Organisation/Company UNIVERSIDADE DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA Department Vicerrectorado de Investigación e Ciencia Aberta Research Field Pharmacological sciences Chemistry Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 9 Dec 2026 - 00:00 (Europe/Madrid) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - MSCA Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number 101312450 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description
This position forms part of the

FAroGels

research program on food-grade, bio-based, and biodegradable aerogels and their application in sustainable food systems. The selected candidate will be employed by

University of Santiago de Compostela (USC)

and will be required to enroll as a PhD student at

USC,

in accordance with the relevant admission and enrolment requirements.

The doctoral project will focus onScalable Sterilization of Aerogel Carriers for Bioactive Food.





DC10 addresses a major bottleneck for translating FAroGels materials into real food and nutraceutical applications: sterilising or controlling the microbial load of aerogels without damaging their structure or functionality. Conventional methods (autoclaving, dry heat, irradiation) often collapse pores, degrade bioactives or alter surface chemistry.

The project will focus on design sterilisation workflows tailored to biopolymer aerogels, exploring low-temperature, solvent-assisted, gas-phase and controlled-humidity routes that ensure microbiological safety while preserving morphology, porosity and functional performance.

The PhD candidate will investigate the sterilisation-structure-function relationships that will support integration of aerogels into safe, industry-ready systems, ensuring structural stability, bioactivity retention and microbiological safety benchmarks under relevant storage conditions. T

📌 Scalable Sterilization of Aerogel Carriers for Bioactive Food (Madrid)
🏢 Universidade De Santiago De Compostela
📍 Madrid