Light Materials, Big Ambitions: FAroGels is Looking for Its 15 Doctoral Candidates
What if some of the answers to a more sustainable food system were made mostly of air?
Aerogels are among the lightest and most porous materials ever created. Their use in insulation and biomedicine is commonly established, but in food they remain unexplored. Can they be produced at scale? Are they safe? How do they perform inside a real food? FAroGels was built to answer exactly these questions, and today the network takes its first big step: the call for 15 Doctoral Candidate (PhD) positions is officially open.
(Full-time Contract)
A Network Built Around a Shared Idea
FAroGels – Food-Grade Aerogels for Sustainable Food Systems is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe. Coordinated by Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Türkiye, under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Mecit Halil Öztop, it brings together 23 universities, research institutes and companies from 8 countries. Their shared goal is to turn renewable biopolymers and agro-industrial by-products into biodegradable and edible aerogels for food production, processing and packaging.
Fifteen Projects, One Value Chain
Each doctoral project tackles a different piece of the puzzle. Some candidates will start at the very beginning, exploring circular feedstocks and new gelation routes. Others will make production more energy-efficient through supercritical CO2 drying or look inside the materials with advanced characterisation techniques. Further along the chain, projects will test aerogels in complex food matrices, from removing anti-nutritional factors to delivering nutraceuticals and shaping how food feels in the mouth. The remaining projects focus on sustainable and active packaging, electrospun fibre–aerogel composites and predictive modelling.
More Than a PhD
The 15 Doctoral Candidates will be hosted by 11 recruiting organisations in Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Türkiye and the United Kingdom. Each will be employed full-time on a 36-month contract and enrolled in a doctoral programme leading to a doctoral degree. Along the way, they will be guided by both academic and industrial supervisors, spend about 7–8 months on secondments at partner organisations, and grow together through a shared training programme across the network.
Ready to Apply?
Applicants of any nationality are welcome. Candidates must meet the MSCA eligibility criteria, including the mobility rule, at the date of recruitment. Each position has its own requirements and application route, so we encourage you to read the individual position pages carefully.