Internship – R&D Surface Chemistry & Coating Technology
Run your own research project in our lab and help bring bio-inspired lipid coatings to real medical devices. For BSc/MSc students in chemistry, biomedical engineering or a related field.
About LipoCoat
LipoCoat develops bio-inspired coatings that make medical devices safer and more comfortable. Our patented, PFAS-free lipid coating is only a few nanometres thin, mimics the natural cell membrane, and prevents proteins and bacteria from sticking to surfaces such as contact lenses, catheters and implants. We are a University of Twente spin-off based at Kennispark in Enschede, we work under an ISO 13485 quality system, and we partner with medical device manufacturers worldwide.
Your internship
As an intern at LipoCoat you do not make coffee and copy files — you get your own project, your own lab bench and a supervisor who takes your work seriously. Depending on your background and interests, your project sits somewhere in coating formulation, surface characterisation, microbiology or process development. Your results feed directly into our development programmes and, in many cases, into the products of our customers.
Example projects
- Optimising a lipid coating formulation for a new substrate material and mapping the process window.
- Characterising coated surfaces using contact angle measurement, QCM-D, ellipsometry, fluorescence microscopy or XPS.
- Setting up and running anti-fouling, protein adsorption or bacterial adhesion assays.
- Testing coating durability and stability under simulated use and sterilisation conditions.
- Supporting the scale-up of a coating process from lab scale towards production.
What we offer
- A market-conform internship allowance, plus reimbursement of travel expenses.
- A real project with real impact — your work contributes to medical devices that reach patients.
- Daily supervision by an experienced scientist and short lines to the whole company.
- Access to a well-equipped lab and to our characterisation and testing facilities.
- A small, informal and international team, a flat structure, and lunch together every day.
- A serious look at a graduate position for interns who thrive with us.
How to apply
Send your CV, a short motivation and your preferred start date and duration to info@lipocoat.com, with “Internship application” in the subject line. Tell us which topic appeals to you most — a specific interest says more to us than a perfect cover letter. We review applications continuously and aim to respond within ten working days. A first video call is followed by an on-site interview and a tour of the lab in Enschede.
Questions before you apply? Reach out to us at info@lipocoat.com — we are happy to talk through the possibilities.
Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated.
Your role
- Design, plan and carry out your own experiments in our lab in Enschede.
- Analyse and interpret your data, and document everything according to our quality standards.
- Join the weekly R&D meeting and present your progress to the team.
- Write a thesis or internship report and defend your results at the end of your placement.
This suits you
- You are enrolled in a BSc or MSc programme in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, (Bio)Nanotechnology, Applied Physics, Life Sciences or a comparable field.
- You are available for a full-time internship of at least three months; a graduation project of six to nine months is very welcome.
- You have hands-on lab affinity and you enjoy figuring things out when an experiment does not go as planned.
- You work precisely, document carefully and are comfortable in a regulated (ISO 13485) environment.
- You communicate fluently in English; Dutch is a plus but not required.
- You are enrolled at a university or university of applied sciences for the full duration of the internship.
Why LipoCoat
We spun out of the University of Twente in 2016 with a single idea. Now our headquarters and labs sit on the same innovation campus in Enschede, the Netherlands, where we innovate novel medical device coatings
We are a team of scientists and engineers small enough that everyone knows what everyone else is working on, and ambitious enough to take a university invention all the way into products used on patients. The structure is flat, decisions are made quickly, and the working language is English.
How to apply
Send your CV and a short motivation to info@lipocoat.com with the subject line “Open application”. Please include:
The type of role or field you are aiming for
what you would want to contribute to LipoCoat in your first year;
your availability and desired number of hours per week.
We review open applications continuously. If there is a match with a current or upcoming opening, we will contact you within two weeks for an introductory call. If there is no immediate fit, we will ask your permission to keep your details on file for twelve months and let you know as soon as something relevant opens up.
Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated.