Postdoc position – food structure and digestion

The Department of Food Science, Aarhus University (Denmark), invites applications for a 36-month postdoc position to work the physical chemistry of food proteins,  in particular their structure formation and changes occurring during processing and digestion. The starting date is November 1, 2025, or as soon as possible hereafter.

The research project

This post-doctoral position is part of the EU cofund research project AMBER, Advanced Multiscale Biological imaging using European Research infrastructures, will address scientific and sectoral gaps in biological imaging ranging from molecular, through cellular, to tissue, organ and organism levels of organisation, and is coordinated by LINXS Institute of advanced Neutron and X-ray Science.

AMBER is funded by the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) COFUND scheme.

Around 20 postdocs will be recruited in the fourth call 2025, with each fellowship lasting 36 months.

AMBER has six core partners: Lund University/MAX IV, Sweden, the European Spallation Source (ESS), Sweden, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), France, the International Institute of Molecular Mechanisms and Machines, (IMOL), Poland, and the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology, United Kingdom.

Your work may include clinical and biomedical projects. It may also include technique development work aimed at combining imaging techniques and data analysis to provide a more integrated picture of life processes in the context of health and disease. To be a postdoc fellow at the AMBER programme you will get unprecedented medical, biological, and methodological capabilities, with a profound potential impact for Europe’s next generation of research and researchers. When you have completed the AMBER programme you will be extraordinarily well equipped to further your career in academia, at infrastructures, in the health and MedTech sectors, and beyond.

For more information about the total announced post-doctoral positions within in the AMBER co-fund project please visit https://www.euraxess.se/jobs/341970

The interviews will start as soon as possible after the application deadline. For more information about AMBER, application and evaluation process etc please visit: ambercofund.eu

Qualification requirements

Minimum requirements are:

• candidate needs to have a maximum of 8 years after a doctoral degree (PhD), as required by the project Grant Agreement signed with the European Commission,
• at least one original publication in a peer-reviewed journal,
• a background in the relevant methods,
• a complete application package submitted through the AMBER portal (including CV and detailed research plan), and finally,
• strict compliance with the MSCA mobility rule that the researcher must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the host organisation's country for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the call deadline.

Each project will have additional specific requirements that candidates have to fulfill, be sure to check what these are before you apply.
 

Instructions on how to apply

For more information and documents/templates/europass link, please visit https://www.ambercofund.eu/for-applicants.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure that you upload all the required documents specified below i-ix. If there is not a specific field for required documents, then please upload documents in the field "extra documents".

If you are interested in applying for more than one position (maximum 3) you must be prepared to make a full application for each individual position.

Applications shall be written in English and all documents shall be in pdf format.

i) A Curriculum Vitae (europass format). Your CV shall be exported to a PDF file that you use in your application.

ii) A detailed research plan including any foreseen secondments (candidates can suggest more than the mandated one, they can also suggest their own secondments), schools and conferences as well as a templated budget plan. The research plan should be as concise as possible, 3 pages, including one-third page of summary/abstract.

Additional texts to include in the PDF are:
iii) Letter of Commitment from any additional secondment partners the candidate wishes to bring onboard.
iv) Evidence of English proficiency (minimum CEFR B22, also checked at interview).
v) A draft Individual Career Development Plan (ICDP).
vi) Two reference letters.
vii) Any additional documents to support the application.
viii) Ethical questionnaire (HE ethics checklist + research ethics commitment)

In addition, the application will require:
ix) Any candidate can apply for a maximum of 3 positions. You must apply for each individual position. A list with order of preference of positions should be sent to the AMBER management. amber@linxs.se
 

The Department of Food Science

Research will be conducted at a newly built 7000 m2 state-of-the-art research facility at the Department of Food Science, Aarhus University (AU FOOD). AU FOOD is in possession of the most advanced analytical research infrastructure, with well-integrated, high-tech prototype facilities. This world-leading infrastructure, will be available to underpin the proposed project (e.g. 2DLC-ESI/Q-ToF MS/MS with ion mobility source, QToF-GC-MS, 600 MHz NMR, twin-screw extruders) and result in an unprecedented cross-disciplinary competence to answer key research questions in biopolymer science. The Department currently employs approx. 60 full time scientific staff and 80 PhD students and Postdocs, with approx. 80 thesis based Bachelor and Masters students and visiting staff and students, who together contribute to an international research environment where English is the preferred language in the laboratory, at meetings and at seminars. Read more about the Department of Food Science at www.food.au.dk.

What we offer

We offer a unique research experience in an interdisciplinary research project, combining state-of-the-art techniques in extrusion, food structuring and multi-omic data. We also offer a great mentoring experience, a collaborative environment in which the candidate will be able to share across subfields and applications, and a research environment characterized by collaboration, commitment to diversity and inclusion, and success in mentoring.

Place of work

The place of work is the Department of Food Science, Aarhus University, Agro Food Park 48, 8200 Aarhus N (Denmark).

Contact information

For further information about the project or the position, please contact the principal investigator and project leader Milena Corredig.  mc@food.au.dk
 

Application procedure

Shortlisting is used. This means that after the deadline for applications – and with the assistance from the assessment committee chairman, and the appointment committee if necessary, – the head of department selects the candidates to be evaluated. All applicants will be notified whether or not their applications have been sent to an expert assessment committee for evaluation. The selected applicants will be informed about the composition of the committee, and each applicant is given the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that concerns him/her self. Once the recruitment process is completed a final letter of rejection is sent to the deselected applicants.

Letter of reference

If you want a referee to upload a letter of reference on your behalf, please state the referee’s contact information when you submit your application. We strongly recommend that you make an agreement with the person in question before you enter the referee’s contact information, and that you ensure that the referee has enough time to write the letter of reference before the application deadline.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to ensure that letters of reference received after the application deadline will be taken into consideration.

If you wish to add a referee after you have submitted your application, you must send this person’s details (name, job title, place of work, and email address) as well as the name of the position you have applied for to: HR.Nattech@au.dk

Formalities and salary range

Technical Sciences refers to the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Danish Universities under the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The application must be in English and include a curriculum vitae, degree certificate, a complete list of publications, a statement of future research plans and information about research activities, teaching portfolio and verified information on previous teaching experience (if any). Guidelines for applicants can be found here.

Appointment shall be in accordance with the collective labour agreement between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Further information on qualification requirements and job content may be found in the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Danish Universities.

Salary depends on seniority as agreed between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Confederation of Professional Associations.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

Research activities will be evaluated in relation to actual research time. Thus, we encourage applicants to specify periods of leave without research activities, in order to be able to subtract these periods from the span of the scientific career during the evaluation of scientific productivity.

Aarhus University offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including relocation service and career counselling to expat partners. Read more here. Please find more information about entering and working in Denmark here.

Aarhus University also offers a Junior Researcher Development Programme targeted at career development for postdocs at AU. You can read more about it here.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.
 

Aarhus University

Aarhus University is an academically diverse and research-intensive university with a strong commitment to high-quality research and education and the development of society nationally and globally. The university offers an inspiring research and teaching environment to its 38,000 students (FTEs) and 8,300 employees, and has an annual revenues of EUR 935 million. Learn more at www.international.au.dk/