RESEARCH CONTRACT ON BIOPROCESS MODELLING FOR BIOREFINERY DEVELOPMENTA research contract of 6 months, extendable to 3 years for completion of a PhD thesis, is offered at the Cross-disciplinary Research Centre in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS) of the University of Santiago de Compostela within the European project AgriLoop.
The contract starting date is flexible and foreseen to take place in October/November 2024.Description of responsibilitiesDevelopment of mathematical models to describe the microbial conversions of residual waste streams, with a focus on models at metabolic level.Model-based design of biorefineries.Close collaboration with experimental activities (i.e.
experimental design, data analysis) carried out in CRETUS and AgriLoop project on biorefinery development.QualificationsCandidates must have a master level degree in Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Biotechnology, Applied Mathematics, Physics or similar.An interest in developing a research career culminating in the completion of a PhD thesis will be highly valued.Experience in mathematical modelling, programming and the use of scientific software (e.g.
Matlab, Python, etc.)
will be appreciated, especially if applied to biochemical models and biosystems.Candidates must be skilled in problem solving and understanding of complex scientific texts.Candidates must have good communication skills as well as proficiency in written and spoken English language.Preselection processApplications and information requests must be sent to ****** (including in the subject: "AGRILOOP position") before September 20 th 2024 at 17:00 (CET).
The position will be filled as soon as a suitable candidate is found, therefore interested candidates are advised not to delay their application.Applications must enclose in a single pdf file the following documents:Motivation letter (not more than 1 page), indicating the contact details of the candidate and a brief description of the reasons why they should be selected.Name and contact of two references (e.g.
former supervisors).The preselection process involves the following steps:Evaluation of applications (motivation letter and CV) and screening test.
The goal of this evaluation is to assess the adequacy of applicant's profile to the requirements of the call.
Upon reception of application files, the candidates will be invited to a qualifying screening test which will consist of commenting a scientific paper in a limited time.Personal interview.
Top three candidates after CV screening will be invited for a formal application to the research position, including a personal interview.Biological transformations present a vast unleashed potential to produce resources from low-cost raw materials in an environmentally friendly manner.
In this context, Horizon Europe project AgriLoop is a major European Union, UK and Chinese-funded project finding new ways to convert agricultural-food residues into high-value, eco-friendly products, such as food and feed ingredients and bio-based materials like biopolymers.CRETUS involvement in this project focuses on the model-based development of biorefinery schemes for the transformations of agrifood residues into new products.
The research activities will be focused on two main areas: i) microbial conversions, where the envisioned models will describe the process at metabolic level to bring mechanistic understanding to facilitate the bioprocess design and further integration into a whole biorefinery and ii) on the fractionation of biological raw materials, to obtain the most valuable compounds and proceed to their transformation into products.
These research activities are planned to take place in parallel to other research activities carried out in the AGRILOOP project at CRETUS and by the rest of the project partners.CRETUS is a top-level research centre in environmental technologies which reunites researchers from a multidisciplinary background to develop and evaluate environmental and sustainable technologies.
As part of CRETUS activities in Chemical and Environmental Engineering you will have access to state-of-the-art facilities with a highly committed staff in an inspiring working environment to conduct your research.
The Environmental Engineering area is composed of 14 full/assoc.
professors, 3 technicians, 2 administrative support staff, 7 postdocs and ~20 PhD students.You will have the opportunity to collaborate in other research activities related to biorefinery development.
This position allows integrating a multidisciplinary team while working in a large innovative international project, with multiple opportunities to interact with other partners and become part of the scientific community in biorefinery development.
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