PhD fellowship in Pharmaceutical Informatics Full-time

PhD Fellowship Opportunity

We are offering a PhD fellowship in the Integrated Mechanistic & Data-driven Modeling Group commencing 1 September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Our group and research Integrated Mechanistic & Data-driven Modeling Group develops predictive models of disease progression and treatment response by integrating mechanistic biology with patient-level data. Our research spans pharmacometrics, systems pharmacology, and AI-driven modeling to support model-informed drug development, precision dosing, and data-driven clinical decision-making.

The mechanistic & data-driven modeling group focuses on:

• Design and interpretation of clinical trials
• Inform personalized medicine
• Model-informed drug development
• Integrated Mechanistic modelling
• Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic (PKPD) modelling

Project description Model-Informed Precision Dosing During Pregnancy

This PhD project aims to develop computational models that improve drug dosing for pregnant women, a patient population that remains underrepresented in clinical research despite frequent medication use. The successful candidate will combine mechanistic modeling, pharmacometrics, clinical data analysis, and modern data science approaches to develop predictive models of treatment response under changing physiological conditions. The project offers an opportunity to work at the interface of systems pharmacology, precision medicine, and AI-supported scientific workflows, with the goal of advancing safer and more individualized pharmacotherapy.

Principal supervisor is Assistant Professor, Jane Knöchel, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, jane.knoechel@sund.ku.dk, Direct Phone: +45 35 32 21 29 and the successful candidate will be co-supervised by Associate Professor Trine Meldgaard Lund, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology.

Start: 1 September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter

Duration: 3 years as a PhD student + up to 3 months as research assistant for enrolment, if relevant

Job description Your key tasks as a PhD student at SUND are:

• Carrying through an independent research project under supervision.
• Completing PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approximately 30 ECTS points.
• Participating in active research environments including a stay at another research team.
• Obtaining experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Teaching and disseminating your knowledge.
• Writing a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project

PhD Programme Description: The PhD programme is a three-year full-time research education within the framework of the 5+3 scheme, intended for candidates holding a relevant academic degree within the project's subject area, e.g. Bioinformatics, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computational Biology, Systems Biology, Pharmacometrics, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science applied to Life Sciences, or a closely related quantitative discipline. Applicants from Pharmacy, Mathematics, Statistics, or related fields with substantial computational experience are also encouraged to apply.

Qualifications: If you have completed your academic education in Denmark, the admission to the PhD programme requires a relevant Master's degree (equivalent to 180 ECTS BSc + 120 ECTS MSc).

If you have an academic education from abroad, you must have either a degree equivalent to a Danish master's degree (180 ETCS + 120 ECTS MSc), or at a minimum, a bachelor's degree equivalent to a Danish bachelor's degree (180 ECTS) and be academically qualified at master's level.

As part of the assessment of whether you meet the educational requirements, you must also achieve a positive academic evaluation and be assessed as the best qualified for the position.

Other important criteria are:

• Strong programming skills in R and/or Python
• Experience with computational modelling or quantitative analysis of biological systems
• Interest in pharmacometrics, systems pharmacology, PKPD or quantitative systems pharmacology
• Experience working with biological or clinical datasets
• Familiarity with Linux, Git, or reproducible computational workflows is considered an advantage
• Excellent written and spoken English
• Motivation to work in an interdisciplinary environment spanning biology, medicine and quantitative sciences

Place of employment

The place of employment is at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. Our research facilities include modern laboratories. This position is part of the Center of Pharmaceutical Data Science Education and the successful candidate will have the opportunity to participate in Center activities.

Terms of employment The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The PhD position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years. The start date is as soon as possible.

The employment is conditioned upon the applicant's successful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant during an initial employment as a research assistant.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty's rules on achieving the degree.

Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 31,800 DKK/Roughly 4,200 EUR (August 2026 level) plus pension.

Questions For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor.

General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School's website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/

Application procedure Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking 'Apply now' below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)

2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position

3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master's degree must be equivalent to a Danish master's degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database. Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science

4. Publication list (if possible)

Application deadline: 1 August 2026, 23.59 CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You find information about the recruitment process at: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicants will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.