Aarhus University PhD fellowship/scholarship

PhD fellowship/scholarship at Aarhus University, Denmark, in the Department of Food Science within the Graduate School of Technical Sciences / Food Science programme.

The project is titled “SWEET Transporters as Regulators of Carbon Allocation and Drought Resilience in Tomato” and focuses on how SWEET sugar transporters regulate carbon assimilation, carbon partitioning, source–sink relations, and drought resilience in tomato. The research addresses a major climate-change challenge: drought impacts crop productivity not only through photosynthesis, but also through disrupted carbon allocation from leaves to fruits.

The PhD candidate will work on a multidisciplinary project combining plant physiology, molecular biology, functional genomics, biochemistry, carbohydrate/metabolic analyses, and CRISPR/Cas9-based approaches. Planned work includes measuring drought-induced changes in carbon assimilation and partitioning, identifying drought-responsive SWEET genes and natural variation in tomato genotypes, and functionally characterising candidate genes using genome editing.

The position is supervised by Antonios Petridis (main supervisor, Associate Professor, Aarhus University) with Ana Lobo (co-supervisor, Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Aarhus University). The work will be carried out at the Department of Food Science, Agro Food Park 48, 8200 Aarhus N., Denmark.

Eligibility highlights: applicants must hold a master’s degree or equivalent in plant biology, plant physiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, or a related field. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, good English communication skills, and the ability to work independently and in a team are required. Experience with RNA extraction/qPCR, gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, controlled-environment plant growth, R/statistics, CRISPR/Cas9, plant transformation, transcriptomics, enzymatic assays, or metabolite/carbohydrate profiling is advantageous.

Deadline: 8 July 2026 at 23:59 CEST. Preferred start: 1 September 2026 or later. Applicants must submit the application via the online portal and upload a PDF copy of the project description as instructed.