Tenure Track Assistant Professor Computer-Aided Drug Design (1.0 FTE)

We are looking for an Assistant Professor to strengthen our position in the field of Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD). This discipline plays an increasingly important role in the process of drug discovery and aims to reduce the costs in both time and resources in the drug discovery process, also facilitating higher success rates in subsequent clinical trials.

Whether your expertise lies in structure- and ligand-based drug design, de novo and fragment-based drug design, molecular dynamics, or Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics, or you are actively working on incorporating machine learning/AI into your computer-aided drug design approaches, we would be very interested in hearing from you.

We offer you a full-time position and excellent career opportunities in our faculty’s career system Career Paths in Science and Engineering, including the perspective to get a permanent appointment (tenure) in 1-3 years and become Full Professor in approximately 10 years.

As Assistant Professor with a focus on research you will:

• set up and develop your own research line and research group in the field described above
• supervise PhD students
• acquire external funding
• promote the societal relevance of your research
• teach courses within the bachelor and/or master degree programs Pharmacy and Medical Pharmaceutical Sciences, and contribute to the further development of these programmes
• contribute to the organization of the faculty, for example by participating in working groups and committees.

At the stage of Assistant Professor, 60% of your time is for research, 30% for teaching activities and 10% for organizational tasks.

Organisation
The University of Groningen is a research university with a global outlook, deeply rooted in Groningen, City of Talent. Groningen is the lively capital of the Northern Netherlands with a high quality of life and affordable living conditions. The University has 32.000 students in BSc and MSc programmes, 4400 PhD students, and 4600 staff members. Our students and staff come from all around the world.

Quality has been our top priority for over four hundred years, and with success: the University is currently in or around the top 100 on several influential ranking lists. The Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) is the largest faculty within the University. We offer first-rate education and research in a wide range of science and engineering disciplines, from classical disciplines such as mathematics, astronomy and mechanical engineering, to interdisciplinary fields such as artificial intelligence, pharmacy and nanoscience. At FSE, education and research are strongly intertwined, and we value a strong disciplinary basis for our students. Our programmes in science and engineering, while diverse, share a common view on best practices for research-driven,
international education. We are proud of the open, inclusive, and informal character of our community.

The position we offer will be embedded in the research group Medicinal Chemistry, Photopharmacology and Imaging (https://www.rug.nl/research/medicinal-chemistry-photopharmacology-and-imaging/ ), which was recently created within GRIP, see also the Szymanski lab (https://szymanski-lab.nl/Index.html ) website for more information. Although GRIP is positioned within the Faculty of Science and Engineering, it is physically located within the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG) of the Faculty of Medical Sciences - hence, in ideal proximity to benefit from collaborations between the two faculties. Pharmaceutical research within GRIP is highly multidisciplinary and bridges the clinical and biomedical sciences on the one hand, and chemistry, mathematics (statistics) and physics on the other. The interaction between the pharmaceutical sciences and these fundamental and clinical sciences offers excellent opportunities for ground-breaking research.

We encourage you to apply if you have:

• a PhD degree in (bio)chemical, (bio)medical or pharmaceutical sciences, or Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, with a strong background in computer-aided drug design, both as a user and as a developer of new computational approaches
• excellent research qualities, as shown by a publication record in international peer-reviewed journals and proceedings of renowned conferences
• a proven ability and desire to collaborate with colleagues in the related fields, including synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pre-clinical studies
• a great affinity with and a good track record in teaching, appropriate for the career stage
• preferably at least two years of postdoctoral experience and preferably research experience outside of The Netherlands
• a relevant international network
• the potential to acquire substantial research grants from external sources
• demonstrable communicative and organisational competences
• the ambition and the potential to develop academically
• the ability to work well with others in international and diverse teams
• good command of spoken and written English.

Furthermore, we expect all new staff members to either have a University Teaching Qualification (Dutch: Basiskwalificatie Onderwijs) or obtain it within 3 years and, if they do not already speak it, to learn the Dutch language within at most five years.

The Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen was the first on the European mainland to introduce a tenure track career policy, 20 years ago, and with significant success. We have attracted great talents that have contributed strongly to the worldwide leading position of our faculty’s ten research institutes. Our career system has helped our staff members to develop highly successful and rewarding academic careers. The latest version of this system, ‘Career Paths in Science and Engineering’, offers:

• diverse career paths with a focus on research, education or impact
• dynamic career paths, in which staff members can switch focus in the course of their career
• the promotion to Assistant Professor level 1, in combination with a permanent contract, already after 1 – 3 years
• promotion to Associate Professor after 5 years, and promotion to Full Professor after another 5 years, if the corresponding criteria are met
• significant freedom for staff members whether and when to apply for promotion.

For more information about Career Paths in Science and Engineering, see: http://www.rugfriso.nl/fse/cpse Please consider the career path with a focus on research for the criteria for tenure and for promotion to more senior positions.

As starting conditions, we offer in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities a salary, depending on qualifications and work experience, from € 4,332 (salary scale 11) up to a maximum of € 6,737 gross per month (salary scale 12, depending on your career stage) for a full-time position as Assistant Professor. Additionally, we offer:

• a holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus of respectively 8% and 8.3% of your yearly salary
• a pension scheme
• maternity and parental leave
• the possibility to work part-time (0.9 FTE or 0.8 FTE)
• a mentor programme and a broad range of opportunities for personal development
• dual career support for partners of new faculty members moving to Groningen.

Consider our website for more information about the working conditions at the University of Groningen: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/

Prof. Wiktor Szymanski (for information about the position),   [email protected]