We are looking for an excellent candidate to fill the role of a 3-year ESR position (PhD candidate) at MU to work on noninvasive imaging-based prediction of outcome after cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in patients with dyssynchronous heart failure. In close collaboration with experts of the participating hospitals in Maastricht, Leuven, Hasselt, and Oslo, you will build a large database of echocardiographic imaging and clinical outcome data in heart failure patients treated with CRT. You will use this database to evaluate the ability of artificial intelligence-based technologies, as developed by the other MARCIUS ESRs, to predict patient outcome after treatment with CRT. You will work in close collaboration with biomedical engineers at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven; Belgium) and will spend a longer period (minimum of one year) at the R&D office of GE Vingmed (Oslo, Norway) to get acquainted with state-of-the-art echocardiographic image analysis tools and technologies.

MARCIUS is an Innovative Training Network funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and promotes international exchange by requiring that hosts must hire students that have not lived in the host country. An additional key advantage of this training network is that students at all institutes must visit other institutes in the network through mandatory secondments, allowing each student to live and work in other environments during their PhD program.

Offer Requirements

·       REQUIRED LANGUAGES

ENGLISH: Excellent 

Skills/Qualifications

Qualifications

• Must have a Medicine degree (MD) or a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Sciences, Technical Medicine, Clinical Technology, or equivalent.
• Good knowledge about cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology is required.
• Knowledge about and experience with data processing and biostatistics is advantageous.
• Advantageous to have a special interest and competence within medical technology, practical experience with research methods, and R&D work at research institutes, universities and/or the health sector.
• Emphasis on teamwork, innovation, being dynamic and enthusiastic as well as collaborating well with other members of a team.

Relevant certificates, including all grades, credits and marks and recommendation letters must be submitted along with the application. Certified copies of study credits with grades will be needed from those called to an interview.

Fixed-term contract: 3 years.

Special rules for eligibility of ESR candidates: 

ESRs shall, at the time of recruitment by the host organization, be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and have not been awarded a doctoral degree.

Mobility Rule: at the time of recruitment by the host organization, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in The Netherlands for more than 12 months in the last 3 years. Compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account.

Maastricht University

Maastricht University (www.maastrichtuniversity.nl) is the most international university in the Netherlands and, with 18,000 students and 4,300 employees, is still growing. It stands out for its innovative education model (problem-based learning), international character and multidisciplinary approach to research and education. Thanks to its high-quality research and study programmes as well as a strong focus on social engagement, UM has quickly built up a solid reputation. Today it is considered one of the best young universities in the world.

CARIM School CD

The research project will be embedded in the CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases (www.carimmaastricht.nl), which is one of the largest top institutes for translational cardiovascular research in Europe, producing more than 500 scientific articles and approximately 40 PhD dissertations per year. This unique environment will enable the ESR to operate at the intersection of the different, but complementary disciplines of biomedical engineering, physiology, clinical cardiology and medical device industry. This will be a highly valuable experience to the ESR in their future employment in academia or health industry.