The Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy of the Faculty of Science and Engineering offers a scholarship PhD position for a talented and motivated national or international student.

Candidates are invited to write and develop their own research project within the scope of the proposed topic listed below. Being part of a cutting-edge research programme, they will receive excellent training in the form of hands-on instruction, advanced courses and summer/winterschools, complemented by workshops on generic research and transferable skills as well as teaching training. As a PhD candidate, you are committed to conduct independent and original scientific research, to report on this research in international publications and conference presentations, and to describe the results of the research in a PhD dissertation, to be completed within 4 years.

Parts of this project will be in close collaboration with the University College London and limited academic visits are encouraged.

Research topic
Due to successful public health measures and treatments, cardiovascular mortality has been greatly reduced in high-income countries. Clearly, patients with established cardiovascular disease are at an increased risk for disease progression, however patients differ in characteristics, (time to) disease progression or treatment response. During this PhD you will jointly use omics (genomics, and metabolomics) data and electronic healthcare record (EHR) data to 1) to classify patients at high risk for early cardiovascular disease progression, 2) identify markers for treatment response and 3) perform disease sub-phenotyping. Depending on the candidate’s preference further possibilities include the evaluating and/or development of big data analytics.

Successful candidates will have completed a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in biostatistics, bioinformatics or epidemiology (with programming experience) or another field of science relevant for the position. They have good command of English (oral and written), are enthusiastic and have the ability to work in an interdisciplinary team, have a passion for science, are highly motivated to work in big data for precision medicine, possess excellent communication skills and an affinity for writing scientific papers and delivering presentations. In addition to these general qualifications this PhD requires experience (or willingness to learn) with:
• Unix, R and Python
• a basic understanding of cardiovascular disease or general human health
• experience with EHR (ICD-10, ATC coding) or omics (plink, SNPTEST) is appreciated
• moderate understanding of the underpinnings of linear models.

Fixed-term contract: 48 months.

The PhD student will be enrolled in the PhD Scholarship Programme and receive a scholarship of € 2,027 per month (gross) from the University of Groningen for a period of 4 years. Information about the terms and conditions of the PhD Scholarship Programme can be found via: https://www.rug.nl/education/phd-programmes/phd-scholarship-programme/

The scholarship PhD student will participate in the Graduate School of Science training programme for PhD students and will draw up a personal training and supervision plan together with his or her supervisor. The Graduate School also provides a progress monitoring scheme to ensure an efficient PhD trajectory resulting in a PhD thesis within 4 years. A Career Perspectives curriculum is part of the training, which aims to prepare students for their (academic or non-academic) careers after the PhD trajectory.

Faculty of Science and Engineering

The University of Groningen has an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative institution of higher education, offering high-quality teaching and research. Balanced study and career paths in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 30,000 students and 5,500 employees to develop their own individual talents. The University of Groningen is proud to be among the global elite with a classification in the top 100 of the Shanghai ARWU, the THE World University Rankings, the U.S. News ‘Best Global Universities Ranking’, and the NTU Ranking. It marks the 24th place in the global ranking of Best Places to Work in Academia, scoring 3rd best in Europe and 5th non-US university. Joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.