The Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) is a program where the public, stakeholders and researchers jointly identify questions, investigate these and share and implement the knowledge acquired. The aim of this is to further encourage the high-quality science climate in the Netherlands and to realise societal and scientific breakthroughs. Within the NWA programmes, the innovative character should be expressed in interdisciplinarity and the knowledge chain-wide composition of consortia.

NWA is providing a grant of 9.8 million euros to the DARTBAC project: Dutch Antimicrobial Resistance Technology development and Biofilm Assessment Consortium. The industry partners of the DARTBAC consortium contribute an additional 1.3 million euros to the budget. An international interdisciplinary consortium of 23 partners led by MUMC+ investigating dr. Chris Arts will spend the next 6 years researching new technological solutions to the explosively growing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The research focuses on the development of alternatives to traditional antibiotics, through the use of new material technology.

DARTBAC will:

• From a material perspective, develop new antimicrobial technologies that are not based on classic antibiotics to target infection prevention and -eradication on implant surfaces, in hard tissues, and in soft tissues;
• Assess safety and efficacy of these newly developed antimicrobial technologies;
• Enhance the therapeutic efficacy of current antibiotics by combination therapy;
• Develop a new workflow based of predictive in vitro and in vivo models to test safety and efficacy of newly developed antimicrobial technology in order to shorten the time to-market;
• Maintain awareness of the emerging AMR problem in the Netherlands by informing the general public and Health Care Professionals.

The duties of the candidate for this position will consist of setting up, coordinating and conducting experiments; the processing and analysis of the data, as well as writing scientific articles and giving presentations at national and international conferences.

Within Maastricht University Medical Centre communication with especially the department of Medical Microbiology and our industry partner Bonalive will be pivotal.

Specific scientific tasks for the function include:

• Development of novel biomaterials for application in or on medical devices;
• In vitro determination of safety and efficacy of new antimicrobial technologies;
• Assessment of material-soft tissue interaction using in vitro and in vivo models with additional focus on cell biology and angiogenesis;
• Translation of research results toward clinical implementation.

For this demanding PhD position in between academia and industry in a NWA project, we seek candidates with a background in regenerative medicine, cell biology and/or material sciences and a highly developed interest in cell biology and/or material-cell interaction and soft tissue. Expertise in with cell biology, angiogenesis and regenerative medicine principles, cell culturing and analysis of in vitro cellular experiments is preferred. Experience with cellular imaging and SEM analysis is preferred. 

Willingness to work with Laboratory animals (article 9) is required and an interest and/or experience with histology and histomorphometry is preferred.

The candidate must be results oriented and a team player must demonstrate good communication skills and project management skills.

The candidate must have strong communication skills both written and orally in the English language. Proficiency in written and spoken Dutch is preferred.

The position is based in Maastricht with direct collaboration with Bonalive, and TU/e, on the interface of industry and academia.

Living in Maastricht / Limburg region or willing to move there is required.

Fixed-term contract: 01-09-2022 until 31-08-2026.

We offer a full-time position (38 hours/week) at Maastricht University at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, School CAPHRI. 

This full-time position is offered for four years (1+3), with a yearly evaluation. Your salary would be € 2.443,- gross per month in the first year up to € 3.122,- gross per month in the fourth year according to the PhD-candidate salary scale. On top of this, there is an 8% holiday and an 8.3% year-end allowance.

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > About UM > Working at UM.

Maastricht University

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 22,000 students and about 5,000 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. For more information, visit www.maastrichtuniversity.nl

School CAPHRI/Department Orthopaedic Surgery

School CAPHRI https://www.caphri.nl

CAPHRI provides high quality multidisciplinary research and teaching aimed at the improvement of the individual's quality of life and the population's health through innovation in public health and health care.

Research and teaching in the School are devoted to contribute to improvements in the area of public health and primary care. CAPHRI focuses on interventions in the chain of care, starting with prevention and primary care, and ending with aftercare and rehabilitation. The aim of the research is to get insight into the effectiveness of interventions, and their adequacy in meeting prospective patients' needs.

Department of Orthopedic Surgery  http://orthopedie.mumc.nl  

The Department of Orthopedic Surgery of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML) of the Maastricht University Medical Center, in Maastricht, the Netherlands at MUMC+ has a long-standing expertise in translational (pre)clinical research. The Laboratory for Experimental Orthopedics has extensive experience performing fundamental and (pre)clinical research in the field of orthopedics.

The lab hosts a multidisciplinary research team including background in advanced molecular science, biomaterials, biomedical engineering, biomedical sciences, cell biology, health sciences, imaging, laboratory analysis techniques, medical devices research, translational research, that together with the clinical colleagues in the department of orthopedic surgery are being applied on 5 translation research lines (Osteoarthritis and molecular cartilage biology, spine, infection and complex prosthesiology, pediatrics and trauma). We have close collaborations with various medical device industry partners and also with Eindhoven University of Technology.