Prof.dr. Carolina de Weerth (Developmental Psychobiology Lab; Radboud University Medical Center) is looking for a PhD within the project Nurturing Connections: The Role of Physical Closeness in Parent-Infant Well-being and Development. This 4-year project (1.0FTE) is financed by NWO and focused on early parenthood and infancy. Do you want to take on this challenging project with us?

The transition to parenthood can be challenging and is often related to mental and physical problems in parents. Parent-infant physical closeness (PIPC) sharply decreases over the first months in Western families, while studies show that PIPC is important for healthy child development and potentially also for maternal wellbeing. PIPC may hence offer unique opportunities to support both child development and new parents’ wellbeing. However, large gaps in knowledge on fathers, causal associations, underlying mechanisms, and long-term relations preclude further developments. Our multidisciplinary team will fill these gaps with sophisticated intervention, experimental, and longitudinal studies on daily life PIPC: baby carrying, skin-to-skin contact, and room sharing. Mechanisms that we will focus on include the HPA axis, behavior, health, and psychological wellbeing.

In sum, we will determine whether, to what extent, and through what mechanisms easily accessible avenues for increasing PIPC can lead to improved maternal, paternal, and child mental and physical health, both concurrently as well as later in childhood and adolescence. Hence, the PhD will contribute to finding practical solutions to improve parents’ lives. The project includes collaborators from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Utrecht University, and University of Trento. The PhD will be part of a team consisting of senior researchers, a Postdoc, a student assistant, as well as perinatal professionals and parents. The PhD will be affiliated to the Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour and the Baby & Child Research Center.

We offer

• A challenging position in an innovative project within a team of dedicated colleagues. Our collaboration is characterized by creativity, collegiality, teamwork, and responsibility.
• Being part of a dynamic, enthusiastic, collaborative, and ambitious research group specialized in early life, the developmental psychobiology lab.
• A fulltime function with a duration of four years at Radboudumc.The first year is a test period.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Developing and pre-registering research protocols.
• Preparing and submitting (medical) ethical applications.
• Recruitment and data collection.
• Data analysis and statistical analyses.
• Writing and dissemination of results for peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals.
• Writing and dissemination of results for the public, professionals, internal reports, etc.
• Presentation of findings at conferences and symposia.
• Training and supervision of (Research) Master students, as well as research assistants.

You are a PhD candidate with an open and respectful attitude towards parents and perinatal professionals. You have a proactive attitude and are eager to learn, always seeking opportunities to develop your academic skills. You work independently but also have a collaborative spirit and thrive within team science.

Moreover you have:

• A masters diploma in (developmental) psychology, pedagogics, or similar study.
• Fluency in spoken and written Dutch (at least B1 level) and English. This is absolutely necessary. Please to not apply if you don’t fulfill this requirement.
• Strong affinity with the perinatal period and working with young parents.
• Experience in statistical analyses.
• Excellent organizational and communicative skills, and are highly precise in data management.

Fixed-term contract: 4 years.

Starting date is March 2025. At Radboud university medical center, you build on your future. We are committed to providing the best care, education, and research. And we are true to our word, because we help you develop and seize opportunities and give you the room to grow. As an employer, we believe that employees should feel vital and happy at work in all stages of life. We are also committed to creating a healthy and safe working environment. Our employment conditions contribute to that. What we offer:

• The salary depends on education. Scale 10 will be offered to MSc medical graduates; a gross monthly salary between €3.493 and € 5.504 (full-time). Those holding degrees in other disciplines will be offered scale 10A: upon commencement of employment, you will start at scale 10A, step 0 (€ 3.017 full-time). Over a maximum period of 4 years, you will progress to scale 10A, step 3 (€3.824 full-time). You will also receive an 8% holiday allowance, an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a 47% to 72% bonus for working unsocial hours.
• 172 vacation hours per year based on a 36-hour working week. (As of 1 January 2025, you will receive 176 vacation hours).

Radboudumc

For this position you will be part of the Developmental Psychobiology Lab (DPB lab). Our research focuses on the influence of pregnancy and the early years on parental wellbeing and child development. The DPB lab is embedded in the Department Cognitive Neuroscience of Radboud university medical center (Radboudumc).

The Cognitive Neuroscience department is part of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior ('the Donders'). The Donders is a world-class research network with over 1,000 scientists dedicated to advancing brain, cognitive, and behavioral sciences. The institute enables access to the most advanced research facilities, fosters interdisciplinary collaborations, and trains new generations of researchers. Research into stress and stress-related disorders is an important area of attention.

Radboudumc
Welcome to Radboud university medical center (Radboudumc), where scientific breakthroughs are born through the curiosity and passion of our collaborating researchers in a vibrant environment. We believe trust and excitement are crucial elements to achieving our goals, and we approach our research as teams and with the utmost rigor to make a significant impact on health and healthcare. Our researchers are driven by their fascination with the biological, psychological, and sociological mechanisms underlying health and healthcare. They collaborate with partners from all over the world to improve health outcomes for all. Radboudumc unites patient care, research, education, and corporate learning, which allows us to approach our mission to shape the health and healthcare of the future in an innovative and person-centered way.

Our ambition is to lead the way in the pursuit of prevention, sustainability, meaningful care. We believe that through our research, we can significantly improve the health and well-being of society. Join us on our mission to make a difference in healthcare. Become a part of our community of gifted researchers, professionals or patient partners who are dedicated to making a real impact on population health and healthcare.

Read what it is like to do a PhD at the Radboud University Medical Center.

Any questions? Or wondering what it is like to work at Radboudumc? Then send an email to Prof. Dr. Carolina de Weerth, full professor CNS. Use the Apply button to submit your application.