Hovione is an international company with over 60 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing operations. As a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) it has a fully integrated offering of services for drug substances, drug product intermediates and drug products. The company has four FDA inspected sites in the USA, Portugal, Ireland and China and development laboratories in Lisbon, Portugal and New Jersey, USA. Hovione provides pharmaceutical customers services for the development and compliant manufacture of innovative drugs, including highly potent compounds, and customized product solutions across the entire drug life cycle. In the inhalation area, Hovione offers a complete range of services, from API, formulation development and manufacturing, capsule filling and devices. Hovione's culture is based on innovation, quality and dependability. Hovione is a member of Rx-360, EFCG and participates actively in industry quality improvement initiatives to lead new global industry standards.

As an integral part of our Innovation Strategy, Hovione is opening an application process for the allocation of 1 (one) research scholarship complying with the provisions of the FCT Regulation for Studentships and Fellowships (RBI) and the Research Fellowship Holder Statute (EBI), according to their current versions.

Title of the Research Project: Design by first intent of industrial and biomimetic particles

Research Project Overview:

The project seeks to develop a predicted model for particle formation that can enable the next generation of advanced particle design including surface feature imprinting and biomimetic particles. This will be achieved by progressing the theoretical foundations of droplet-to-particle formation with the soft-matter structural component to allow adequately capturing shrinkage and buckling during the later stage of drying that ultimately defines particle morphology, inner structure (and consequently size, density, morphology, flow, compression, dissolution etc) and outer structure, including surface patterning. The project will contribute to the development of platform for advanced particle design for pharmaceutical delivery, and bio-inspired technologies. The project is structured along four ambitious goals: I) high fidelity experimentation on particle formation, including single droplet drying experiments capturing time-resolved events such as skin formation and cavitation. We will determine fundamental properties (rheomechanical, thermal and physical) of polymeric solutions to relate to kinetic arrest, sol-gel transition etc upon particle formation, and carry out spatiotemporal studies employing acoustic levitation coupled with optical, thermography and scattering experiments; for selected systems, examine X-ray and neutrons to span the molecular to macroscales, as well as single particles by XPS, FIB-SEM, etc to develop quantitative correlations and support the development and validation of computer simulations. II) Explore particle surface imprinting techniques (such as breath figures, or surface demixing) to improve particle design and function (e.g., flow and/or dissolution in oral or respiratory delivery. III) Equipped with this knowledge, we will seek to reverse-engineer biomimetic particles, such as a pollen particles, via experiments and simulations. The project will also contribute to the development of a descriptive model for particle formation relevant to industrial spray drying.

Some of the expected tasks are listed below:

• Build a laboratory apparatus for detailed particle formation experiments
• Perform a detailed literature review on particle engineering and biomimetic particles
• Perform detailed experiments and advanced analytical characterization
• Experiment with different formulations and processes aiming to reverse-engineer biomimetic particles
• Possibility for computational work for candidates interested in modelling and AI.

Selected References:

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.218101

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsmacrolett.8b00012

https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jcp/article/158/21/214903/2893732

Candidate Eligibility Requirements:

The following individuals may apply to this call:

1. Portuguese citizens or citizens from other member-states of the European Union.
2. Citizens from third-party states.
3. Stateless individuals.
4. Citizens holding a political refugee status.

To apply for the PhD Research Scholarship, applicants are recommended to have:

• Master's Degree (MSc) in Chemical, Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, Chemistry, Physics and Materials or closely related scientific areas with strong interdisciplinary skills
• Interest in physical chemistry of soft matter, including polymer and interfacial science, complex fluid rheo-mechanics, and translation of fundamentals into practical application. The project will be tailored to suit the skills and motivation of the candidate, balancing experiments, theory and simulation.
• Proficiency in English, (minimum C1 level) with excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to produce scientific reports and communicate research findings in English.
• Strong personal attributes, including enthusiasm, organization skills and objectivity; analytical sense (attention to detail); sense of responsibility and ethics; ability to analyze and solve problems; good interpersonal skills.
• A strong interest in applied research and innovation within an industrial context in collaboration with a leading pharmaceutical company (Hovione) and overseas university (Imperial College London).

Workplace:

The implementation of the program will take place across Instituto Superior Técnico and Hovione

Duration:

The scholarship has a maximum duration of 4 years; it is granted on a full-time basis and is awarded annually, for periods of 12 consecutive months and automatically renewable, unless under the applicable legislation the scholar fails to fulfill his / her assigned duties.

The scholarship is scheduled to start in last quarter of 2025 or first quarter of 2026, the latest, on an exclusive basis.

Application:

The call is open from September 22nd to October 24th 2025, until 5:00 pm (Lisbon time). Applications must be completed through a motivation letter to bolsas@hovione.com, mentioning the Program and this announcement, together with the following documents:

• Letter of Motivation,
• Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the applicant [proving the above mentioned requirements]
• Copy of relevant diploma, a valid email address and a contact telephone number, contact details of 2 persons as referrals and other documents which the applicant considers relevant for the evaluation of his/her application.

Only applications received until 5:00 pm (Lisbon time) on October 24th, 2025 will be considered.

Evaluation:

The selection methods are as follows:

1. Eligibility screening: all applications received are screened and applications that do not fulfill the criteria published in the call for applications rules are rejected. Should an application not fulfill the formal requirements of the call for applications, Hovione will send a notification by e-mail specifying the reason for its rejection.
2. Shortlisting: each of the eligible applications is sent to the evaluation panel with broad experience in the discipline of the application. The applications that receive the highest scores from the panel will pass to the next stage. Hovione will notify candidates whether they have been shortlisted, or not, by e-mail.
3. Interviews: candidates whose applications have passed the shortlisting stage will be called in for an interview. The interviews will be held remotely. They will be conducted in Portuguese and/or English.

The evaluation criteria that govern the selection process:

i. Scientific merit taking into account the curriculum vitae of the candidate, degree/masters grade (minimum 16/20), participation in research projects, suitability of the candidate's profile to the Program theme and candidate experience in the Program theme;

ii. Level of English;

iii. Motivation Letter

iv. Interview

Each item will be scored on a scale of 0-20, with the following weights: Curriculum vitae and experience (40%), English (10%), motivation letter (10%) and interview (40%).

Financing:

The scholarship has a value of € 1.309.64, which is in accordance with the table of values for scholarships awarded directly by FCT, I.P. (Tabela_valores_SMM_2025.pdf), and is 100% funded by Hovione. The scholarship payment will be made monthly. The tuition fees of the Academic Institution will also be paid entirely by Hovione.

Publication of Results:

The provisional results of the evaluation are communicated via e-mail to the e-mail address used by the applicant and will be published up to 90 working days after the deadline for submitting applications.

After the provisional results have been communicated to the applicants, those who have an unfavourable provisional decision may use their right to dispute it. Applicants should send an email to bolsas@hovione.com which must include an explanatory text together with the documents that the applicant deems appropriate. Resolutions will be sent by email within 10 calendar days from the date of the email. Final results will then be disclosed.

Contact Information For further inquiries, please contact: Sónia Ferreira (sferreira@hovione.com)

We look forward to receiving your application!