Open Positions
DEMO is recruiting 13 highly motivated Doctoral Candidates. The offered positions have a duration of duration of 36 months.
The start of each Doctoral Work is planned according to defined research activities, as shown below. As equal opportunity employers, we strive to increase the number of women working in the field advertised.
You can apply to as many positions as you wish by uploading one single CV and one motivation letter for all applied positions.
A mobility rule (shown below) is applied. These fellowships are funded by the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks under Horizon Europe Programme.
| Short Title | Synthesis of sMMO enzyme-mimic metal-organic frameworks |
| Recruiting institution | #1. University of Oslo (Norway, 17 months): study of synthetic protocols for mono-and binuclear iron-moieties containing MOFs #2. University of Turin (Italy, 12 months): advanced spectroscopic study of redox behaviour and stability of Fe-containing enzyme-mimic MOFs |
| Additional secondment | ProfMOF (Norway, 7 months): development of scale-up procedures for the enzyme-mimic MOF syntheses |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Oslo (Norway) and University of Turin (Italy) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 36 months |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Kinetic and mechanistic studies on enzyme-mimicking MOFs with mono-Fe or di-Fe sites |
| Recruiting institution | #1. University of Oslo (Norway; 24 months) #2. University of the Basque Country (Spain; 9 months) |
| Additional secondment | University of Turin (Italy, 3 months) |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Oslo (Norway) and the University of the Basque Country (Spain) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-02-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Computational Engineering of Iron Metalated MOFs for the Catalytic Oxidation of Light Alkanes |
| Recruiting institution | #1. University of Oslo (Norway; 24 months): DFT modeling of multivariate MOFs, including high-throughput virtual screening and machine learning #2. National Institute of Chemistry (associated to the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; 9 months): Multiscale modeling of catalytic alkane oxidation within MOFs |
| Additional secondment | Open (3 months). Possible hosts include: Aspuru-Guzik (Univ. of Toronto, Canada), Norrby (AstraZeneca, Sweden) |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Oslo (Norway) and the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-02-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Ab initio Atomistic Micro-kinetic Modelling of Direct Stepwise Conversion of Methane. |
| Recruiting institution | #1. National Institute of Chemistry (Slovenia, 18 months): Study Monte Carlo, ab initio chemical microkinetic modelling to develop kinetic models, simulation of theory-driven X-ray spectroscopy data to optimise catalyst preparation and ab initio models. #2. University of Turin (Italy, 12 months): Study the optimization inputs for preparation, scaling and in situ characterisation, simulation of relevant XAS data, search for optimised strategies for catalyst preparation via DOE and ab initio models. |
| Additional secondment | UIO (Norway, 6 months): Familiarize, modify and apply atom-scale machine learning to mesoscale and quantitative support descriptors. |
| PhD jointly awarded by | National Institute of Chemistry through the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and University of Turin (Italy) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-01-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Integrated catalyst-reactor-process engineering for alkane oxidation under solvation phenomena. |
| Recruiting institution | #1. National Institute of Chemistry (Slovenia, 23 months): Study the development of high throughput computation models adapted to include mass transfer phenomena in capillaries; simulation of reactor fluid-dynamics, combining experimental inputs into models and bringing characterisation data into models #2. University of Basque Country (Spain, 9 months): Study of the obtaining solvation experimental data on the consequences of capillary liquids on TS solvation in kinetically-relevant or desorption steps |
| Additional secondment | Johnson Matthey (United Kingdom, 4 months): bring the solvation models developed at NIC into the POGs activity and characterisation data at JM, based on experimental inputs from DC13 |
| PhD jointly awarded by | National Institute of Chemistry through the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and The University of Basque Country (Spain) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-02-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Biodiversity mining for the discovery of new soluble methane monooxygenases (sMMO) for light alkanes oxidation. |
| Recruiting institution | #1. CNRS (Lille, France, 21 months): Screening of the sMMO bank created @Genoscope, regarding their ability to convert light chain alkanes into the corresponding alcohols using high-throughput equipment. Study of the catalytic role and the interactions of their 3 different sub-units and characterization of the best enzymes in terms of kinetic parameters, solvent tolerance, and stability for using in synthesis. #2. University of Basque Country (Spain, 9 months): Immobilization of the best sMMO on porous materials and application of these heterogeneous biocatalysts in flow chemistry to serve as reference for the other experiments conducted in the European project DEMO. |
| Additional secondment | Genoscope (CEA, France, 6 months): Selection of new sMMO from international databases, based on the literature, and with the help of a bioinformatic clustering pipeline (already developed) to produce a bank of new enzymes. |
| PhD jointly awarded by | CNRS through University of Lille (France) and University of Basque Country (Spain) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-10-2023 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Tailored immobilization of soluble methane monooxygenases (sMMO) onto metal-organic frameworks (MOF) to synthetize bio-heterogeneous catalysts for light-chain alkane oxidation. |
