PhD fellowship in Analysing the obstacles and opportunities of different regulatory pathways to patient access for psychedelic therapies, Department of Pharmacy

Within the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA), University of Copenhagen is offering one PhD position for a Doctoral Candidate (DC), commencing 1 September 2026 or as soon as possible hereafter. The position is a full-time appointment for 36 months and is funded by Horizon Europe.

Interdisciplinary Network for Training, Education, and Growing Research into Applications of and Therapeutic Expertise around Psychedelics (INTEGRATE) is a MSCA Doctoral Network.

INTEGRATE tackles the urgent need for better mental health treatments by advancing psychedelic therapy (PT) as a promising new therapy. INTEGRATE will train a new generation of interdisciplinary experts in PT, addressing four major challenges that currently hamper the implementation of PT in healthcare: unknown mechanisms of action; lack of clinical gold standards; legal/regulatory obstacles; and ethical/societal challenges.

More information can be found on the INTEGRATE home page: https://integrate-dn.eu/.

INTEGRATE will deliver a training program to 16 Doctoral Candidates that truly captures the MSCA values, hence providing them with all capabilities to become leaders of tomorrow's R&I in Europe.

Project description
The successful applicant will join a multidisciplinary EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie International PhD training network. This interdisciplinary doctoral position is based at the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH). The position will be supervised by Associate Professor Christine Erikstrup Hallgreen. Her group works with the regulation of pharmaceutical products.

The development of psychedelic therapies in Europe must operate within the established regulatory framework for medicinal products, with centralised marketing authorisation via the European Medicines Agency as the primary route. However, existing regulatory structures were not designed for treatments that combine psychoactive compounds with structured psychotherapeutic interventions, creating challenges related to an unbiased trial design including dosing regimens, control-arms, blinding, risk management, and the integration of pharmacological and psychological components. A systematic examination of how these frameworks are interpreted and applied to psychedelic therapies is therefore required.

This PhD project adopts an integrated mixed-methods approach to analyse the global regulatory environment for psychedelic therapies, focusing on regulatory opportunities, barriers, and adaptive practices relevant to psychedelic treatments. The project combines qualitative and quantitative analysis of regulatory and policy documents with comparative case studies of medicinal products sharing key characteristics with psychedelic therapies. In addition, expert interviews with stakeholders will be conducted to capture experiential knowledge and contextualise formal regulatory requirements. Early access programs will be examined to assess how regulatory flexibility is implemented in practice and how this influences development pathways and patient access.

About the Department of Pharmacy 
The mission of Department of Pharmacy is to advance the pharmaceutical sciences by performing drug-related research and research-based teaching in topics including pharmaceutical technology and formulation, drug delivery, advanced drug analysis, and clinical and social pharmacy.

Information about the Department can be found at https://pharmacy.ku.dk/.

Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD fellow are to: 

• Carrying through an independent research project under supervision.
• Completing the INTEGRATE training program as well as PhD courses mandatory for at the Graduate school of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
• Participating in active research environments including 2-3 secondments at other institutions abroad.
• Obtaining experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
• Teaching of undergraduate students in pharmaceutical sciences.
• Writing a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project.

Qualification requirements
Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to master’s level related to the subject area of the project, e.g. health and medical sciences, pharmaceutical sciences or social sciences. If you have completed your education in Denmark, you must have a master’s degree covered by the collective agreement for academics in the state sector.

If you have completed your education outside of Denmark, you must either have a master’s degree equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years) or as minimum a bachelor’s degree equivalent to a Danish bachelor’s degree (three years) and be assessed as having professional qualifications at master's level.

If you have completed your education outside of Denmark, we will obtain an assessment of your education from the Danish Research Agency.

The applicant should also be fluent in English, have excellent communication skills and be able to demonstrate their ability to understand and express themselves in both written and spoken English at a level that is sufficiently high to fully benefit from the network training (C1/C2 level).

Applicants will also be required to meet the MSCA Doctoral Network eligibility criteria, notably:

• Mobility Rule - Applicants can be of any nationality and must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Denmark for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the start of their employment at UCPH. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not considered.
• Doctoral Candidate requirement – the applicant must not be in possession of a doctoral degree at the first day of the employment. Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis, but who have not yet been awarded the doctoral degree are not eligible.
   
• Applicants must be willing to undertake secondments at another institute of the network. during the DC project, including at institutes in other countries.
• Applicants are expected to be motivated to work in the field of psychedelic therapy.
• Applicants are expected to work independently, well-structured and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary consortium.

Please note that you will only be considered for the position if you fulfill all the above eligibility criteria.

Preferred qualifications

• Master’s degree within health and medical sciences, pharmaceutical sciences or social sciences.
• Knowledge about pharmaceutical product regulation.
• Experience with document analysis and/or interview.

Key criteria for the assessment of applicants

• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project.
• Relevant work experience.
• Publications.
• The grade point average achieved.
• Other professional activities.
• Language skills.
• The successful applicant is also required to be enterprising and to possess good   interpersonal skills.

Terms of employment
The post is conditional upon the candidate’s successful enrollment in the PhD school at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project to the PhD School. Please note that this process will be initiated by the PhD School only after an employment offer has been made.

The PhD programme must be completed in accordance with the Danish Ministerial Order on the PhD Programme (Executive Order no. 1124 of 19 September 2025) and the faculty’s regulations for obtaining the degree.

Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the requirements from the European Commission related to the MSCA programme and the agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary begins around DKK 31,242 / approx. EUR 4,165 (November 2025-level) plus pension.

The EU MSCA grant consists of a living allowance of EUR 5,325 (roughly DKK 39,664), and mobility allowance of EUR 710 (roughly DKK 5,290). In addition, a family allowance of EUR 660 (roughly DKK 4,917) may apply if eligibility conditions are fulfilled. The above amounts shall cover compulsory taxes etc. as well as all the University of Copenhagen’s costs related to your employment, such as monthly salary, future salary raises, pension, paid holidays and labour market contributions.

Please note that the PhD student has a work obligation of up to 840 hours over the 3 years period without additional pay.

How to apply
Please submit your application online. To apply, please click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of this page. Your application must be written in English, and include the following attachments (with descriptive titles) in PDF format: 

• Cover letter (max. one page)
• CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
• Diploma and transcripts of records (BSc and MSc) in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. Please also include a short description of the grading scale.
• Publication list (if relevant)
• Other information for consideration, e.g., documentation of English language qualifications (if any). Please do not submit recommendations etc.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday 11 February 2026, 23.59 PM CET.

Any applications or additional material submitted after the deadline will not be considered. However, changes may be made to the submitted application right up until the deadline.

To support a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we encourage applicants to refrain from including a photo in their CV or other application documents.

Recruitment process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorised recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the appointment committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed, each shortlisted applicant will be offered the opportunity to comment on the committee’s assessment before the appointment is announced.

As an applicant to the University of Copenhagen, you should be prepared to undergo a security screening related to international research collaboration as part of the recruitment process. The security screening will be conducted in cases where the University deems it appropriate based on an overall assessment.

Interviews may be conducted online.

Further information and contact
You can read more about the recruitment process at Recruitment process – University of Copenhagen.

For more information on working and living in Denmark, please visit For international researchers at the University of Copenhagen – University of Copenhagen (International Staff Mobility) and Workindenmark.

For further information, applicants may contact the main supervisor Christine Erikstrup Hallgreen at christine.hallgreen@sund.ku.dk or by direct phone: +45 3533 7079.

For further information about the recruitment process, please contact HR Centre North by e-mail: hr-noerre@adm.ku.dk. Please refer to ID number 155773.

The University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the diversity of society and encourages all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.