The Holland Hybrid Heart (HHH) consortium aims to do the necessary fundamental research up until the animal trials to produce an artificial heart. The goals for this heart will be that it will be pliable, has a pulsatile flow and has a tissue-engineered lining wherever human blood touches that heart. Our consortium acknowledges that this project will only be successful if we can unlock the brains and talents of our researchers. We therefore organize ourselves into research teams that aim to accomplish clear, identifiable but challenging goals.

Twice a year the entire group convenes for the Integration week. A week in which we attempt to put together everything we have built. During these weeks we hope to fail a lot, learn a lot, have a lot of fun together and make plans for the next half year.

Our goals are to develop the HHH prototype based on existing knowledge and developments. The prototype must contain two ventricles including artificial valves, that work in a pulsatile manner. Main challenges will be:

• Design and fabrication of the prototypes.
• Think along an active or passive balancing mechanism and its implementation to the prototype and follow-up evaluations towards validation and further optimizations.
• Energy efficiency.
• Size minimization.
• Develop a platform for testing different prototypes which facilitate and speed up experiments.

You must have a bachelor and master degree’s in Biomechanics (experienced in fluid mechanics and/or implantable devices), Biomedical Engineering (familiar with heart mechanics and cardiovascular system of human body), Mechanical Engineering (fluid mechanics), Medicine, (Soft) Robotics or any related fields. We expect you to have/be:

• Affinity with the cardiovascular system and heart mechanics.
• Skilled in hands-on and practical projects.
• Eager to face and tackle unknown challenges that may rise up any time during the project.
• Able to work within a multidisciplinary consortium which needs high skills of communication and sharing knowledge.
• Creative! Creativity is the key to reach our goal. You must be creative to come up with innovative idea, and more significant, brave enough to implement and assess their idea.

• You will receive a contract for 4 years.
• The gross monthly salary amounts a maximum of € 7.570,- (scale 13), depending on your level of education and relevant experience, based on a full-time working week of 36 hours.
• Excellent fringe benefits, such as a 13th month that is already paid out in November and a individual travel expense package.
• Pension insurance with ABP. We take care of approximately 2/3 of the monthly contribution.
• Special benefits, such as a incompany physiotherapist and bicycle repairer. And there is also a gym where you can work on your fitness after work.

Erasmus MC

Erasmus MC stands for a healthy population and excellence in healthcare. By conducting groundbreaking work, we aim to push boundaries through leading the way in research, education and healthcare. We want to bring scientific discoveries to the patient.