health agencies and decision-makers
Collaboration & travel: funded missions to Bordeaux and Paris are expected to work with consortium partners.

> Who we are looking for
• PhD in biostatistics or quantitative epidemiology or applied mathematics or AI for health & life sciences
• Solid understanding and practical mastery of ML/DL
• R and/or Python (ideally both) at a high level
Infectious-disease modelling experience is a plus, but strong quantitative talent is the priority.

> Contract
Position: fixed-term INSERM contract researcher
Duration: 24 months
Salary: ~ €3k gross/month (adjusted with experience)
Work time: full-time, 38h30/week
Leave: 45 days/year
Remote work: 1 day/week (eligible after 6 months)

>The research unit
The INSERM Pathogenesis and Control of Chronic and Emerging Infections is a highly interdisciplinary (epidemiology, virology, immunology, infectiology, pharmacology, paediatrics, public health), research unit at University of Montpellier, with strong clinical (two university hospitals) and international links.
See website for more details: [https://www.pccei.fr/].
Location: 60 rue de Navacelles, 34090 Montpellier, FR.

> The research group
Dr Constanze Ciavarella & Dr Mircea T. Sofonea are co-heading the Modelling & Quantitative Epidemiology research division currently 1 consisting of 3 researchers, 1 professor, 1 engineer and 2 PhD students.