The School of Industrial Engineering is one of the longest-established IE Schools in Europe, with a strong presence in the international research, design, and education community, especially in the field of Operations Management and Operations Research. The graduate programs (MSc, PDEng, and PhD) in Operations Management & Logistics attract top-level candidates from all over the world. The research and education at the OPAC group of the School of Industrial Engineering has specific emphasis on:

Planning and Control in Manufacturing, Services, and Supply Chains;

Distribution Logistics;

Maintenance and Reliability;

Finance and Accounting, oriented towards operational processes.

Project Description
There are more than 7000 known rare diseases but treatments are available only for 300 of them. Improving the accessibility and affordability of such treatments is an important societal concern. To address this problem, the research project will develop timely and effective optimization models to provide insights for pharmaceutical manufacturers and policy makers. For manufacturers, analytical models and decision support tools will be developed to optimize manufacturing capacities and timelines under failure risks, limited information on future clinical trials, and expensive resources. For policy makers, new rules and strategies will be developed to strike a balance between expediting R&D timelines and assuring the safety and quality of the drugs. The research outcomes will stimulate innovation, reduce costs, and lower lead times in the pharmaceutical industry. A solid research foundation will be developed combining stochastic optimization, manufacturing systems engineering, and game theory.

Requirements
Applicants should have completed (or be close to completion of) a Master's degree in operations research, industrial engineering, operations management, applied mathematics, statistics, or a comparable domain with solid background in (stochastic) quantitative research methods. Fluency in English is required. The candidate should be interested in working in close collaboration with industry partners. The expected start date is September 1, 2018 (starting February 2018 onwards is also possible). The appointment is for four years, subject to satisfactory performance.

We offer:

a challenging job in a dynamic and ambitious university;

a PhD appointment for a period of 4 years;

gross salary of € 2.222,- per month in the first year, up to € 2.840,- in the fourth year (on a full-time basis). Furthermore an 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end of year allowance;

broad package of fringe benefits (including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, savings schemes and excellent sports facilities).