Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Food Science programme. The position is available from 01 January 2026 or later. You can submit your application via the link under 'how to apply'.

Title
Advanced Mass Spectrometry-Based Identification and Quantification of Natural Toxins in Novel Food

Research area and project description
The novel food (NF) industry in the European Union (EU) is booming, driven by the demand for sustainable, non-animal-based diets. However, safety gaps remain due to scarce data on naturally occurring microbial toxins, which pose risks to consumers and delay authorizations. The ToxiFOOD project addresses this by assessing the risks in non-animal NFs, targeting EU consumers, regulators, and the NF sector.

Your primary focus will be conducting research to develop suspect screening, untargeted, and targeted analytical methods to detect, identify, and quantify microbial toxins, enabling a large-scale survey in Danish and Nordic markets. You will specifically target the identification of regulated and non-regulated fungal and (cyano)bacterial toxins potentially present in various plant-based NFs and food supplements. This work will include mastering triple quadrupole LC/MS and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QTOF-MS) instruments available at the AU FOOD Department. The ultimate goal is to generate comprehensive data on a wide range of microbial toxins in these NFs and food supplements marketed in Denmark.

The ToxiFOOD project is fully funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) to advance the existing knowledge by delivering actionable outcomes: robust safety data, cutting-edge detection and screening methods, and policy insights for EU institutions (e.g., EFSA).

Project description
For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.

Qualifications and specific competences
Applicants to the PhD position must have a relevant Master’s degree (120 ECTS) in food chemistry, analytical chemistry, or related fields. Specific competences and experience within the following areas are required:

• Experience with mass spectrometry-based analysis, along with a strong interest in analytical work and data processing, is essential.
• Basic knowledge of HR-LC/MS is considered an advantage.

In addition, applicants are expected to:

• Be fluent in English (written and spoken).
• Demonstrate strong scientific communication and academic writing skills.
• Work independently while contributing constructively to the research team.
• Show commitment to quality, integrity, creativity, and collaboration.
• Be open to conducting an international research stay (in an EU country) during the PhD program.

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Department of Food Science, Agro Food Park 48, 8200 Aarhus N., Denmark.

Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information regarding the PhD position are invited to contact:

• Trine Kastrup Dalsgaard, trine.dalsgaaard@food.au.dk (main supervisor)
• Mohamed Fathi Abdallah, mfa@food.au.dk (co-supervisor)

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide. If answers cannot be found there, please contact:

• admission.gradschool.tech@au.dk

How to apply
Please follow this link to submit your application.

Application deadline is 06 November 2025 at 23:59 CET

Preferred starting date is 01 January 2026

Please note:

• Only documents received prior to the application deadline will be evaluated. Thus, documents sent after deadline will not be taken into account.
• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background. Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with applicable collective agreement.