The Global and Geo Health Data Centre (GGHDC) creates and archives high resolution environmental data with national to global coverage to support research into the effect of environment on health. It contains software to combine environmental information and mobility data of individuals to calculate personal environmental exposures of individuals in health cohorts. Personal exposures are disseminated through a web portal.

The GGHDC is looking for a Spatial Data Scientist to contribute to the development of national (the Netherlands) and global data sets of environmental variables, including noise in urban environments, vegetation, surface water and/or other environmental attributes. In addition, the successful candidate will contribute to the development of software tools for the data center, including software for obfuscation of spatio-temporal tracks of individual persons to enable processing of privacy sensitive data and software for handling linked data. The software will be developed in cooperation with geoinformation scientists in the GGHDC team. In addition, the Spatial Data Scientist will support data management in the GGHDC project, for instance related to the use and management of open source spatial data sets such as OpenStreetMap. The Spatial Data Scientist will contribute as (co-)author to scientific publications written by GGHDC team members.

The research will be done in close cooperation with members of the GGHDC team including experts in high performance geocomputation, geostatisticians, human & physical geographers, and health researchers.

The successful candidate has expertise in spatial data science methods preferably including remote sensing data analysis, geostatistics, machine learning, and/or spatial simulation modelling. In addition, experience with multiple software development environments (preferably including Python) is a requirement. The candidate holds an MSc or PhD degree in a relevant area e.g. Earth Sciences, Geographical Information Science, Spatial Data Science, Informatics or a closely related field.

Candidates from various Data Science and Geoscience fields are invited to apply, as long as they have a strong background in Spatial Data Science. Selection criteria for the position will include the experience with Spatial Data Science, his/her academic track record and communication skills.

You will be appointed as a Junior Researcher or Postdoc (1.0 FTE), depending on your work experience. Subject to excellent performance, the initial appointment of one year will be followed by an extension of one year. The gross salary - depending on previous qualifications and experience  - ranges between €2,588 and €3,238 (scale 10 according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full-time employment. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8 % and a year-end bonus of 8.3 % per year. We offer a pension scheme, (partly paid) parental leave, collective insurance schemes and flexible employment conditions (multiple choice model). More information is available at: working at Utrecht University.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

The city of Utrecht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, with a charming old center and an internationally oriented culture that is strongly influenced by its century-old university. Utrecht city has been consistently ranked as one of the most livable cities in the Netherlands.

The Faculty of Geosciences consists of four Departments: Physical Geography, Earth Sciences, Human Geography & Spatial Planning and Innovation, Environmental & Energy Sciences. The Faculty is home to 3,000 students and nearly 700 staff and is internationally renowned for the quality of its research. The Faculty's academic programmes reflect developments in today's society.

The Global and Geo Health Data Centre

The Global and Geo Health Data Centre, established in 2016, aims at integrating environmental data and health data to improve our understanding of environmental effects on health. GGHDC is run by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Utrecht University, with contributions from the University Medical Centre (Julius Centre), the Faculty of Geosciences (Department of Human Geography & Planning, PCRaster Software Development Team at the Department of Physical Geography) and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (Institute for Risk Assessment). We closely cooperate with SURFsara providing supercomputing and archiving.