Positron PhD Fellowship
At Positron we believe that breakthroughs in physics, chemistry, and biology drive prosperity and are critical to solving global challenges in planetary and human health.
Our mission is to proactively partner with scientists to bring more breakthrough innovations to market through startups. Our strategy is to pinpoint promising new technologies and entrepreneurial researchers within a limited set of scientific domains and nurture them into thriving companies. That’s why we have created the Positron PhD Fellowship – a 6 month, part-time, remote fellowship designed for PhD candidates and PostDoc researchers (and exceptionally talented master students).
What is the Positron PhD Fellowship?
Positron PhD Fellows conduct one or two deep dive projects on a scientific domain of their choice or a specialized subfield related to one of the topics listed below that may hold the key to solving (planetary) health challenges. Fellows produce a report about the scientific approaches, their associated challenges, and key market drivers. This is done through a combination of literature review, expert interviews, and attendance at key events. Together with our team, you will learn how to identify investment opportunities along the way. A summary of the report will be published as a blog post on our website. The fellow may also choose to publish the report as a review paper at their discretion. We expect you to spend around 6 hours per week and meet with one of our team members bi-weekly.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for passionate scientists who are obsessed with a specific scientific domain or problem that could be transformational for society. At Positron, we love to go down rabbit holes and connect with scientists, and are looking for PhD Fellows who enjoy that too. Building conviction in an area requires curiosity, deep research, conversations, and writing. We’re looking for scientific areas that 1) hold the potential to solve a global problem, 2) only a handful of scientists are involved in, 3) where innovation is physical rather than software-driven, and 4) you think could yield world-changing companies. Tell us which scientific areas excite you, who the top 3 scientists in that field are (if you’re one of them, even better!), and what technologies and challenges exist. Otherwise, you can also pick one topic out of our topic list below.
Our aim is to have around 2-3 fellows for a 6 months period (with the option to be extended). Fellows receive complete freedom to explore their topic of choice, will receive regular feedback and learning sessions about VC - and a stipend. This is not a scout or venture partner role - it’s a chance to thoroughly explore a topic alongside your studies or work, while examining it through a VC lens. If this sounds intriguing to you, please propose to us which area you would like to focus on.
If you are interested, apply now by filling out the following form.
Key Information
Duration: 6 months (with potential extension)
Applications: until March 11th (4pm CET)
Interviews: Feb 17th – March 21st
Fellowship start: March 24th
Stipend: provided
Number of Fellows: 2-3 per cohort
Commitment: ~6 hours per week
Format: Remote
Topic List
Below is a list of broader topics we are interested in at the moment. These are in itself too broad for a deepdive,
For example, a deep dive into superconductivity as a whole would be too broad, but exploring room-temperature superconductivity might be a narrow enough for the fellowship. So regard the below list as inspiration but the actual deepdive topic will likely be narrower
Example of broad topics:
Proteomics
Crop protection
Programmable plants
Superconductivity
Engineered bacteria (e.g. for waste degradation or producing green chemicals)
Cooling
Industrial heating
Restoring rare earth materials
Organoid technology
Organ printing
In the recent past we have looked at topics such as: methane capture (focused on new zeolite based catalysts), PFAS degradation and deconstruction (with a focus on biological and sustainable solutions), nucleic acid based therapeutics (narrowed down to DNAzymes). and synthetic milk (with a focus on cell cultivation)
