The environment we live in has a large impact on our health. It explains an estimated 70% of the chronic disease burden. Since most aspects of our environment are modifiable, this provides a huge potential for disease prevention. Derived from the term exposure, the Exposome is the characterisation of the non-genetic drivers of health and disease, including the built environment (characteristics of where we live), the social environment (with whom we interact, social networks and income), physico-chemical environment (chemical substances we are exposed to) and the lifestyle/food environment (what we eat, how much we exercise). The Exposome-NL project aims to systematically map non-genetic determinants of cardiometabolic diseases. You will work in a multi-center study funded by the prestigious 'Zwaartekracht' program of the Dutch research funding organization NWO. Exposome-NL is a 10-year research program of multiple Dutch universities, coordinated by Utrecht University in collaboration with 4 other academic institutions. Your postdoc project focuses on improving our understanding on the relation between an individual’s environment and cardiometabolic health and the mechanisms that are underlying that relation. Environmental exposures are likely to interact in complex and dynamic ways. This complexity may consist of risk accumulation, persistent health inequalities, effect modification and bidirectionality between multiple factors. You will link environmental factors and cardiometabolic health outcomes taking into account and/or aiming to overcome the methodological challenges that comes with this complexity. Relevant environmental factors may include air pollution, noise, socioeconomic position, lifestyle/food environment.

Within this project we are looking for a candidate who is ambitious and with a recently completed PhD project in the field of cardiometabolic health with a shown affinity for the exposome concept. You like the challenge of working at the cross-path of Health Science, Environmental Health Science and Geoscience. You should be able to demonstrate excellent quantitative statistical skills and have a good command of the English language. You are a good collaborator with good communication skills, and in the mean time also enjoy working relatively independently. Having experience in studying the environment in relation to cardiometabolic outcomes is beneficial.

Duration: 1 year with possible extension (min. 2 years and max. 3 years). Your salary depends on education, qualifications and workingexperience after your PhD.

The maximum salary for this position (36 hours) is € 5.383,00 gross per month based on full-time employment.

In addition, we offer an annual benefit of 8.3%, holiday allowance, travel expenses and career opportunities. The terms of employment are in accordance with the Cao University Medical Centers (UMC).

Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Car

You will be part of a large consortium of interdisciplinary researchers dedicated to unraveling the Exposomal determinants of cardiometabolic health. You will be stationed at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, which is part of the University Medical Center Utrecht, and you will be embedded in the Global Health research group. There will be close collaboration with the Institute of Risks Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University and you may be stationed there a day a week. The Julius Center performs (epidemiological) studies on cardiovascular disease, cancer, infectious disease, mental health as well as methodology and biostatistics (www.juliuscenter.nl). It is a leading and multidisciplinary research center. Within the research group, there is a wide range of expertise on cardiometabolic disease epidemiology and environmental determinants of health behaviors and chronic diseases.