About

Salary

• Reserach Assistant £32,546 - £33,482 per annum
• Research Associate £35,116 - £45,413 per annum
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• Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.
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• Closing Date: 31 August 2025
•  The Role
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• The School of Natural and Environmental Science are looking to appoint a Research Assistant/Associate in sustainable industrial biopolymers for the beauty and hair care sector.  
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• The position will support and grow Newcastle University’s strategic partnership with Procter & Gamble (P&G) a world leader in consumer products with global markets and impact. A variety of synthetic and naturally derived polymers are used in beauty and hair care formulations to provide functionalities including pH, stability and viscosity control, sensory profile, texturing and structuring. In this project, we are seeking to develop the next generation of biopolymer that are naturally and sustainably sourced and with excellent post-use biodegradability profiles. 
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The project goals will include (but necessarily limited to)

• Discovery of new biopolymers (focusing on polysaccharides) from natural sources (for example plants, algae and microbes) that possess desired in-product functionalities without the need for post-extraction chemical modification(s). It is expected that such unmodified polymers would be inherently biodegradable.
• Developing novel blends of polymers. Such blends could consist solely of natural unmodified polymers, or mixtures of unmodified and modified polymers. If the later, then the overall non- biodegradable component would not be eliminated but would be reduced.
• 'Smart substitutions'. This explores the possibility that chemical substitutions that provide required in-product functionalities are stably attached to polysaccharides under conditions of product storage and use but become labile under post-use conditions in the environment. This could conceivably be achieved by for example, exploiting differences in pH occurring between storage/usage and post-use in the environment, or by specifically engineering biodegradable sites into the chemical substitutions. 

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• To find out more about the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, please click here.  
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• If you would like to have an informal conversation about this role, please contact Professor William Willats (william.willats@ncl.ac.uk) 
• To apply, please attach your CV and a cover letter that demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria for the position, as outlined in the Person Specification of the Job Description. Any requested additional documents required as part of your application, should be included within the same file as your cover letter. The total file size must not exceed 10MB 
• This post is fixed term until 25th April 2026.
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• Key Accountabilities

• Use currently employed polymers to establish baseline functional profiles against which new polymer formulations can be compared. Ideally, we would develop medium or high-throughput assays for assaying functional properties, without the need to use ‘full’ product formulations of shampoos conditioners etcetera.
• Survey existing libraries of extracted and purified polysaccharides for promising functional profiles (based on comparing to baseline data established for currently used polymers). The choice of polysaccharides would be guided by prior knowledge of their structural and functional properties and may also draw on information on how these polysaccharides are used in other commercial multi-component systems (such as food ingredients, beverages etcetera).
• Use statistical models (for example principal component analysis) to obtain insights into relationships between physical properties of polysaccharides (composition, molecular weight charge, chain length etcetera) and empirical in-product functionalities. These models would then be used help guide the selection of novel polysaccharides. Statistical techniques have been employed by the Willats group in other contexts, for example to help understand and predict the performance of polysaccharides in food systems and drivers of polysaccharide evolution (manuscript attached).
• Once promising candidate polymers have been identified, their functionalities are evaluated using in-house P&G product formulation testing protocols and ‘real life’ products.

• The Person (Essential)
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• Knowledge, Skills and Experience (Essential)

• Research experience in one or more of the following areas: polysaccharide biology and analysis, polysaccharide modification, polymer chemistry, plant algal or bacterial polysaccharide extraction, polymer rheology, functional ingredients.
• Experience of data handling and statistical analysis.
• Track record of scientific writing (for career stage), with publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
• Understanding of relevant methods, debates and literature for the study of biopolymers.
• Effective communication skills, both written and verbal, including by email, teleconference, and in-person meetings.
• Experience of delivering posters or papers at academic conferences.

• (Desirable)

• Experience in working with an industrial partner

• Attributes and Behaviour

• Willingness to take initiative and self-start
• Detail-oriented, especially with regard to data management and writing
• Willingness to work as part of an interdisicplinary team across science and social science 
• Excellent communication and organization skills

• Qualifications

• PhD at or near completion in biology, biochemistry, polymer chemistry or a related field.

•  Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.
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• We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.
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• At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.
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• In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 
• Requisition ID: 28292