Scholarship opportunities

The Young Academy has three Interdisciplinary PhD positions available to help foster interdisciplinary collaborations amongst members. Each project is supervised by two Young Academy members and will be hosted in the Faculty of the primary supervisor. The scholarship covers four years and leads to a PhD degree. These four years are spent on a research training program towards completion of a PhD thesis and on participation in international conferences, workshops and a career perspectives curriculum.

Project 1. Inheritance of acquired characters: past and present controversy – and the way forward

Supervisors: Dr. Martine Maan, https://www.rug.nl/staff/m.e.maan/ (Evolutionary Biology - Faculty of Science and Engineering) and Dr. Han Thomas Adriaenssen, https://www.rug.nl/staff/h.t.adriaenssen/ (History of Philosophy - Faculty of Philosophy)

How do living organisms transmit their characteristics to the next generation? The textbook answer is: by passing on their DNA, which encodes all heritable traits. In recent years, however, biologists have discovered that this is not the whole story. Evidence is accumulating that environmental influences during the lifetime of an individual, such as nutrition or stress, can influence the phenotype of their progeny across several generations. This phenomenon reminds us of the concept of ‘inheritance of acquired characters’, already formulated in 1809 by the French naturalist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck in his Philosophie Zoologique. Lamarck’s ideas have often met with skepticism, but recent developments in molecular genetics, such as epi-genetics, have inspired a re-evaluation of his legacy. Indeed, we seem to witness a renaissance of Lamarckian thought (West-Eberhard 2007, Wang et al. 2017).

In this project, we aim explore the Lamarckian nature of recent discoveries in the transmission of inherited traits, and in this way to explore what modern biology can, or cannot, learn from the original ideas of Lamarck, whether or not the works of Lamarck offer lessons that change the way we think about evolution (Weiss 2015). This project will contribute to that debate by bringing together the disciplines of evolutionary biology, and the history of science and philosophy.

Project 2. The compassionate robot

Supervisors: Dr. Marieke van Vugt, https://www.rug.nl/staff/m.k.van.vugt/ (Computational Cognitive Neuroscience - Faculty of Science and Engineering) and Prof. Ming Cao, https://www.rug.nl/staff/m.cao/ (Robotics - Faculty of Science and Engineering)

As our world becomes more interconnected, we need to work together, which depends on balancing altruism and self-interest (such that individual agents do not burn out). How does altruism and its precursor, compassion, shape team interactions? Compassion is the mental state that can motivate people to transcend selfishness and act altruistically (Saslow et al., 2013) . As robots assume more and more important roles in society, we need to ensure that those robots are compassionate. To do so, we first need to know how to measure compassion and altruism in people and detect how compassion training changes behavior, for which novel tools may be developed. Finally, this project aims to further our understanding of how altruism works by translating these results into models of robot-robot interactions to help to build compassionate Artificial Intelligence, which is crucial for modern society.

Project 3. Overcoming the robustness crisis in science—a cross-disciplinary approach

Supervisors: Dr. Susanne Täuber, https://www.rug.nl/staff/s.tauber/ (Faculty of Economics and Business), Dr. Gert Stulp, https://www.rug.nl/staff/g.stulp/ (Faculty Behavioral and Social Sciences) and Dr. Simon Friederich, https://www.rug.nl/staff/s.m.friederich/ (Philosophy - University College Groningen)

There is widespread consensus that the social sciences are in a crisis of lacking robustness. For example, many of the most prominent claimed findings in social psychology of the past few decades fail to replicate when subjected to renewed empirical scrutiny (Open Science Collaboration 2015). These worrying patterns extend to other fields of science such as economics (Ioannidis et al. 2017) and medicine (Ioannidis 2016). It is unclear if and to what extent the responsible causes of the robustness crises in different disciplines are the same or rather different. The suspects of robustness failure may be ambiguities in measurements of theoretical constructs and bias shaping research questions and the interpretation of results.

The proposed research will investigate cross-disciplinary causes of the current robustness crisis and find ways to overcome the robustness crisis in a sustainable manner at the levels of individual scientists, departments, and faculties (discipline-specific) as well as at the levels of universities and science policy (discipline-exceeding).

Project 4. A PhD Project that crosses the disciplines of two Young Academy Groningen members, https://www.rug.nl/research/young-academy/academy/current-members

If you have your own project idea that you would like to submit that is not mentioned above, please contact YAG members to discuss your ideas and the possibilities of submitting a joint proposal. (Note: This cross-disciplinary project must list at least two supervisors, of whom two are Young Academy Groningen members).

Qualifications of the PhD candidate are outlined for each project:

Project 1:
The ideal candidate has a background in both biology and the history of science or philosophy. Alternatively, the candidate will have a background in one of these disciplines, and be prepared to be trained in the other as a part of their PhD trajectory.

Project 2:
The ideal candidate for this position is a person with a Master’s degree in artificial intelligence, psychology, engineering, behavioral economics or neuroscience. They should have experience with programming, as well as a strong interest in the functioning of the human mind. The person should be curious and adaptive to be able to work in a variety of different settings ranging from a Tibetan monastery to a robot lab.

Project 3:
The candidate ideally has a Masters degree with an interdisciplinary background (from any discipline) and demonstrate an interest in (resolving) the robustness crisis. Some experience with statistics is required in order to understand the ‘statistical arguments’ in the debates. The candidate should enjoy working in different labs and departments. The candidate's individual background can shape the specific direction in which the project is taken.

Project 4:
The ideal candidate is ambitious, highly motivated and wishes to make a career in research. He or she has a thorough training in research skills, speaks and writes English fluently, and has considerable experience in the project area being proposed (ideally at Masters level.).

Fixed-term contract: 48 months.

The successful candidates will enrol in the UG PhD Scolarship Program and will receive a gross scholarship of EUR 2027 per month of which wage tax and social security premiums will be deducted. General information on the programme can be found at www.rug.nl/education/phd-programmes/phd-scholarship-programme/about/

Starting date: September 2018

Young Academy Groningen

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has enjoyed an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative centre of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Belonging to the best research universities of Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

The Young Academy Groningen, established in 2016, is an organization that brings together the most talented, enthusiastic and ambitious young researchers from diverse academic backgrounds. Their aim is to support young researchers in developing and strengthening public activities and outreach, contributing to developments in the areas of internationalization and science policy, and facilitating interdisciplinary research initiatives.