3D printing is a new research field in the manufacturing of personalized medicine. In this project, you will use a state-of-the-art selective laser sintering 3D printer for the development of medicines for children. You will focus on the development and optimization of formulations and printing processes to obtain robust one-step manufacturing processes and dosage forms of high quality. You will investigate how the formulation and process can be varied to change the characteristics of the medicines and you will design dosage forms that are especially suitable for paediatric applications.

You will take part in the PhD programme Drug Innovation of the Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS), which will give you the opportunity to connect with other PhD students in your field and to follow courses. 

• a Master's degree or equivalent in pharmaceutical engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, chemical engineering or a related field;
• a background in at least one of the following areas: physical pharmacy, physical chemistry, HPLC/UPLC analysis, powder characterization;
• preferably experience with solid state characterization (e.g., XRD, DSC, TGA);
• excellent communication skills in English, both in writing and in speech.

• a full-time position for four years;
• a full-time gross salary that starts at €2,443 and increases to €3,122 per month in the fourth year (scale P of the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities (cao));
• participation in the education programme of the Graduate School of Life Sciences;
• 8% holiday bonus and 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities.

In addition to the employment conditions laid down in the cao for Dutch Universities, Utrecht University has a number of its own arrangements. For example, there are agreements on professional development, leave arrangements and sports. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment via the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we like to encourage you to continue to grow.

More information about working at the Faculty of Science can be found here.

The Pharmaceutics Division  is one of five divisions within the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS) and is an internationally renowned top-research group in the field of drug delivery. The core activity of the department is the design and pre-clinical testing of tailor-made drug delivery systems for site-specific, time and/or rate controlled delivery of small molecular weight drugs, therapeutic proteins, nucleic acids (including DNA and siRNA), and antigens for therapy and prevention of life-threatening diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and infectious diseases. The Pharmaceutics team consists of scientists from all over the world who like to work in a multidisciplinary environment in which fundamental research and applied sciences are interconnected.

At the Faculty of Science, there are 6 departments to make a fundamental connection with: Biology, Chemistry, Information and Computing Sciences, Mathematics, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Physics. Each of these is made up of distinct institutes that work together to focus on answering some of humanity’s most pressing problems. More fundamental still are the individual research groups – the building blocks of our ambitious scientific projects. Find out more about us.

Utrecht University is a friendly and ambitious university at the heart of an ancient city. We love to welcome new scientists to our city – a thriving cultural hub that is consistently rated as one of the world’s happiest cities. We are renowned for our innovative interdisciplinary research and our emphasis on inspirational research and excellent education. We are equally well-known for our familiar atmosphere and the can-do attitude of our people. This fundamental connection attracts researchers, professors and PhD candidates from all over the globe, making both the university and the Faculty of Science a vibrant international and wonderfully diverse community.