Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Animal and Veterinary programme. The position is available from 01 August 2025 or later. You can submit your application via the link under 'how to apply'.

Title:
Microbiological quality of milk and its associations to udder health, skin microbiota, and environment.

Research area and project description:
We are seeking a highly motivated PhD student to join our research team in an exciting project investigating the role of bacteria in the bovine udder, skin, and barn environment and their impact on milk quality from farm to dairy. This interdisciplinary project, which is a collaboration between Aarhus University and SEGES Innovation, will combine microbiology, animal health, and food safety and quality to improve milk safety and production efficiency.

Key responsibilities of the PhD candidate will be to plan and perform sampling on dairy farms, and back in the laboratory investigate microbial diversity and dynamics affecting udder health and milk quality. Both molecular and culture-based techniques will be used to investigate bacterial populations, including MALDI-TOF and sequence-based methods. Collaboration with dairy farms and industrial partners is essential.

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 in veterinary medicine, microbiology, animal science or similar.

Required qualifications include:

• A strong interest in animal health and milk quality
• Hands-on experience from the microbiology laboratory
• Experience with data management from field trials
• Experience with field experiments and sampling on farms
• Ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Good communication skills, spoken and written

Due to sampling on farms, a valid driver’s licence is required, and proficiency in Danish language is highly desirable.

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Blichers Allé 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark.

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

• Karl Pedersen, Karl.pedersen@anivet.au.dk (main supervisor)
• Lærke Boye Astrup, lbas@seges.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 14 April 2025 at 23:59 CEST.

Preferred starting date is 01 August 2025.

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.