The advertised doctoral position (DC1) will be carried out at MyBiotech GmbH over a period of 36 months. The recruited researcher will be supervised by Dr. Nazende Günday-Türeli and work in the department Research and Development, led by Dr. Akif Emre Türeli. The doctoral candidate will be registered for the PhD programme at Saarland University, Germany.

The project will focus on enabling and facilitating the recovery of valuable chemicals of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical importance via waste treatment after different processes, thus, efficient and cost-effective disposal of high organic load waste. The project will strongly contribute to circular economy by extraction, recovery and concentration of valuable substances from residual waste streams as Proof-of-Concept (PoC) for the suggested re-purposing strategy. Additionally, special attention will be given to increase low yields, inefficient separation of the products and scale-up issues where continuous process and production systems will be employed. Special attention will be given to employing green chemistry for continuous synthesis to reduce environmental impact through minimised side products, waste and need for harsh reagents, as well as to reduce carbon footprint.

The main working tasks of the advertised position are

(1) Recovery of valuable chemicals of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical importance from fish oil wastes to be used as sustainable alternative feedstock for synthesis

(2) Increasing the overall yield of synthesis by using green technologies

(3) Enhanced economic and environmental conditions to seek adaption as a platform technology for other potential application

In the frame of the research project, short term (secondment) visits at other partners premises are envisioned. As per call requirements, candidate will spend at least half of the total contract time in a non-academic environment.

Contract and Salary

This doctoral position DC1 is fully funded by the Marie Skłodowska Curie Action Industrial Doctorate GreenX3 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01-01). The monthly gross salary will comprise a living allowance, mobility allowance and if applicable a family allowance.

This is approximately rounded at € 48 000.00 (gross salary, including compulsory deductions under national law, such as employer and employee social security contributions and direct taxes) per annum (living and mobility allowance). Family allowance will be implemented if the doctoral candidate has or acquires family obligations (i.e. marriage or relationship with equivalent status to a marriage recognised by the legislation of the country or region where this relationship was formalised or dependent children who are actually being maintained by the researcher) during the action duration.

The candidate will be employed by a single, three years employment contract offering social security, holiday rights, parental leave rights, pension provision, healthcare insurance and accident coverage at work. Researchers must be enrolled in a doctoral programme leading to the award of a doctoral degree in at least one EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.

For more info on MSCA-DN-ID visit the website https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/doctoral-ne….

The recruited candidate will work as part of an international, interdisciplinary and young project team accounting for 10 doctoral candidates and 3 doctoral network students located at different universities and company in Germany, Spain, Italy, France and United Kingdom.

The recruited candidate will attend yearly summer school and international meetings and secondments whilst receiving training on research and transferrable skills. The recruited candidate is expected to finish the project with a PhD thesis and to disseminate the results through open access publications in peer-reviewed journals, patents (when applicable) and presentation and poster at national and international conferences.

Background Information

MSCA-DN-ID are industrial doctorate programmes funded by the European Union. Positions in the frame of these programmes are offered to European and non-European doctoral candidates to implement individual projects in a European country other than their own. All doctoral networks have the objective in promoting international, inter-sectoral and multidisciplinary collaboration in doctoral-level training in Europe. Additionally, industrial doctorate requires the mandatory involvement of the non-academic sector in the doctoral training and the candidate will spend 50% of working time in the non-academic sector.

The GreenX3 project will create an interdisciplinary and intersectoral network to train 10 doctoral candidates and 3 doctoral network students for a period of 36 months. Their training will be supported by 16 Parties comprising a network of 7 industries and 9 academic partners from Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, France and Italy, offering altogether a rich, multidisciplinary and intersectoral environment for the training of the successful candidates.

GreenX3 will focus on the study of greener materials and their environmental impact, the development of novel environment-friendly industrial processes, and key enabling technologies (KETs) designed to enhance resource management and product quality. The joint presence and intertwined connection among academic and non-academic partners with expertise comprising and not limited to materials/polymer chemistry, nanotechnology, pharmacy and pharmaceutical technology, entrepreneurship, sustainability and product development will provide an outstanding environment to train the next generation of researchers with strong focus on sustainable development, responsible production and waste reduction.