Jesmond Dalli

HARPNET – Harnessing Resolution Pharmacology for Next-Generation Therapeutics is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network offering 15 fully funded PhD positions across a multi-country European consortium. Hosted by universities, hospitals, and companies in seven European countries, the network focuses on resolution pharmacology : understanding how the body actively switches off inflammation, restores immune balance, and promotes tissue repair. The doctoral projects use rheumatoid arthritis and its cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities as connected disease models. Research topics span resolution biology , immunology, GPCR pharmacology, lipid mediator biology, cardiovascular science, multi-omics, spatial biology, bioinformatics, computational modelling, medicinal chemistry, biomarker discovery, and therapeutic development. This makes HARPNET especially relevant for candidates interested in translational biomedical research at the interface of basic mechanisms and drug discovery. Successful candidates will join an international cohort of Doctoral Candidates and undertake four-year PhD projects with joint supervision and mentoring from academic, clinical, and industry researchers. Training includes advanced methods such as lipid mediator profiling, single-cell and spatial omics, computational modelling, and drug-discovery platforms, alongside transferable skills in communication, open science, entrepreneurship, intellectual property, regulatory science, and research leadership. The projects are highly interdisciplinary and include both wet-lab and computational work. Example topics include inflammation resolution in rheumatoid arthritis, macrophage–fibroblast interactions, cardiovascular complications of inflammatory disease, redox biology, chemokine receptor signalling, hypertension and vascular damage, AI-enabled target discovery, small-molecule pro-resolving therapeutics, and haematopoiesis in chronic inflammation. Applicants can submit one central application and rank up to three preferred doctoral projects. Eligibility is broad: candidates of any nationality may apply, provided they do not already hold a doctoral degree and either hold or expect to obtain the qualification needed to enter a doctoral programme at the host institution. Applicants must meet the MSCA mobility rule for their selected host country and any project-specific academic, technical, or language requirements. Excellent English is required. The deadline is 1 October 2026 , with an expected start date of 1 April 2027 . Applications are submitted via the HARPNET application portal, and full project descriptions and recruitment information are available on the consortium website.