Project Description
The Postdoc researcher will work in the project ‘The roles of siblings and school peers in young adults’ life-course events’, led by Principal Investigator Clara H. Mulder and funded by an Open Competition Large grant from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO). The research team will further include a PhD researcher, an assistant professor who will co-supervise the PhD project, and collaborators from the University of Groningen and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). In the project, we aim to identify the roles of siblings and school peers in the occurrence, timing, and outcomes of important life-course events in young adulthood. The events are leaving the parental home, residential relocations, and entry into post-secondary education and the labour market. We will investigate differentiation in sibling and school-peer roles with regard to advantage versus disadvantage, gender, migrant background, age, and time period. We will use register data covering the entire population of young adults in the Netherlands, including newly developed family and school-peer network data, and analyse these data with advanced statistical methods. The results may help combat inequality and enhance young adults’ ability to realise their potential. The envisaged role of the Postdoc researcher will be to work on entry into post-secondary education and the labour market, to collaborate with the other team members on this and other topics, and co-supervise the PhD student. The Postdoc researcher will write scientific journal articles and outreach articles, and will take the lead in the organisation of stakeholder workshops.

Organisation
The Postdoc researcher will be hosted by the Faculty of Spatial Sciences (FSS), Population Research Centre, of the University of Groningen. FSS is a dynamic faculty with an open character. With approximately 100 employees and 100 PhD researchers, we focus on highly qualified education and research in the field of planning, demography and human geography. With two bachelor's degrees and seven master's programmes, the faculty offers broad training opportunities to around 1,100 students all over the world.

We are looking for candidates with

- A PhD in education science, sociology, population studies, demography, human geography, economics, or another relevant social science, completed recently (e.g. less than about a year ago) or to be completed before the starting date (around February 2025).
- Publications in international peer-reviewed academic journals in the field of quantitative research on themes related to the project.
- Excellent skills in quantitative research using register data or large survey databases.
- Strong conceptual thinking.
- Strong motivation, good communicative skills, proactive and independent work attitude.
- Strong planning skills, ability to organize own work and related activities, ability to meet deadlines.
- Proven ability to collaborate in a research team and to take the lead in organizing collaborative work.
- A great curiosity and enthusiasm for scientific research.
- Fluency in English; preferably mastering some Dutch or willing to learn Dutch.
- Preferably experience in supervising junior researchers, (PhD) students or assistants.
- Willingness to attend conferences abroad.

We warmly invite you to apply for this vacancy, if you are interested and will have completed your PhD degree before the starting date (around February 2025).

Fixed-term contract: 48 months.

The University of Groningen offers a salary, depending on qualifications and work experience, with a minimum of € 4,020 and a maximum of € 4,492 (salary scale 10 Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full-time position. On top of that income, you will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an annual bonus of 8.3%. The conditions are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU). This full-time appointment as Postdoc researcher is temporary for 3.5 years. You will first be appointed for a period of 12 months. After a positive evaluation, the contract will be extended for the remaining part of the project.

Starting date is 1 February 2025 or a few months earlier or later in consultation with the project leader.