Vacancies

You are interested to work in a foreign country to qualify for a PhD or to start your Postdoc career in an international, interdisciplinary research project? You are an outstanding student or scientist, enthusiastic and a highly motivated team player?

Eight PhD and two Postdoc positions are offered in a Marie Curie Initial Training Network working on "Pollen thermotolerance and crop fertility". "Solanaceae Pollen Thermotolerance" (SPOT-ITN) is a multi-site Training & Research Program funded by the European Commission (Program People, FP7) and organized by research institutions from the public and private sector in four European countries and Israel. The aim is to investigate fundamental and applied aspects of thermotolerance mechanisms contributing to the protection of pollen development at increased ambient temperatures with the primary focus on tomato.

All PhD students and Postdocs will cooperate in an advanced research program and participate in a strongly interdisciplinary training covering all scientific areas of modern Plant Biology as well as complementary skills. The program also includes training in partner laboratories.

Individual Research Projects and positions

1. Protein homeostasis during pollen development at higher temperatures. PhD position, group of Enrico Schleiff, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. closed
2. The role of epigenetic modification in acclimation to heat stress in tomato. PhD position, group of Ivo Rieu, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands. closed
3. Hsf-Hsp interaction and function in tomato anthers and pollen. PhD position, group of Celestina Mariani, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands. closed
4. The role of hormones and pollen-specific heat stress response genes in pollen thermotolerance. PhD position, group of Nurit Firon, ARO - The Volcani Centre, Bet Dagan, Israel. closed
5. Production and analysis of mutants in Hsf and Hsp genes. PhD position, group of Rina Iannacone, Metapontum Agrobios S.R.L., Bernalda, Italy closed
6. Metabolomics of thermotolerant tomato lines. PhD position, group of Arnaud Bovy, Wageningen University, Netherlands closed
7. Proteomics of Pollen Thermotorerance - identification of protein markers and protein modifications. PhD position, group of Wolfram Weckwerth, University Vienna, Austria. closed
8. Development of a gene network for modelling of pollen thermotolerance. PhD position, group of Maria Luisa Chiusano, University of Naples Federico II, Italy. closed
9. Regulation and interactions of pollen-specific Hsf and chaperone networks. Postdoc position, group of Klaus-Dieter Scharf, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany. closed
10. Transcriptomes and epigenomes of germplasm and breeding lines contrasting in their response to heat stress. Postdoc position, group of Peter Winter, GenXPro GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. closed

Employment

Successful candidates will be employed from April 2012 on for 36 months (PhD students) or 24 months (Postdocs). Besides the payment for full-time employment (EU contract), a mobility fee will be granted and educational costs are covered (more details).

Qualifications

Applicants must fulfill the eligibility criteria according to the regulations for fellowships in the Marie Curie ITN program (for more details, see also/click here...)

Candidates applying for a PhD position (Early Stage Researcher, ESR) must hold a Master/Diploma degree obtained not longer than four years ago at the time of appointment.

Candidates applying for a Postdoc position (Experienced Researcher, ER) must either be in possession of a doctoral degree in an appropriate subject at the time of appointment, or must have at least four years of research experience (full time equivalent). Applicants with research experience longer than five years (full time equivalent, including time for graduation) are not eligible.

All applicants must have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organisation for less than 12 months within the last 3 years prior to the starting date of the employment. Researchers can be nationals of any country within or outside of the EU.

Good knowledge of the English language (fluently speaking and writing) is essential.

How to apply

For application send:

• Your CV
• Copies of your university degree(s) and school certificates (if possible, including university Grade Point Average scores)
• A cover letter (1 page) outlining your qualification for the project(s) you prefer to apply for.
• At least two references and their contact information
• A list of publications (if available)
• Other documents to demonstrate specific experiences.

Applications have to be adressed to the team leader of the project you are intend to apply for.