Applications are invited for a 36 months post of a UCD Post-doctoral Research Fellow 1 within UCD School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science. The bioeconomy encompasses the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, biobased products and bioenergy. The SFI funded Bioeconomy research centre (BEACON) performs world leading frontier research in collaboration with industry to convert Ireland's natural resources on land and in the sea to a wide range of value added products for the development of a sustainable Irish bioeconomy. Biorbic's research programme aligns with the European Biobased Industries Joint undertaking (BBI-JU) strategic research and innovation agenda (SIRA). The research project will investigate the microbial conversion of sugars contaminated with lignin and lignin breakdown products derived from wood into value added products. The research project will use bioprocessing (fermentation) and may employ synthetic biology tools to design a yeast strain with high potential for the growth on these wood-based substrates. This microorganism will be grown in a stirred tank reactor to achieve high cell density and subsequently harvested and dried to produce a powder. Optimisation of the fermentation and downstream processing will be undertaken as part of the project. The project is a collaboration with other researchers in a collaborative national project NXTGENWOOD and thus it is part of a greater set of projects investigating valorisation of wood. NXTGENWOOD is a collaborative project between multiple Irish universities UCD, TCD, and UCC and Science Foundation Ireland research centres AMBER and BiOrbic. NXTGENWOOD is funded by the Irish Department of Agriculture food and marine. This is a research focused role, where you will conduct a specified programme of research supported by research training and development under the supervision and direction of a Principal Investigator. The primary purpose of the role is to further develop your research skills and competences, including the processes of publication in peer-reviewed academic publications, the development of funding proposals, the mentorship of graduate students along with the opportunity to develop your skills in research led teaching. Salary Range: €38,632 - €41,025 per annum. Appointment on the above range will be dependent upon qualifications and experience. Closing date: 17:00hrs (local Irish time) on 28th June 2021 Applications must be submitted by the closing date and time specified. Any applications which are still in progress at the closing time of 17:00hrs (Local Irish Time) on the specified closing date will be cancelled automatically by the system. UCD are unable to accept late applications.

Prior to application, further information (including application procedure) should be obtained from the Work at UCD website: https://www.ucd.ie/workatucd/jobs/.

UCD do not require assistance from Recruitment Agencies. Any CV's submitted by Recruitment Agencies will be returned.