Organisation/Company DIPC - Donostia International Physics Center Research Field Chemistry Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Application Deadline 6 Sep 2026 - 23:59 (UTC) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 38.5 Offer Starting Date 19 Oct 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - ERC Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

La experiencia que se espera de los solicitantes, así como las habilidades y cualificaciones adicionales necesarias para este trabajo, se enumeran a continuación.
Offer Description
The role

We are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to join an international and interdisciplinary research team investigating the role of silica in prebiotic chemistry and its contribution to the emergence of molecular complexity on early Earth.

The selected candidate will study how silica interacts with simple organic molecules and may promote their concentration, stabilization, transformation,



and assembly into chemical systems of increasing complex. By combining experimental prebiotic chemistry with advanced molecular characterization techniques, the project aims to uncover the physicochemical mechanisms through which silica may have facilitated key steps toward the origin of life.

The research will be conducted within the framework of the ERC Synergy Grant PROTOS ( ), a European collaborative project that brings together experts in geology, chemistry, and materials science to experimentally investigate the emergence of life on our planet. The candidate will reproduce plausible early Earth environments using Miller–Urey-type experimental setups and study interactions between minerals, prebiotic organic compounds, and relevant reaction pathways, including Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, formamide condensation, and HCN polymerization.

A major component of the project will involve the analysis and identification of molecular products g

📌 PhD Student (España)
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