Vacancies – Medical and Health Humanities

November 13, 2018

15 PhD’s for ENTWINE ‘How can we bridge the ‘Care Gap’

ENTWINE, The European Training Network on Informal Care

ENTWINE is a 4-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovation Training Network (ITN), funded by the European Union and started as of September 2018. The Network will train 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) for high quality PhD training.

Job description

Mostly due to increased longevity and medical advances, the needs of older/ill individuals for long-term care rise rapidly while the availability of informal caregivers decreases. Informal caregivers are those who provide unpaid care to a relative or friend with a chronic illness, disability or other long-lasting health or care need. This ‘Care Gap’ will create huge problems for the sustainability of European health care systems that rely heavily on the provision of informal care. How can we solve this problem?

The ENTWINE team aims:

to detail the current and future caregiving challenges and motivations for diverse groups of informal caregivers and care recipients, and society, in different countries that have different care systems.
to examine whether specific (psychosocial) interventions, services and technology-based interventions could be helpful to caregivers, and if so, how best to deliver these interventions, services and tools, in order to sustain willingness to care amongst caregivers and support them in experiencing optimal outcomes of their role.
to promote the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based interventions, services, and tools aimed to support informal caregiving.

The PhD students will be selected for a 3-year advanced multidisciplinary and intersectoral research training, preferably starting in March 2019.

Work packages

Find a description of the three work packages and the 15 PhD positions at the website.

Work Package 1: Investigating willingness to care

WP1 aims to detail the current and future caregiving challenges and motivations for diverse groups of informal caregivers and their recipients, and society, in different countries that have different care systems by means of an intensive longitudinal cohort study (ENTWINE-iCohort). This is crucial in order to establish who needs support, what kind of support, and when.

Work Package 2: Designing solutions for informal care

WP2 aims to examine whether specific interventions, services and technology-based interventions (eHealth, social robots) could empower caregivers and reduce their burden. If so, WP 2 aims to examine how to deliver which interventions, services and tools, at which time, and to whom, in order to sustain willingness to care, experience optimal outcomes of their roles, and improve quality of life amongst informal caregivers. Methods include experiments, factorial designs and persuasive profiling.

WP3: Implementing novel technology based solutions

WP3 aims to examine the issues around the implementation and dissemination of innovative interventions, services, and technology-based tools intended to support informal caregiving. The focus is on overcoming barriers following a user-centered, stakeholder-driven implementation and agile science approach to promote adoption and implementation of these innovative interventions, services and tools.

Requirements

You have a Master’s degree or equivalent in psychology, sociology, (health) economics, health policy, health sciences, communication sciences, health technology, computer sciences, or related fields at the time of start (1 March 2019).
Your educational background matches the requirements of the ESR positions you are interested in.
You are an Early Stage Researcher, meaning that at the time of recruitment by the host organization, you shall be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of your research career and has not been awarded a doctoral degree.
You must fulfil the mobility criteria defined by the European Commission: at the time of recruitment by the host organisation, you must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the start date of the project (expected March 1st, 2019).

Conditions of employment

The PhD student will be appointed at and conform the conditions of the host organisation indicated for each position. We offer:

A stimulating and creative learning environment and an interdisciplinary and international research training programme.
You will be engaged in transdisciplinary experiences with targeted secondments to practice communities and companies.
You will have the opportunity to acquire outstanding complementary training in transferable skills (e.g. presentation techniques, networking, publishing, and outreach) as well as leadership, innovation and entrepreneurial skills.

Applying for a job

Do you consider applying? Please go to Recruitment for more information.

You can apply until November 30th, 2018.

October 11, 2018

3 PhD positions Delft University of Technology

“Design for changing values: a theory of value change in sociotechnical systems”: energy systems, artificial intelligence and design strategies.

Delft University of Technology offers three positions for PhD students as part of the research project Design for changing values: a theory of value change in sociotechnical systems. The entire project consists of 3 PhD positions and 2 postdoc positions and will be supervised by prof.dr.ir. Ibo van de Poel. A complete description of the project can be requested. The project aims at better understanding how moral values may change as a result of technological development and how we can better deal with such changing values in the design of new technology. Each of the PhD positions focuses on one of the following more specific topics:

Changing values and the design of energy systems
Design for value change in robot systems and artificial intelligence
Design strategies for value change in sociotechnical systems

Each of the projects involves empirical as well philosophical investigations into the phenomenon of value change and its implications for the design of sociotechnical systems. The first two projects focus on value change in a more specific domain (energy systems and artificial intelligence). The third project focuses on developing design strategies that better allow to deal with value change.