| Recruiting institution | #1. CNRS (Lille, France, 20 months): Production of existing soluble methane monooxygenases from literature and immobilization of their different sub-units on and inside metal-organic-frameworks. Evaluation of the catalytic capabilities of the resulting bio-heterogeneous catalysts for light-chain alkane oxidation. #2. Università Degli Studi Di Torino (Italy, 12 months): In-depth characterization of the newly produced heterogeneous biocatalysts, using advanced spectroscopic techniques, with the aim of understanding the interactions between the material and the different enzyme subunits. |
| Additional secondment | ProfMOF (CEA, France, 4 months): Synthesis of MOFs in which the enzymes will be immobilized. |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Lille (France) and Università Degli Studi Di Torino (Italy) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-11-2023 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | High-throughput screening of enzyme-mimicking MOFs and their optimisation towards alcohols production |
| Recruiting institution | #1. CNRS (Lille, France, 21 months) #2. University of Oslo (Norway, 12 months) |
| Additional secondment | University of Basque Country (Spain, 3 months) |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Lille (France) and University of Oslo (Norway) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-11-2023 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Determination of the role of catalytic sites in MOFs via selective titration and spectroscopy |
| Recruiting institution | #1. University of Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain, 20 months): study of selective poisoning and elementary step analyses #2. University of Turin (Italy, 12 months): in-situ spectroscopy to study the evolution of active site role |
| Additional secondment | Johnson Matthey (United Kingdom, 4 months): growing MOF catalysts in diverse pore-size aluminosilicates relevant for industry. |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Basque Country (Spain) and University of Turin (Italy) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-01-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Optimization of catalytic performance for alkane to alcohol production via capillary liquid nanoshell formation |
| Recruiting institution | #1. University of Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain, 20 months): catalytic study of the formation of capillary liquid nanoshells and their consequences in reaction #2. National Institute of Chemistry (Ljubljana, Slovenia, 12 months): theoretical modelling of solvation and correlation to catalytic evidence |
| Additional secondment | ProfMOF (Norway, 4 months): design of MOF catalysts with diverse pore-functions for alkane activation |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Basque Country (Spain) and National Institute of Chemistry via University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-02-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | In situ and operando characterization of energetic aspects of Fe actives sites in Enzyme-like MOF. |
| Recruiting institution | #1. University of Turin (Italy, 20 months): characterization of Fe-MOFs (UiO-66/67) supported inside robust mesoporous scaffolds to obtain highly dispersed active Fe species. #2. CNRS (France, 12 months) Catalytic tests towards light alkanes partial oxidation using N2O, O2, H2O2 as oxidants. |
| Additional secondment | JM (United Kingdom, 4 months): Preparation of the supported MOFs |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Turin (Italy) and CNRS through the University of Lille (France) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-02-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-06-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Advanced electronic and structural characterization of Fe-based bio-inspired catalysts for light alkanes valorization via X-ray spectroscopy and theoretical modelling |
| Recruiting institution | #1. University of Turin (Italy, 20 months): experimental study of local structure, electronic properties and reactivity of Fe-sites in bio-inspired catalysts for light alkanes valorization by X-ray spectroscopy techniques. #2. University of Oslo (Norway, 12 months): theoretical study of Fe sites and putative reaction intermediates, to guide the interpretation of X-ray spectroscopy data. |
| Additional secondment | CNRS (France, 4 months): training on methods and protocols for handling bio-heterogeneous catalysts, to effectively design dedicated X-ray spectroscopy experiments targeting Fe-sites in these catalysts. |
| PhD jointly awarded by | University of Oslo (Norway) and University of Turin (Italy) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-02-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-06-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
| Short Title | Screening, engineering and development of peroxygenases as catalysts for alkane oxidation to alcohols |
| Recruiting institution | #1. Johnson Matthey (United Kingdom, 18 months): Engineering and characterization of peroxygenases enzyme panel #2. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France, 12 months): Expression peroxygenase genes of interest in E.coli and initial screening |
| Additional secondment | University of Basque Country (Spain, 6 months): : test the value of generated enzymes under continuous reactors and understand catalysis mechanisms |
| PhD jointly awarded by | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique through University of Lille (France) and University of Basque Country (Spain) |
| Total duration | 36 months |
| Envisioned start date | 01-02-2024 |
| Contract | Full time |
| Application deadline | 30-07-2023 |
| Additional information | View PDF |
Requirements
Eligibility criteria: We welcome applications from candidates of any nationality completing these criteria:
Candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting organisation #1 for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment. Date of recruitment means the first day of the employment of the researcher for the purposes of the action (i.e. the starting date indicated in the employment contract/equivalent direct contract).
Candidates must have a master degree or equivalent diploma in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering & Materials or related disciplines, with a strong background in catalysis, bioengineering and/or materials.
Candidates may be required to provide documentation proving their eligibility for recruitment, i.e. to provide supporting documentation proving your place(s) of residence or work during the previous 3 years.
