In the role of a postdoctoral Researcher, you will conduct a variety of non-interventional multi-country studies measuring the utilization, safety, and effectiveness of medicines in daily clinical practice. Furthermore, you will perform qualitative research into experiences, believes, and attitudes of patients and healthcare professionals such as knowledge, risk awareness, trust, reasoning processes, the communication needs, and the experiences of using medicines, as well as applying risk minimisation measures in real life.

The position involves 100% research time. Your core tasks will include:

• conducting research into safety and effectiveness of medicines in daily clinical practice (real world evidence);
• conducting research into knowledge, risk awareness, trust, and attitudes about medicines among patients and healthcare professionals;
• strongly contribute to (maintaining) cooperation with (inter)national partners in EMA funded projects (examples of ongoing projects include evaluation of risk minimization programmes on medicines used during pregnancy, development of meta-data catalogue of Real World Data sources, safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines);
• supervising research (PhD and MSc) within the research programme.

We are looking for an experienced (pharmaco)epidemiologist with a PhD in (pharmaco)epidemiology, (bio)statistics, data science, or a related field. Someone who:

• has a strong research track record in quantitative and qualitative observational drug research;
• has scientific creativity and productivity, as evident in recent publications in (international) peer-reviewed journals;
• shows initiative and has a broad interest in medical research;
• has excellent English communication skills, both verbal and in writing (requirement);
• has a proficiency in statistical software (preferably R);
• has the ability to effectively work on multiple projects.

• a position (0.8 - 1.0 FTE) for 2 years;
• a full-time gross salary ranging from €2,790 to €4,402 in scale 10;
• benefits including 8% holiday bonus and 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities (cao).

In addition to the employment conditions laid down in the cao for Dutch Universities, Utrecht University has a number of its own arrangements. For example, there are agreements on professional development, leave arrangements, and sports. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment via the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we like to encourage you to continue to grow.

More information about working at the Faculty of Science can be found here.

As a Postdoc, you will be employed at the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Faculty of Science at Utrecht University. The Division of Pharmacoepidemiology & Clinical Pharmacology consists of a multidisciplinary team of internationally oriented Researchers. The mission of the division is to improve the safe and effective use of medicines by patients and society. Our research contributes to a better understanding of the variability in medicines’ use and patient outcomes, both from a clinical, policy, and methodological perspective.

Innovative observational pharmacoepidemiologic methods are evaluated to obtain reliable information on the benefits and harms of medicines after marketing in real life. Methodological innovations are inspired by relevant research questions in clinical practice, pharmaceutical policy, and regulation. The beneficial and adverse effects of pharmacotherapy are studied in outpatient as well as in hospital settings, linking both exposure and outcome data from various sources (clinical, pharmacy, laboratory, patient). Real-world problems in clinical practice are investigated and thereby immediately relevant to patients and health care providers. 

At the Faculty of Science, there are 6 departments to make a fundamental connection with: Biology, Chemistry, Information and Computing Sciences, Mathematics, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Physics. Each of these is made up of distinct institutes that work together to focus on answering some of humanity’s most pressing problems. More fundamental still are the individual research groups – the building blocks of our ambitious scientific projects.

Utrecht University is a friendly and ambitious university at the heart of an ancient city. We love to welcome new scientists to our city – a thriving cultural hub that is consistently rated as one of the world’s happiest cities. We are renowned for our innovative interdisciplinary research and our emphasis on inspirational research and excellent education. We are equally well-known for our familiar atmosphere and the can-do attitude of our people. This fundamental connection attracts Researchers, Professors and PhD candidates from all over the globe, making both the university and the Faculty of Science a vibrant international and wonderfully diverse community.