Athena Institute, Faculty of Science
The position is offered within the Athena Institute, Faculty of Science. The institute’s mission is to study and design interfaces between science and society. How to organize an inclusive multi-stakeholder innovation process which contributes to solving complex societal challenges? This requires an understanding of the dynamics within and between science and society; methodologies (principles and heuristics) that can guide inclusive multi-stakeholder innovation processes; strategies that can sustain and upscale such processes; methodologies to monitor and evaluate such innovation processes; as well as approaches to train students and professionals in these methodologies. One of the research fields of Athena is Education for Science and Society in which the main question to be addressed is how students can be trained in science-society interaction and transdisciplinary research  in order contribute to realizing the development of science and technology in a more sustainable and equitable way.    

We offer the position of junior researcher as a team player in a Community Service Learning (CSL) project. Within this project an innovative CSL curriculum for all master students at the VU will be developed. We will initiate a course and graduation project for master students to conduct interdisciplinary research in collaboration with communities. The students identify and analyse problems with various stakeholders from society. In interdisciplinary teams, students conduct in-depth research on the identified problems with societal actors. The results are presented and discussed in a broader setting. We aim to make this project available to other (international) universities. The project is the result of the Comenius Leadership Fellow of prof. Zweekhorst (financed by the NRO). As junior you collaborate in the team executing this project and in conducting research on this project. The aim of the junior position is to conduct a PhD on this topic. Next to being involved in the research, the junior is also involved as a coach in teaching of various courses offered by the Athena Institute.
 
You:
• have a MSc degree, preferably related to Management  Policy Analysis and entrepreneurship in de health and life sciences, Health sciences, or another masterprogram related to the field of health and life sciences. Experience and interest in education or educational sciences is preferred.
• have preferably expertise in both qualitative and participatory research methods and you are open to transdisciplinary research work;
• write and speak Dutch and English fluently;
• are a team player;
• you are keen to work on the topic “community service learning’’  and innovations in education
 
Preferably you are interested in conducting a PhD on this topic.

The appointment will initially be for a period of one year with a possible extension conditional upon assessment of adequate functioning. There are possibilities to start a PhD track when functioning is excellent.
 
You can find information about our excellent fringe benefits of employment at www.workingatvu.nl like:
• remuneration of  8,3% end-of-year bonus and  8% holiday allowance
• a minimum of 29 holidays in case of full-time employment;
• commuting allowance;
• discounts on collective insurances (healthcare- and car insurance);
 
The salary will be in accordance with university regulations for academic personnel, and depending on experience and qualifications, range from a minimum of € 2.588,- up to a maximum of € 4.084,- gross per month for salary scale 10, based on fulltime employment.

http://www.vu.nl/en/index.asp

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is a leading, innovative, and growing university that is at the heart of society and actively contributes to new developments in teaching and research. Our university has ten faculties which span a wide range of disciplines, as well as several institutes, foundations, research centres, and support services. Its campus is located in the fastest-growing economic region in the Netherlands (the Zuidas district of Amsterdam), and provides work for over 4,500 staff and scientific education for more than 23,000 students.