IMDEA Energía is opening a Predoctoral Researcher Position for the Electrical Systems and Artificial Intelligence Units, looking for talented and motivated candidates to work on AI tools for the operational integration of flexible distributed energy systems.

This action aimed at training predoctoral research staff is associated with the priority research line A.1.1 Resilient power grids with energy storage, which are described in the strategic plan under the 'Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence' grant funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

Tasks Description:

• Review the state of the art on distributed energy systems, flexibility, balancing markets and applied AI to these systems.
• Define representative use cases, operational objectives, system constraints, and performance indicators.
• Integrate and preprocess data from distributed resources, weather services, electricity markets, grid operators, and simulation environments.
• Develop hybrid physical and data-driven models to predict or simulate operational states, storage conditions, and flexibility needs.
• Design and implement AI-based optimization and decision-support methods for interoperability in distributed real-world energy systems.
• Evaluate and validate the proposed hybrid methods through simulations, experimental platforms, or real-world case studies.
• Communicate and disseminate research results through high-quality scientific channels including high impact scientific publications, presentations in conferences.
• Supervision of Master or undergraduate studies

Mandatoy Requirements:

• Official Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Science or related field, providing eligibility to undertake doctoral studies within the research line specified in this call.
• Bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Electrical, Electronic or Industrial Engineering or related engineering.
• Demonstrate experience of programming skills in Python and/or Matlab.
• IMPORTANT: include academic records for BSc and MSc degrees in the "Other certificates and documents" section

Other merits to value:

• Academic record
• (International) mobility
• Solid understanding of applied AI, including modelling, prediction and optimisation techniques.
• Good understanding of renewable and energy storage technologies, planning and operation of power systems and energy and balancing markets.
• Good knowledge of DIgSILENT PowerFactory, SimPowerSystems and other energy systems modelling tools.
• Experience training and evaluating AI/ML models on real-world datasets (beyond coursework or toy problems).
• Experience working with imperfect, noisy, or heterogeneous datasets.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Motivation for research and interest in applying AI to energy systems.
• Experience participating in research projects and interdisciplinary teams.

Criterion 1. Academic and/or scientific-technical background of the candidate (up to 50 points)

• Subcriterion 1.a): Scientific and technical contributions (up to 45 points). The candidate's academic record and other curricular merits will be assessed, as well as their suitability for the tasks to be performed based on their training and professional experience.
• Subcriterion 1.b): Mobility and internationalization (up to 5 points). The relevance and impact on the candidate's research career of stays at national and international centers and/or in the industrial sector will be assessed, considering the prestige of the host institution and the activities carried out there.

Criterion 2. Suitability of the candidate for the research activities to be carried out (up to 50 points)

• The candidate's suitability for the program, project, or research activities to be carried out will be assessed based on their prior training and experience. To this end, consideration will be given to the added value that carrying out research activities represents for their research career, as well as the value contributed to the center or unit and, where applicable, to the receiving team.

Remuneration: Gross annual salary 25.456,10€

Contract: Predoctoral contract for a maximum of 4 years, in accordance with Article 21 of Law 14/2011 of 1 June and Royal Decree 103/2019 of 1 March.

*The contract includes all the benefits of the Spanish Public Health and Social Security System.

IMDEA Energia Institute, Av. Ramon de la Sagra, 3. 28935 Mostoles, Madrid