About the position
PhD Position MSCA COFUND BEST: "Hybrid PVD/ALD Multilayer Thin Film Deposition to Enhance Dielectric Breakdown Strength of Future High Voltage Electronic Devices for Sustainable Aeronautics"
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?: Horizon Europe – COFUND
Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?: No
Therefore, reinforcing inorganic films by engineering them with advanced deposition processes to reach an initial dielectric breakdown strength and eradicating any leakage current will enable to delay the early degradation processes and to considerably improve the long term high-field reliability of electronic devices, participating to the adoption of higher voltage converters in aeronautics.
Research methodology:
Finally, this new collaboration will enable the development of completely novel dielectric materials with unprecedented dielectric strength performance (>20 MV/cm), highly expected for future electronic devices.
The 3-year PhD thesis duration will be split as follows: The first 18 months (from M1-M18) at the University of Nottingham aim to develop the material deposition process and the chemical analysis.
The PhD student will be registered and hired at the University of Toulouse (through the MSCA COFUND BEST funding) but will be fully integrated into the two host research groups (both Toulouse and Nottingham) working in collaboration.
Comprehensive institutional support will provide access to research administration, grant management (UT), technology transfer, advanced laboratories and high-voltage testing facilities, lab consumables, software licenses, laptop and internal cloud access, IT support, budget for external communication activities (conference and publication fees).
The Fellow will also benefit from mentorship, career-development workshops and language training (French class for daily-life integration in Toulouse will be provided and funded).
Regular progress reviews and access to academic and industrial networks will support successful project implementation, professional development and transition preparation towards research job prospects.
As the University of Toulouse will bring the PhD grant, the University of Nottingham shows its financial engagement in this study by co-funding the environment contribution at Nottingham, corresponding to full access to the magnetron sputtering multi-target and ALD deposition tools and the state-of-the-art material characterization facilities (SEM/HR-TEM, EDX, FTIR, Raman, TERS etc.), which also includes providing all the samples necessary for the study.
She/he will pass safety certifications related to high voltage that are required by industry for future job applications.
He was awarded also with 3 selective national project fundings from the French ANR (2013-17, 2018-22, 2025-29) on insulation for HV electronics.
Years of Research Experience: 1 - 4
Additional application instructions:
Internal Application form(s) needed
• Salary: Competitive net monthly salary for a BEST PhD fellow under French doctoral contract conditions is approximately €2,800 before income tax (see detail on application guide)
Call for application opens: 21 September 2026
Apply now
Additional funding details:
• Salary: Competitive net monthly salary for a BEST PhD fellow under French doctoral contract conditions is approximately €2,800 before income tax (see detail on application guide)
• Allowances: Monthly travel and mobility allowance (€350).
What you’ll bring
- He has a background in physics of semiconductors and dielectrics and 16 years of experience in experimental materials science of layered materials and functional heterostructures.
- Skills/Qualifications
- A proficient English level (C1, C2) is required to favour scientific diffusion and international collaboration.
- Eligibility criteria
- By the call deadline, candidates must hold a master’s degree or equivalent diploma; and must not hold a doctoral degree.
- Eligibility check: 24 November - 30 November 2026
- Research Field: Engineering » Materials engineering
- Education Level: Master Degree or equivalent
At a glance
- Position type
- PhD
- Institution
- University of Toulouse
- Department
- LAPLACE Institute
- Research group
- Not stated
- Location
- Toulouse, France, FR
internal cloud access, Italy, IT - Supervisor / contact person
- Dr. Sombel Diaham, Dr. Zakhar Kudrynskyi
- Funding
- Salaried
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?: Horizon Europe – COFUND
The PhD student will be registered and hired at the University of Toulouse (through the MSCA COFUND BEST funding) but will be fully integrated into the two host research groups (both Toulouse and Nottingham) working in collaboration.
The Fellow will also benefit from mentorship, career-development workshops and language training (French class for daily-life integration in Toulouse will be provided and funded).
As the University of Toulouse will bring the PhD grant, the University of Nottingham shows its financial engagement in this study by co-funding the environment contribution at Nottingham, corresponding to full access to the magnetron sputtering multi-target and ALD deposition tools and the state-of-the-art material characterization facilities (SEM/HR-TEM, EDX, FTIR, Raman, TERS etc.), which also includes providing all the samples necessary for the study.
He has been the Principal Investigator of >20 projects with a total funding of €6.5M.
He was awarded also with 3 selective national project fundings from the French ANR (2013-17, 2018-22, 2025-29) on insulation for HV electronics. - Duration
- Not stated
- Expected start
- Not stated
- Vacancy reference
- EURAXESS-468117
Research focus
- Discipline
- Materials Science, Electronics, Chemistry, Physics
- Research area
- Semiconductors, Nanomaterials, Polymers, Ceramics, Surfaces & interfaces
- Methods
- Spectroscopy
- Software
- Not stated
Dates to know
- Listed on FOSS Positions
- 28 Sep 2026
- Original advertisement date
- Not stated in the source
- Application deadline
- 23 Nov 2026 · 11:00 UTC
- Priority review date
- Not stated
- Last checked
- 28 Sep 2026
- Last updated
- 28 Sep 2026
2026-11-23T11:00:00+00:00
How to apply
Application Deadline: 23 Nov 2026 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris)
Dr. S. Diaham is one of the world experts in dielectric breakdown in insulation in relation to their applications in integrated and power electronics. His interests concern the physics of polymer and inorganic dielectrics (charge injection, breakdown in the context of high electric field, high frequency and high temperature), electrical characterizations, process-structural-properties relationships, and multi-stress aging of insulation and their application to devices and systems. He has been the Principal Investigator of >20 projects with a total funding of €6.5M. He was awarded a prestigious industrial MSCA-IF fellowship (2019-21, H2020) with the Analog Devices company, Ireland. He was awarded also with 3 selective national project fundings from the French ANR (2013-17, 2018-22, 2025-29) on insulation for HV electronics. He authored >150 papers (+2500 citations), holds 12 granted patents and supervised 15 PhD students. He will take care of HV breakdown and aging testing at microscale. | Dr. Z. Kudrynskyi has established a unique expertise in PVD deposition of multilayer inorganic thin-films with high dielectric strength and/or high thermal conductivity for applications as electrical insulation, as well as nano-resolved characterization of layered nanomaterials and heterostructures, including mapping of (i) dielectric breakdown with CAFM, and (ii) chemical composition with co-localised AFM-Raman and TERS. Dr. Kudrynskyi is a leading researcher in the Advanced Materials Research Group. He currently holds a prestigious personal Nottingham Research Fellowship in the Faculty of Engineering and leads the Thin Films lab. He has a background in physics of semiconductors and dielectrics and 16 years of experience in experimental materials science of layered materials and functional heterostructures. He has published >100 papers (+5300 citations) and holds 10 patents.
Where to apply
https://edd-projets.utoulouse.fr/
Contact: best-helpdesk@utoulouse.frsombel.diaham@laplace.univ-tlse.frZakhar.Kudrynskyi@nottingham.ac.ukCONTACT:Contact: sombel.diaham@laplace.univ-tlse.fr
Original sources
Have a question about this position?
Send a private message to the FOSS Positions administrator.
Sign in to message the administrator →Questions & discussion 0
Ask about the opportunity or help another researcher. Comments are public and show your display name. Keep private information in Messages.
Be the first to ask a question or share something useful.
Join the conversation
Create an account and start commenting immediately. No email verification is required.