PhD student on dementia prevention

Job description

By the time that dementia is diagnosed, extensive and irrevocable damage to the brain has already occurred. Preventive intervention at an earlier stage of the disease is therefore crucial to alleviate dementia risk. As a PhD student within the nationwide BIRD-NL consortium, you will be working in a multidisciplinary team, towards a future in which dementia increasingly is a preventable disease.

BIRD-NL is a collaboration of 14 parties in the Netherlands, ranging from academic institutions to patient organisations and health care providers. Funded by ZonMw for the next 4 years, these parties are united in their effort to promote dementia prevention, through identifying disease mechanisms, understanding risk perception in the population, and shaping intervention strategies.

As a PhD student you will be involved in data collection, analysis, and dissemination. You will assess research participants at the study centre, and collect data from medical records. You analyse the acquired data in relation to the research questions, and present the results at (inter)national conferences, in scientific publications, to lay audiences, and eventually in your PhD thesis. As part of your PhD training, the department will grant you the opportunity to obtain an MSc in clinical epidemiology or public health at the Netherlands Institute of Health Sciences (Nihes).

Work environment

The vision of Erasmus MC is to improve health care and population health through research and education. Based at the department of Epidemiology, you will work in an ambitious environment with a leading global position in research about brain disease.

You will work in an open-minded, supportive team of physicians and scientists, dedicated to high-quality research with impact on public health and hospital care. We value your growth as an academic researcher during the course of this trajectory in formal education (e.g., courses, seminars) as well as informal education and supervision.

Qualifications and skills

• You have completed, or are close to completing, an MSc programme in the life sciences.
• You are passionate about health care and science, and possess an analytical mindset, a fair share of creativity, and team spirit.
• You are able to combine insight in research methods and statistics with application of research findings in practice.
• Good command of the English language is mandatory; command of the Dutch language is a plus. 

Before you apply please check our conditions for employment.

Terms of employment

• You will receive a temporary position for 4 years. The gross monthly salary is € 2.789,- in the 1st year and increases to € 3.536 ,- in the 4th year (scale OIO).
• Working from home is facilitated, but we anticipate you will spend at least 50% of your working hours on site at the Erasmus MC.
• Excellent fringe benefits, such as a 13th month that is already paid out in November and a individual travel expense package.
• Pension insurance with ABP. We take care of approximately 2/3 of the monthly contribution.
• Special benefits, such as a incompany physiotherapist and bicycle repairer. And there is also a gym where you can work on your fitness after work.

More information

For more information about this position, please contact Dr. Arfan Ikram, Professor of Epidemiology.phone number: +31 (0)10 703 46 25  or email: m.a.ikram@erasmusmc.nl.  

If you are excited by the thought of this position and would like to apply, please do so by using the application form on our website.

No agencies please.