Publiée 19 juin 2026
Research Engineer Position at Inria Lyon - Computational Neuroscience / Neural Learning
Inria
Bron, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 69500, France
CDI
A propos du centre ou de la direction fonctionnelle
The Inria research centre in Lyon is the 9th Inria research centre, formally created in January 2022. It brings together approximately 410 people in 20 research teams and research support services.
Its staff are distributed in Villeurbanne, Lyon Gerland, and Saint-Etienne.
The Lyon centre is active in the fields of software, distributed and high-performance computing, embedded systems, quantum computing and privacy in the digital world, but also in digital health and computational biology.
Contexte et atouts du poste
The Inria research centre in Lyon is the 9th Inria research centre, formally created in January 2022. It brings together approximately 410 people in 20 research teams and research support services. Its staff are distributed in Villeurbanne, Lyon Gerland, and Saint-Etienne. The Lyon centre is active in the fields of software, distributed and high-performance computing, embedded systems, quantum computing and privacy in the digital world, but also in digital health and computational biology.
Cophy is a project team between Inria, Inserm and CRNS, which gathers an international team of researchers, engineers, clinicians and students interested in studying brain networks, to shed light on information processing, its modulation by attention, prediction and learning, as well as the intricate coupling between action and perception. Our research combines (1) cross-species in-vivo observations of brain electrical and neurotransmitter dynamics in health and pathology; (2) in silico models, including Bayesian models, neural mass models and spiking neural networks; (3) in vitro neuronal network measurements. Our aim is to innovate in neurotechnologies in the broadest sense, both for research and for clinical applications, particularly in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Mission confiée
Adaptive behavior depends on selecting advantageous actions while avoiding detrimental ones, a process that requires continuously updating the relationship between actions and outcomes based on experience. In stable environments, such adaptation can rely on gradual adjustments in learning rates, but in dynamic contexts, flexibility demands faster mechanisms that preserve prior knowledge while enabling rapid behavioral change. This raises a fundamental question: how does the brain achieve immediate adaptation without relying solely on slow synaptic modification?
Our recent theoretical and experimantal work explores how dynamic mechanisms operating at the network level may enable rapid behavioral adaptation alongside more traditional forms of learning. This framework seeks to bridge fast, state-dependent computations and slower, experience-driven plasticity, contributing to a more unified understanding of behavioral adaptation.
The project aims to:
Principales activités
The candidate will be responsible for data acquisition in a behavioural task designed to study how sudden changes in foraging behaviour can be triggered by emotionally salient stimuli. Under the supervision of Romain Ligneul, he/she will also adapt, refine and validate the code used to run the task (i.e. a mixture of C#, Python and Arduino C++) in the open-source, custom apparatus. The candidate will be responsible for the management of animal colonies, the habituation and training of animals, as well as for the stereotaxic surgeries. Finally, he will actively participate in the preprocessing and analysis of acquired data.
Compétences
Avantages
Rémunération
Base of 2692€ gross / month. Wage according to the profile.
The Inria research centre in Lyon is the 9th Inria research centre, formally created in January 2022. It brings together approximately 410 people in 20 research teams and research support services.
Its staff are distributed in Villeurbanne, Lyon Gerland, and Saint-Etienne.
The Lyon centre is active in the fields of software, distributed and high-performance computing, embedded systems, quantum computing and privacy in the digital world, but also in digital health and computational biology.
Contexte et atouts du poste
The Inria research centre in Lyon is the 9th Inria research centre, formally created in January 2022. It brings together approximately 410 people in 20 research teams and research support services. Its staff are distributed in Villeurbanne, Lyon Gerland, and Saint-Etienne. The Lyon centre is active in the fields of software, distributed and high-performance computing, embedded systems, quantum computing and privacy in the digital world, but also in digital health and computational biology.
Cophy is a project team between Inria, Inserm and CRNS, which gathers an international team of researchers, engineers, clinicians and students interested in studying brain networks, to shed light on information processing, its modulation by attention, prediction and learning, as well as the intricate coupling between action and perception. Our research combines (1) cross-species in-vivo observations of brain electrical and neurotransmitter dynamics in health and pathology; (2) in silico models, including Bayesian models, neural mass models and spiking neural networks; (3) in vitro neuronal network measurements. Our aim is to innovate in neurotechnologies in the broadest sense, both for research and for clinical applications, particularly in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Mission confiée
Adaptive behavior depends on selecting advantageous actions while avoiding detrimental ones, a process that requires continuously updating the relationship between actions and outcomes based on experience. In stable environments, such adaptation can rely on gradual adjustments in learning rates, but in dynamic contexts, flexibility demands faster mechanisms that preserve prior knowledge while enabling rapid behavioral change. This raises a fundamental question: how does the brain achieve immediate adaptation without relying solely on slow synaptic modification?
Our recent theoretical and experimantal work explores how dynamic mechanisms operating at the network level may enable rapid behavioral adaptation alongside more traditional forms of learning. This framework seeks to bridge fast, state-dependent computations and slower, experience-driven plasticity, contributing to a more unified understanding of behavioral adaptation.
The project aims to:
- Develop and analyze computational models that capture flexible, multi-timescale learning and
- adaptation in recurrent neural circuits.
- Test model predictions in behavioral experiments.
- Investigate how principles of biological adaptability can inform the design of efficient and robust learning algorithms for artificial systems.
Principales activités
The candidate will be responsible for data acquisition in a behavioural task designed to study how sudden changes in foraging behaviour can be triggered by emotionally salient stimuli. Under the supervision of Romain Ligneul, he/she will also adapt, refine and validate the code used to run the task (i.e. a mixture of C#, Python and Arduino C++) in the open-source, custom apparatus. The candidate will be responsible for the management of animal colonies, the habituation and training of animals, as well as for the stereotaxic surgeries. Finally, he will actively participate in the preprocessing and analysis of acquired data.
Compétences
- Academic excellence (i.e. publications)
- Ability to articulate interests and motivations related to the project
- Strong experience in animal research (including microsurgery, histology, pharmacology, electrophysiology, microscopy perfusions)
- Experience with colony management of transgenic animals (including genotyping, breeding)
- Experience with hardware/software development, including miniaturized behavioural assays and neuro-instrumentation
- Excellent programming skills (especially Python, C++ and/or C#)
- Team spirit and collaborative mindset
Avantages
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
- Possibility of teleworking (90 days / year) and flexible organization of working hours
- Social, cultural and sports events and activities
- Access to vocational training
- Social security coverage
Rémunération
Base of 2692€ gross / month. Wage according to the profile.