The candidate will carry out doctoral research which will lead to a dissertation, and will also produce relevant publications. The candidate will participate in the Graduate School of TU Delft and in the PhD program of the 4TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology.

When applying please indicate in which position(s) you are interested; you can indicate more than one position.
The candidate will also be involved in the teaching activities of the department.

Requirements

A master degree in philosophy, engineering or a relevant socio-scientific discipline, like STS (science and technology studies)
A demonstrable interest in applied ethics and in technology
It is recommended that the candidate has had experience in carrying out empirical research and has knowledge of the relevant technological domain studied in the PhD project
Good analytical and reasoning skills, as demonstrated by, for example, a master thesis
Willingness and ability to work in an interdisciplinary team
Ability to present his or her ideas clearly also to people with another disciplinary background
Openness to criticism
Productive and dedicated
Good command of both written and spoken English

Conditions of Employment

TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children’s Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.
As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment; an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor; and a Doctoral Education Programme aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills. Please visit www.tudelft.nl/phd for more information.

Employer

Delft University of Technology, Faculty Technology, Policy and Management

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is a multifaceted institution offering education and carrying out research in the technical sciences at an internationally recognised level. Education, research and design are strongly oriented towards applicability.

The Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management contributes to sustainable solutions for technical challenges in society by combining the insights from engineering with the humanities and the social sciences.

Information

To apply, please e-mail a detailed letter of application before by November 12, a curriculum vitae and the names and contact information of references to vacature-TBM@tudelft.nl . When applying for this position, please refer to vacancy number ATTBM 18.022.

For information about this vacancy, you can contact Ibo van de Poel, email: i.r.vandepoel@tudelft.nl, tel: +31 15 278 4716

March 16, 2018

Vacancy: PhD Student Maastricht

PhD Student “Synthetic embryos: an ethical reflection”. Dept Health, Ethics & Society, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, start between 1 June and 1 September 2018, 48 months, full time

For a PhD-project on the ethics of ‘synthetic embryos’, a vacancy will become available for a PhD student at the Department of Health, Ethics & Society of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. This concerns a full-time 4 year dissertation opportunity for a philosopher/bioethicist. A project description can be acquired from dr Wybo Dondorp, email: w.dondorp@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Background

Recent reports have shown that, under the right conditions, human pluripotent stem cells can form structures that resemble early human embryos. These “synthetic human entities with embryo-like features (SHEEFs)” seem highly useful for studying early human development, but also raise ethical concerns that are relevant for how this emerging field of research should be regulated.

Aims and methods

This project aims to contribute to a robust and sustainable normative framework for creating and using SHEEFs. In addition to contributing to the international debate, an explicit goal of the project is to advice policy makers in the Netherlands on whether the Dutch Embryos Act is sufficiently ‘SHEEFS-proof’. Methods: conceptual analysis, normative analysis, qualitative stakeholder research (focus group discussions).

Funding and collaboration

This project is funded by The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), GROW (School for Oncology & Developmental Biology, Maastricht University) and MERLN (Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine, Maastricht University). Collaborating centers are the Department of Health, Ethics & Society (HES), GROW and MERLN (all Maastricht University), the University Medical Center Utrecht (Department of Medical Humanities) and the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research (both Utrecht University).

Location and supervision

The PhD student working on this project will be based at the Department of Health, Ethics & Society of Maastricht University, in Maastricht, the Netherlands with regular visits to Utrecht. The project will be supervised by prof dr Guido de Wert and dr Wybo Dondorp (bioethicists, Maastricht University) together with prof dr Annelien Bredenoord (bioethicist, Utrecht University).

Candidate profile

Completed research master in Philosophy or Applied Ethics. Proven interest in bioethical aspects of developmental biology. Experience with qualitative empirical research. Mastery of writing English for publication. Mastery of Dutch will be considered an advantage.

Start: The start date of the project is 1 June 2018.

Terms of employment

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > staff > index and forms > HR from A-Z.
Temporary employment: 4 years.

Applications

Applications consisting of a motivation letter and CV can be sent until 8 April 2018 to the below postal or email address (on the envelope/in the header please state “Synthetic embryos”). The first interview round will be held on Monday 16 April 2018 in Maastricht.

Maastricht University
Dept of Health Ethics & Society
t.a.v. Angelique Heijnen
Postbus 616
6200 MD Maastricht
00 31 43 3882145 (except on Wednesdays)
a.heijnen@ maastrichtuniversity.nl