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IRB-DRIVE 2026 Call

Are you passionate about biomedicine? Do you want to pursue a PhD, train in the first-class research environment provided by the IRB Barcelona, learn from internationally recognized experts in their respective fields, and build a solid knowledge base that will open up career opportunities? If this is you, then chase your dream career through the IRB-DRIVE PhD programme.

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Call open

 

IRB Barcelona International PhD programme IRB-DRIVE: Driving talent towards professional excellence and high impact biomedicine.

 

IRB Barcelona is a vibrant multidisciplinary institute where scientists address challenging and pressing biomedical problems in a collaborative fashion to provide groundbreaking solutions to unmet medical needs. 

The IRB-DRIVE doctoral programme, an MSCA-COFUND initiative that succeeds IRB-TARGET, is designed to implement a fellow-centric, impact-oriented training itinerary. Through two separate calls, IRB-DRIVE will offer 10 four-year fellowships to outstanding doctoral candidates who will obtain their degree from the University of Barcelona (UB) or University Pompeu Fabra (UPF). 

IRB-DRIVE is aimed at talented young researchers wishing to undertake their PhD theses in one of the 19 Institute's cutting-edge research groups participating in this call. These groups include ERC grant awardees and tackle frontier topics in personalized medicine, advanced therapies, cancer/metastasis, ageing, and AI-driven tools for healthcare, among others.

This innovative training programme provides a comprehensive itinerary, piloting a novel career-driven specialized track approach to prepare fellows for rewarding academic and extra-academic careers in biomedicine. Furthermore, IRB-DRIVE offers holistic support mechanisms that include a tailor-made mentoring agenda, extensive onboarding, and dedicated mental health support, facilitating the attraction, training, and career-readiness of highly qualified research professionals.
 

Co-funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Work Programme under grant agreement No. 101217394, IRB-DRIVE is offering 5 four-year fellowships for the academic year 2026-2027 for researchers interested in carrying out their PhD projects. 

 

Exceptional working and employment conditions: The fellowship amounts to €31.000,00 gross per year (Spanish tax and social security deductions apply). The fellowship will also provide additional funds to cover travel and networking (costs derived from secondments/short stays and/or international conferences, workshops or other networking events), university enrollment and other academic fees, family allowance (if applicable) and relocation fees.

 

Check out IRB Barcelona groups participating in this frame:

CLICK HERE TO APPLY!

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the European Research Executive Agency can be held responsible for them.

Eligibility

IRB-DRIVE will recruit doctoral candidates of any nationality, gender, culture, religion, sexual orientation or age to undertake a PhD in biomedicine. To be eligible for an IRB-DRIVE fellowship, applicants must:

  • Comply with the mobility rule: meaning that they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the deadline of the call.

  • Not be in possession of a doctoral degree at the deadline of the call. Any candidate that has successfully defended their doctoral thesis will not be considered eligible, even if they have not formally been awarded a doctoral degree.

  • Fulfil one of the following options (mandatory requirements according to the Bologna process to be able to enrol in a doctoral programme at the time of the effective recruitment):

    • Completion of studies that lead to an official Spanish (or from another country of the European Higher Education Area) university degree awarding 300 ECTS credits, of which at least 60 must correspond to master level.

    • Completion of a degree in a non-Spanish university not adapted to the European Higher Education Area that gives access to doctoral studies in Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Physics, Medicine or related fields in Spain.

  • Submit a complete application before the established deadline through the IRB-DRIVE electronic application. Applicants will be asked to upload the following information:

  • Personal information such as first and last name, gender, nationality and contact details. This section will also ask about applications for or intention to apply for other fellowships.

  • Curriculum vitae, including summary of work experience and career breaks.

  • Motivation letter (maximum 2 pages) highlighting their research experience and academic achievements and explaining why they are interested in IRB Barcelona and in a particular research group.

  • A scanned copy of their certified academic record. These documents must show the grades attained in exam periods and evidence that the required degree will be obtained by the expected time of recruitment if it has not already been awarded.

  • Any additional files considered relevant to the application.

  • At least two recommendation letters from university lecturers or scientists who are familiar with their academic work and who can judge their potential as a predoctoral researcher. 

  • A summary of any work experience and a maximum of three research groups in which they are interested.

