In the Pharmaceutics team, we design and synthesise new functional (bio)materials for drug delivery and regenerative medicine. These materials are mostly polymer or lipid based and their molecular design critically determines the performance of drug delivery systems. Moreover, research on Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP’s) will be expanded, which requires new drug delivery systems to be designed and synthesised.

As Research Associate in our team, you enjoy to tackle synthetic challenges hands-on in the lab to contribute to new and running research projects. Therefore, you will synthesise polymers and lipids for the development of novel drug delivery systems. Synthesis will include polymer synthesis, derivatization of natural polymers, lipid modification, (bio)orthogonal coupling of drugs and targeting ligands to polymers/lipids and analysis of obtained products.

You will have a supportive role for the principle investigators within the pharmaceutics team and you give advice on the best synthesis routes and protocols, perform synthesis of polymers/lipids/peptides for different projects and support other scientists with synthesis and analytic challenges.

You play a main role in educating and directly transferring your practical knowledge to a younger generation of scientists. Moreover, you are encouraged to collaborate with other academic groups. In addition, you will get a small teaching task (0.1 FTE) to support education of Bachelor and Master students in the Pharmacy or College of Pharmaceutical Science curriculum (chemistry related courses).

We would like you to meet the following criteria:

• a PhD degree (or a MSc degree with additional experience in a research environment) in organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, pharmaceutics with a focus on synthesis or related;
• a strong background in at least one but preferentially two of the following areas: Organic Chemistry, Biomaterials, (Lipid) Nanoparticles, Pharmaceutics, Drug Delivery;
• excellent communicative skills in English, both in writing and speech. If you do not yet speak Dutch, we ask willingness to learn it. The University offers the opportunity to learn the language and will support you in this.

• A position for 1 year (0.7 - 1.0 FTE), following a positive evaluation this will be converted into a permanent contract.
• A full-time gross salary – depending on previous qualifications and experience – ranging from €2,960 to €5,439 in scale 10-11;
• Benefits including 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 yourself via the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we like to encourage you to continue to grow.

For more information, please visit working at Utrecht University.

Sharing science, shaping tomorrow. A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability. You can watch the Utrecht University Campus Tour to get an impression of our university.

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 which that 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.

The Pharmaceutics division is one of the 5 divisions within the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences 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 consist of scientists from all over the world that like to work in a multidisciplinary environment in which fundamental research and applied sciences are interconnected.