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: Real time release testing applied for continuous tableting

Research Project Overview:

Continuous tableting represents a paradigm shift in pharmaceutical manufacturing, offering a fast transformation from powder to tablet and allowing going from development to manufacturing in record time with high quality and less variability. Continuous direct compression brings a set of advantages in the manufacture of oral solid dosage forms:

• Faster development.
• Agile manufacturing for variable demand.
• Robust control strategies.
• High process quality standards.
• Smaller footprint.
• No scale-up challenges.
• Enables Real-Time Release (RTRT).
• Reduced API consumption during development.

This PhD thesis will explore how Process Analytical Technology (PAT) and co-processed excipients can unlock the full potential of continuous direct compression listed above. PAT tools enable real-time monitoring, automatic rejection of non-compliant tablets, and dynamic process adjustments, paving the way for RTRT. Co-processed excipients will play a critical role in this research, facilitating formulation development and accelerating the calibration and validation and monitoring models. 

The high-level objectives of the thesis are highlighted below:

• Develop PAT-based monitoring strategies for critical quality attributes.
• Calibrate residence time distribution (RTD) models for enhanced process control. Investigate how material properties impact the RTD.
• Investigate the role of co-processed excipients in improving formulation robustness, PAT and RTD model calibration.
• Define a streamlined strategy for calibration and validation of the PAT and RTD methods.

The ultimate goal of this PhD thesis is to establish a streamlined and API-sparing development workflow that enables a right-first-time transfer from laboratory to production and to validate the PAT and RTD methods in a single campaign.

Roadmap:

• Literature review and definition of the experimental work.
• Laboratory blend and tablets preparation. Spectra and data collection. Release testing.
• Calibration of PAT and RTD models.
• Definition of best PAT and modelling options for different CQAs.
• Development protocol for accelerate formulation development, and calibration and validation of the RTD and PAT models.

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 must have:

• An excellent academic record with an MSc and BSc degree in chemical engineering, biological engineering, material engineering. mechanical engineering, physics, pharmaceutical sciences or related fields. 
• Interest in pharmaceutical processes, continuous manufacturing and PAT.
• 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.

Workplace:

The implementation of the program will take place at Hovione's premises, in close collaboration with the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Lisbon. 

Supervision:

The PhD will be supervised by João Lopes, PhD (Full Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy University of Lisbon) and Ricardo Sousa, MSc (Senior Scientist, 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 within the 2nd or 3rd semester of 2026 on an exclusive basis.

Application:

The call is open from January 22th to February 6th 2026, 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: 

1. Letter of Motivation, 
2. Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the applicant [proving the above mentioned requirements] 
3. Copy of relevant diploma

Only applications received until 5.00 pm (Lisbon time) on February 6th 2026 will be considered. 

Evaluation:

The selection methods are as follows:

1. Eligibility screening: all applications received are screened and applications that do not fulfil the criteria published in the call for applications rules are rejected.  Should an application not fulfil 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%).

Evaluation Panel:

The panel responsible for evaluating the candidates is composed of the following members:

• Ricardo Sousa, Senior Scientist
• João Lopes, PhD, Professor

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!