PROMINENT is focused at setting up a dedicated doctoral training program for 16 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs; PhD students) at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) and the University of Groningen (RUG). PROMINENT aims to select the best students to become excellently trained researchers, who can perform high quality research, and who subsequently have a major impact on scientific breakthroughs that foster the European society and economy in this field.

Who can apply?
- The most important criteria are enthusiasm, excellence, commitment to research and team spirit. Candidates can freely choose from the 16 available projects during the selection process, but are requested to apply for a maximum of two projects of their interest.
- Educational background preferably in the area of natural and medical sciences, such as (bio)chemistry, molecular (micro)biology, biotechnology, synthetic biology, applied physics, nanoscience, (bio)medical sciences, pharmacy or combinations thereof.
- Candidates need to have completed a European master’s degree or equivalent prior to the application deadline (1 May 2018). Candidates have to be in their first four years of their research career and not yet be awarded with a doctoral degree. Specific expertise can be a plus, but methods can always be learned and projects can be tailored to the specific skills and at the time of recruitment.
- Excellent proficiency in English language.
- Open for all nationalities. In compliance with the EU mobility rule, at the time of application deadline (1 May 2018), candidates shall not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies) in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the application deadline.
- Only applications that are complete, in English and submitted before the deadline will be considered eligible.

Applications should comprise:

Document 1: Curriculum Vitae containing:
- Curriculum Vitae (including your personal details like name, address etc)
- Copy of your Master certificate
- Copy/transcript(s) of your grades (please include Bachelor and Master grades)
- Motivation letter, specifying your interest and suitability for both the PhD position and the PROMINENT joint research program as well as your career ambitions.
- Summary of your research experience including details of the master research project, educational and employment history and a list of publications (if applicable) (max. 1 A4).
- Proficiency in English: Copy/transcript of your TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge test score
Please merge all documents into a single PDF file.

Document 2: A completed form containing (please download this form here)
- information required during the recruitment procedure
- your preference for one or two of the offered projects

Maximum size for both documents is total: 30 MB. Applications have to be submitted electronically in PDF format by means of the application form (bottom of this page).

The PhD student will be either appointed at the University of Groningen or at the UMCG, depending on the projects appointed at.
PhD students preferably start 1 September 2018 ultimately, but not earlier than June 1 2018. The appointment lasts 4 years, which is the standard PhD student period in The Netherlands.

Conditions of employment University of Groningen (RUG)
The University of Groningen offers an appointment for a period of four years, which should be concluded during this period with a PhD examination. The University of Groningen offers a salary of € 2.222,- gross per month in the first year up to a maximum of € 2.840,- gross per month in the fourth and final year, based on a full-time position (1.0 fte), excluding a 8% holiday allowance and a 8.3% end-of-the-year bonus. The first year constitutes a probationary period, with an evaluation of the candidate’s performance after 9 months. The objective of this evaluation is to establish whether the candidate will be able to finish a PhD thesis in the remaining three years. If the performance evaluation is positive, the candidate’s contract will be extended by another 3 years, for a total of 4 years.

Conditions of employment University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Your salary is € 2.279,- gross per month in the first year up to a maximum of € 2.919,- gross per month in the last year (PhD scale). In addition, the UMCG will offer you 8% holiday pay, an 8.3% end-of-year bonus and a development budget. The terms of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for Medical Centers (CAO-UMC).

The UMCG has a preventive Hepatitis B policy. The UMCG can provide you with the vaccination, should it be required for your position.

More information
- General information: contact Peter Braun, project manager PROMINENT PhD Programme, e-mail: prominent@umcg.nl (please do not use this mail address for submitting your application)

- See also the links under related information in the upper right corner.

Applications
The following should be included:
Document 1: CV and related information (see above for details)
Document 2: Recruitment information (see above for details) This form can be downloaded here.

Please use the the digital application form at the bottom of this page - only these will be processed. Immediately after sending the digital application form you will receive an email-confirmation with further information.
The closure date is May 1st 2018.

The PROMINENT COFUND international PhD program

- Are you interested in personalized medicine and optimizing care for patients with diabetes and their complications?
- Are you in the first four years of your research career, or will you graduate before May 1st, 2018?
- Do you have a background in (bio)chemistry, molecular (micro)biology, biotechnology, synthetic biology, applied physics, nanoscience, epidemiology, (bio)medical sciences or pharmacy?
- Are you interested in doing your PhD in high profile research institutes with renowned supervisors?
- Would you like to move to the Netherlands and have you not lived in the Netherlands for longer than 12 months in the last three years?

Then apply for our new exciting research program on personalized medicine with a focus on diabetic chronic disease management, and become part of the next generation of personalized medicine experts.

The PROMINENT COFUND international PhD program, jointly hosted by the University of Groningen and the University Medical Center Groningen (The Netherlands), offers 16 high level fellowships for a joint program on personalized medicine for outstanding PhD students (Early Stage Researchers). The PROMINENT program aims to empower PhD students to become the next generation of personalized/precision medicine experts, who take a leading position in tackling the challenge of the leading (chronic) diseases world-wide.

Diabetes is rapidly evolving into the leading disease worldwide. On the long term, even when treated optimally, diabetes leads to severe complications such as cardiovascular diseases and kidney failure. Current therapy approaches insufficiently reverse disease progression which is, at least in part, caused by the large variation in individual response to the treatment. Only a personalised approach will offer a solution for diabetes disease management. Developing a personalised approach is only possible when stakeholders in all societal domains, i.e. the pharmaceutical industry, drug regulatory officers, payers, caregivers, scientists and patients are involved. Prominent will contribute to the implementation and optimization of personalized medicine in all of these societal domains.

The most talented and motivated students will be selected for a 4-year advanced multidisciplinary research training, starting September 2018. Selected PhD students will obtain specialist training through cutting-edge research projects, specialist advanced courses and training schools, complemented by workshops on generic research and transferable skills. In addition, PhD students will have the opportunity to go abroad on international secondments at leading places in academia, industry and non-governmental organizations.

Research areas
16 PhD students will conduct research within four societal domain areas:

Disease Mechanisms (6 PhD student positions)
To identify disease mechanisms in patient-categories using biomarkers, such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, to allow the right drug choice for an individual patient.

Drug Development (3 PhD student positions)
To create a larger armamentarium of new drug targets and drugs, aimed at curing a single disease from different angles, as well as to develop novel clinical trial design strategies to test different drugs in the same disease for smaller patient populations.

Drug registration and evaluation (3 PhD student positions)
To create optimal regulatory/drug registration models, as well as optimal pharmaco-economic models and decision-making tools for a personalised medicine approach.

Drug Application (4 PhD student positions)
To gain knowledge about personalised treatment and therapies in daily practice.

For more information on the individual research projects, please visit the ESR positions page on the Prominent website.

The PROMINENT training program (project number 754425) has received funding from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND instrument as part of the European Horizon 2020 programme. Through this instrument, the European Commission aims to develop the research skills of young researchers and offer them better career perspectives.