PhD position in Multisensory Development

UniBE is ambitious.
With us, you deliver top performance and test your skills against the best.

• Develop VR experiments, including stimulus presentation and interfaces to stimulation and recording systems; adapt instructions and calibrate task difficulty across ages while preserving the core task structure and sensory-conflict manipulations.
• Implement and verify synchronisation across devices, assess timing accuracy and data quality, and document technical procedures.
• Recruit and test children and adolescents in collaboration with the study team; collect multimodal data and carry out standardised cognitive assessments.
• Develop reproducible workflows for processing and analysing EEG, eye-tracking and behavioural data alongside recorded VR and vestibular-stimulation events and parameters; examine age-related differences and relationships with cognitive performance.
• Prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals, present findings at scientific conferences, and contribute to shared methods and open science practices.
• Master's degree in engineering or a closely related quantitative discipline, with strong technical preparation, completed by the starting date.
• Practical proficiency in MATLAB and Python, demonstrated through developing and debugging experimental or data-acquisition software.
• Hands-on research experience with at least two of the following: EEG, VR experiment development, eye tracking or controlled vestibular stimulation. This must include experimental implementation or data acquisition in at least one method.
• Experience linking experimental software with acquisition or stimulation devices and verifying timing using event markers, triggers or timestamps.
• Working knowledge of R for data handling and statistical analysis, with an understanding of experimental design and inferential statistics.
• Practical experience conducting experiments with human participants, and motivation to work with children and adolescents.
• German sufficient for independent recruitment, study instructions and communication with children and families; strong written and spoken scientific English.

Desirable experience

• Research or other relevant experience working with children and adolescents; standardised cognitive or developmental assessments.
• Knowledge of cognitive and sensorimotor development across childhood and adolescence, relevant to age-appropriate task calibration to preserve the core experimental structure and sensory-conflict manipulations.
• EEG preprocessing and handling movement-related artefacts.
• VR development in Unity/C# or comparable environments.
• Bayesian modelling, machine learning or deep learning for behavioural or neural data.

Applicants meeting the essential requirements are encouraged to apply.

We offer

• Close supervision with regular scientific and methodological feedback, and scope to shape your doctoral research within PREDICT.
• Collaboration with PREDICT's international university partners and participation in methodological exchange.
• An interdisciplinary ARTORG research community connecting biomedical engineering, neuroscience and clinical research.
• Opportunities to develop expertise in multimodal experimentation, neurophysiological analysis and reproducible research, supported by doctoral training and career development.
• Opportunities for scientific publications and conference presentations; salary in accordance with applicable SNSF and University of Bern doctoral employment regulations.
  International reputation Strong research infrastructure and international network Collaborative environment and ambitious team Individual career support