Job Description
When you age, your blood vessels lose their elastic properties. This age-related arterial stiffening plays a major role in the development of high blood pressure. In this PhD project, you will study arterial biomechanics with a focus on age-related arterial stiffening. You will explore different mechanisms that may cause this stiffening, including calcification, collagen deposition, elastin degradation, and changes in the arterial smooth muscle. To investigate this, you will study human arterial mechanics, both in vivo and in vitro.

Your project will be embedded within the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), part of the Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences at Maastricht University. Your primary appointment will be with the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, where you will work directly with a core team of three PhD students, one postdoc, an assistant professor, and a full professor. Our diverse department hosts people from countries all over the world, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt, India, Italy, Lebanon, and the Netherlands. We are committed to creating an open, team science environment for everybody to thrive. Because of the project’s multidisciplinarity, you will collaborate with colleagues from Cardiothoracic Surgery, Internal Medicine, and Biochemistry. In particular, an additional team member and supervisor (assistant professor) will be with the Dept. of Biochemistry.

In your PhD project, you will:

• Conduct ex vivo and in vivo human tissue biomechanics studies.
• Work with a state-of-the-art measurement set-up (DynamX).
• Use computer modelling to process and interpret your experimental results.
• Collaborate closely with basic scientists, engineers, and medical doctors.

Requirements
This project will bring together engineering, experimental, and clinical expertise. Therefore, to forward this project, collaboration and perseverance will be key.

The following are required:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field.
• Affection with biomechanics.
• Eagerness to learn and to collaborate with people outside one’s field of expertise.

What we offer

As PhD candidate at Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, you will be employed by the most international university in the Netherlands, located in the beautiful city of Maastricht. In addition, we offer you:

• Good employment conditions. The position is graded in scale P according to UFO profile Promovendus, with corresponding salary based on experience ranging from €2770,00 and €3539,00 gross per month (based on a full-time employment of 38 hours per week). In addition to the monthly salary, an 8.0% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus apply.
• An employment contract for a period of 12 months with a scope of 1,0 FTE. Upon a positive evaluation, an extension of 3 years will follow.
• At Maastricht University, the well-being of our employees is of utmost importance, we offer flexible working hours and the possibility to work partly from home if the nature of your position allows it. You will receive a monthly commuting and internet allowance for this. If you work full-time, you will be entitled to 29 vacation days and 4 additional public holidays per year, namely carnival Monday, carnival Tuesday, Good Friday, and Liberation Day. If you choose to accumulate compensation hours, an additional 12 days will be added. Furthermore, you can personalize your employment conditions through a collective labor agreement (CAO) choice model.
• As Maastricht University, we offer various other excellent secondary employment conditions. These include a good pension scheme with the ABP and the opportunity for UM employees to participate in company fitness and make use of the extensive sports facilities that we also offer to our students.
• Last but certainly not least, we provide the space and facilities for your personal and professional development. We facilitate this by offering a wide range of training programs and supporting various well-established initiatives such as 'acknowledge and appreciate'.
  The terms of employment at Maastricht University are largely set out in the collective labor agreement of Dutch Universities. In addition, local provisions specific to UM apply. For more information, click here.

Maastricht University

Why work at Maastricht University?
At Maastricht University (UM), everything revolves around the future. The future of our students, as we work to equip them with a solid, broad-based foundation for the rest of their lives. And the future of society, as we seek solutions through our research to issues from all around the world. Our six faculties combined provide a comprehensive package of study programmes and research.

In our teaching, we use the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) method. Students work in small groups, looking for solutions to problems themselves. By discussing issues and working together to draw conclusions, formulate answers and present them to their peers, students develop essential skills for their future careers.

With over 22,300 students and more than 5,000 employees from all over the world, UM is home to a vibrant and inspiring international community.

Are you drawn to an international setting focused on education, science and scholarship? Are you keen to contribute however your skills and qualities allow? Our door is open to you! As a young European university, we value your talent and look forward to creating the future together.

Click here for more information about UM.

Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
At the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML), everything revolves around healthy living. Our research and education are not solely focused on recovery, but place a strong emphasis on prevention, health preservation, and health promotion. Our aim is to use our knowledge and expertise to genuinely contribute to the well-being of individual people as well as society in total.

In, research, and healthcare, FHML is closely collaborating with the academic hospital in Maastricht, together forming the Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC+). FHML is strongly connected in education, research, and care with the Maastricht academic hospital, together with which it forms the Maastricht University Medical Centre (MUMC+).

FHML, which is the largest faculty of Maastricht University, is formed by an (inter)national community of employees and students. The faculty offers a wide range of Dutch and English-taught bachelor's and master's programs in innovative educational concepts in which the emphasis is always on building bridges to practice.

The multidisciplinary research of the FHML focuses on a number of carefully chosen topical current themes. In addition to research aimed at gaining new insights, it also concerns research whose results can be directly translated into concrete applications and innovations. The implementation of the various research programs is organized in our six graduate schools and two institutes.