The Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation invites applications for a 3-year, full time position as a postdoc in material science for heritage conservation with a particular focus on climate resilience for collections and objects.
We are looking for a visionary person with a professional profile who is committed to cross disciplinary collaboration, delivering results, presenting knowledge and contributing with innovative thinking in the area. With a focus on process and method, you are expected to be able to contribute with cutting-edge knowledge to the field to test and predict the effect of time, climate change and conservation treatments on heritage collections. The Institute of Conservation aims to build a strong research team and to be at the forefront development in preventive conservation, material science and predictive modelling to design optimal heritage preservation considering climate change and minimized museums’ energy consumption. Our aim is to strengthen the capacity and capability for material testing, modelling and prediction of degradation for cultural and natural heritage collections, to supplement our research competencies in the field and to reinforce our networks and collaborations, both nationally and internationally. As postdoc, you will be at the core of this effort and work with people with very different relevant backgrounds dedicated to heritage protection. You will be supervised by associate professors with strong track record in material testing and your work will feed into the development of predictive modelling at the Royal Danish Academy.
The vacant position is affiliated with the Institute of Conservation. We expect to fill the position by July 1, 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter.
Read more about the institute here:
Institute of ConservationThe position We offer a creative, stimulating and visionary educational and research environment, where good collegial relationships leading to mutual inspiration and discourse are valued. The successful candidate will have opportunities and responsibilities to influence and shape the Royal Danish Academy’s research and teaching. Beyond research, the postdoc position will include some teachingYour research will focus on material testing of physical models and heritage material with a focus on climate influence on collections. Relevant materials are plastics, archaeological wood and paintings, and produced data to feed into numerical models for predictive modelling and damage functions. Relevant analyses methods can include chemical analyses (FT-IR, SEM-EDX and other), vapour sorption tests, tensile testing, dimensional tests, imaging (including digital image corelation and multiband imaging), colour or fading analysis, artificial aging and other relevant analyses.
Your teaching will focus on heritage science and climate resilience for conservation. The teaching can be conducted at all levels (BA, MA and PhD). One aim is to establish an international PhD course in ‘Materials and Modeling for Heritage’ and the postdoc will take part in developing and teaching this course.
The postdoc’s duties will include:
- Research in material/heritage science in a strong cross-disciplinary research team, in collaboration with relevant external institutions, enterprises, and networks nationally and internationally
- Visionary and productive teamwork when planning future research projects, including actively participating in applying for external funding and fund-raising for the Institute of Conservation’s activities
- Publishing and dissemination
- Teaching, curriculum planning and the associated administration, including material analyses, preventive conservation, advanced degradation and material science.
- Participation in Royal Danish Academy committees where appropriate, as well as collegiate bodies
Qualifications As a minimum, you hold a relevant master’s level degree in materials engineering, heritage science, chemistry or physics and a PhD or PhD-level scientific qualifications.
We also expect that you:
- Have excellent communication skills
- Are inclined to work in a cross-disciplinary team.
- Have proficient knowledge in material science
1) Producing physical models
2) Testing materials
- Have a strong interest in the preservation of heritage collections
As the Royal Danish Academy focuses on research and teaching collaborations both internally and externally with museums, industry, public institutions and other institutions of higher education, it will be an advantage to have proven experience in developing, funding and implementing externally funded research projects.
Documented experience in teaching at bachelor’s and master’s level will also count in an applicant’s favour, as will experience in curriculum planning and development. In particular, you should be able to demonstrate an interest in actively contributing to research-based teaching at the Institute of Conservation in collaboration with the other teaching staff. In the overall assessment of the candidates for this position, importance will therefore be attached to a proven track record in teaching and/or instruction of students.
Salary and terms of employment The terms of pay and employment will be in accordance with the collective agreement for academics in the Danish Ministry of Finance and a number of organisations under the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC) for academic staff in public service. A qualification allowance will be negotiable, depending on your skills and experience.
The employment will also be in accordance with the job structure.
This is a full-time position with an average of 37 working hours per week and includes research and teaching duties, as well as a limited amount of administrative work. The distribution between research and teaching will generally be 75/25. The distribution of your duties may differ as deemed necessary by the Royal Danish Academy, and you may be required to undertake other job-related duties.
The position is a fixed-term appointment that will cease without further notice after 3 years.
Application Please submit a letter of motivation in English, an up-to-date CV, academic diplomas and certificates, documentation of your qualifications as listed above, a description of your research plans and a list of your published works, preferably including copies of works you wish to highlight (maximum five works). Finally, you should attach material that attests to your teaching qualifications. Any assessment(s) of previous postdoc positions held should also be enclosed.
You should submit your application via the link “Apply for position”
no later than March 15, 2026. Application material received after the application deadline will not be considered.
You can read about the application process
here.
Shortlisting is not used in this advertisement, and you may therefore disregard the description of the shortlisting process in the link above.
Further information Information regarding qualification requirements, the application process and the e-recruitment system can be obtained on request from HR-employee, Sandra Vally Jørgensen,
svj@kglakademi.dk, tel.: +45 4170 1606.
Details about the academic content of the position can be obtained on request from Head of Institute Rikke Bjarnhof,
rbja@kglakademi.dk, tel. +45 4170 1641.
General information about the Royal Danish Academy can be found at
www.royaldanishacademy.com.
The Royal Danish Academy is an inclusive workplace that considers diversity a strength. We therefore encourage all qualified and interested applicants to apply for the position.
