PEPR Food Systems, Microbiome and Health (SAMS): Junior Chairs

Junior Chair positions in French laboratories are open for researchers of any nationality to work on projects relating to the microbiome and preventive healthcare.

The Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm – National Institute of Health and Medical Research) is a public scientific and technological institute which operates under the joint authority of the French Ministry of Health and the French Ministry of Research. Its mission is to understand and improve human health through the coordination of research in all life and health sciences.

Within the framework of Programme et Équipements Prioritaires de Recherche (PEPR – Priority Research Programme and Equipment), funded through the France 2030 investment plan, the French Government is providing funding for projects focused on the links between food, the microbiome and human health, as well as the interactions between consumption behaviour, the information provided to consumers and models of food production. Through the PEPR, titled ‘Systèmes Alimentaires, Microbiomes et Santé’ (SAMS – Food Systems, Microbiomes and Health), projects will seek to reduce the impact (on individuals, society, the health system etc) of non-transmissible chronic illnesses.

As part of the PEPR, Inserm is overseeing a call for proposals that seeks to develop high-quality research in the field of the microbiome in relation to preventive healthcare while enriching the research environment and infrastructure that is being built in France. The Junior Chairs call will enable young scientists to launch and manage a research team within an established French laboratory where they will develop high-quality projects on the microbiome and health.

The research expertise of candidates is expected to cover at least one of the PEPR SAMS research priorities/axes, particularly those addressing the following issues:

• Developing cutting edge research on host-microbiome symbiosis.
• Identifying disruptive elements – within the microbiome, originating in the environment or linked to the host – and explaining the sequence of (microbe, metabolic, immune etc) events that cause the disruption of symbiosis and homeostasis.
• Identifying risk, diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers, as well as predictors for treatment response or toxicity in order to include them in the medical toolkit with a view towards personalised care.
• Developing new preventive and therapeutic strategies alongside specific and controlled interventional studies identifying and correcting ‘faults’ in the microbiome in order to improve prevention in the general population and patient care while optimising treatments.
• Developing data science focused on the study of human holobionts (host-microbiome) at the interface between biology, medicine and mathematics (medical informatics, statistics, modelling, artificial intelligence (AI).

Multidisciplinary expertise is encouraged.