Candidates are selected exclusively on merit, on the basis of their curricula. The academic grades and curriculum vitae of each applicant are evaluated, as well as recommendation letters and a motivation letter. No selection criteria for positive or negative discrimination are applied. IRB Barcelona is dedicated to promoting the role of women in science, and, therefore, explicitly invites women to apply. This commitment underscores the institute’s sincere effort to foster gender balance and diversity in its research teams.

How to apply

Applicants should complete and submit the online form. More information regarding the application can be found in the “Useful Information” tab.

Those applying also for the IRB-DRIVE programme only need to submit a single application, which will be considered for both calls.

Applicants will be asked to upload the following documents in English: *Please note that all the documents provided should be in PDF format.

  • Curriculum vitae specifying education and experience, including career breaks, and supported by pertinent documents.
  • A motivation letter (maximum 2 pages) highlighting your research experience and academic achievements and explaining why you are interested in IRB Barcelona and in a particular research group.
  • A scanned copy of the student’s certified Academic Record. These documents must show the grades attained in exam periods. If the certified academic records are not in Spanish or English applicants should also attach a translation in one of the above mentioned languages.
  • Any additional files considered relevant to the application
  • Two recommendation letters from university lecturers or scientists with who the applicant has studied or worked. Candidates are responsible for ensuring that referees submit these letters. Applications not supported by these letters will not be eligible. If the applicant has previously worked with a researcher at IRB Barcelona, any letter of reference from said person cannot be included as one of the two reference letters requested. However, it can be sent to provide additional support for the application.

Please indicate the Research Cluster(s) and/or Research Group(s) to which you wish to apply (up to 3, in total). Details of the available research projects for the IRB-DRIVE fellowships are provided in Annex 2 of the IRB-DRIVE call. Details of the available research projects for the general call fellowships are provided in Annex 1 of the IRB-general call.

Research Clusters:

  • Aging and Metabolism (Dr. Alejo Rodríguez-Fraticelli, Dr. Ana Victoria Lechuga-Vieco, Dr. Lluís Ribas, Dr. Salvador Aznar, Dr. Stefanie Wculek)
  • Cancer Science (Dr. Alexandra Avgustinova, Dr. Angel Nebreda, Dr. Direna Alonso-Curbelo, Dr. Roger Gomis)
  • Computational, Chemical and Structural Biology (Dr. Modesto Orozco, Dr. Núria López-Bigas, Dr. Patrick Aloy, Dr. Toni Gabaldón, Dr. Xavier Salvatella)
  • Mechanisms of Disease (Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz, Dr. Francesc Posas & Dr. Eulàlia de Nadal, Dr. Jens Lüders, Dr. Marco Milán, Dr. Raúl Méndez)

More information on the research activities of each group can be found on the IRB Barcelona webpage.

For more information, please, contact academicoffice@irbbarcelona.org.

Selection procedure

An Evaluation Committee will appraise eligible applications both in the remote evaluation stage and in the interview stage. This committee will include external members and representatives of group leaders at IRB Barcelona. The evaluation will be independent, impartial, objective and free of conflicts of interest, and the selection will be open, efficient, transparent, fair, and merit-based. The Academic Advisory Committee will oversee the remote and interview stages of the selection process.
Applicants will receive continuous support from the Academic Office through the IRB-DRIVE helpdesk (email, phone), which will notify them of the outcome of the preselection. The candidates with the highest scores will be invited to IRB Barcelona for an interview. Those who do not pass the threshold established will be excluded from further consideration and will be informed.
Short-listed candidates will receive an invitation to a two-day interview process held at IRB Barcelona. Teleconference interviews will be used only for candidates with prior commitments that cannot be rearranged and that thus prevent them from travelling to Barcelona.
Offers of admission will be made to the successful candidates shortly after the interview period. Candidates positively evaluated but with an insufficient score to receive a fellowship will be put on a reserve list to cover possible renunciations and future positions.
The list of awardees will be published on the IRB-DRIVE section of IRB Barcelona’s website. Awardees will receive a formal invitation letter.

Calendar

Call opening: 5 November 2025

Deadline for candidacies: 9 January 2026, 15:00 CET

Deadline for referees: 12 January 2026, 15:00 CET

Remote pre-selection: 2 to 6 February 2026 – This date marks the deadline for Group Leaders to submit their lists of preselected candidates. However, final validation will be carried out by an external committee later.

Group Leader Panel presentations: 26 February 2026

Interviews at IRB Barcelona: 10 & 11 March 2026

Notification to candidates: 20 March 2026

Start date of fellowships:  from September 2026

Useful information for applications