15 Ph.D. Student / Early-Stage Researcher (ESR) positions

The European Training Network "STIMULUS" offers 15 full-time positions for early-stage researchers (ESRs) aiming for a Ph.D. Applicants are expected to start between February and September 2021.  The H2020-funded project is part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Training Network (ITN) of the European Commission. 

​

You will be employed by one of STIMULUS nine academic and industrial beneficiaries and work with eight additional partner organisations. Our consortium members come from the academic, industrial, and government sectors in six countries: Germany, UK, Turkey, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

​

Our goal is to provide you with a top transdisciplinary Ph.D. education, combining the best that biologists, chemists, engineers, materials scientists, biotechnologists, clinicians, policymakers, and entrepreneurs have to offer. You will become uniquely equipped to develop a career in healthcare-related materials science.

​

Research and tasks

​

Your research will provide technological solutions to the growing problem of healthcare-associated infections. Increasing antibiotic resistance means that current medical approaches rapidly become unsustainable. STIMULUS will create medical devices that signal when an infection is present and thereby reduce the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics. Potent novel and existing antibiotics will be released by built-in triggers in wound dressings to treat infections exactly when and where it is needed. Taking these technologies from fundamental research to prototypes with our industrial partners will be the crowning achievement of your training.

​

Besides working on their home institutions' project, the researchers will participate in network-wide training events all around Europe. Every ESR will perform at least one long secondment with another consortium member, combining academic and industrial experiences.

​

Eligibility

​

Apply to our diverse positions if you:

​

are prepared to work in a new country, and will have received a master's or equivalent degree at the latest by May 2021  in one of the following fields:

​

• physics

• materials science,

• chemistry or biochemistry

• chemical, biochemical or biomedical engineering,

• electrical engineering,

• biotechnology,

• biology or biotechnology,

• medicine,

• or a cognate discipline (the qualifying degree).

​

We especially encourage applications from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups.

​

The first interviews will take place in the second half of February 2021 for the first batch of ESRs. The interviews will take place online or in a hybrid format in front of diverse panels that will rank the candidates for each position.