- The candidate performs research on this project.
- The candidate reports his or her results in high quality scientific journals, conferences and completes a dissertation.
- The candidate works in an enthusiastic international multidisciplinary research team including experts from relevant different backgrounds (e.g. genetics, psychiatry, psychology, epidemiology).
- The candidate’s PhD training is embedded in graduate school SHARE which is part of the Graduate School of Medical Sciences.

This project is for a motivated candidate holding or obtaining in 2022 a Research Master or Master’s degree in bioinformatics/biostatistics, molecular genetics, genetic epidemiology, or biology with:
- a proven interest in science, preferably demonstrated by one or more scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals, and a Research Master or Master’s degree;
- skills to combine insights from multiple disciplines;
- the candidate has an interest in molecular genetics or genetic epidemiology;
- the candidate has experience with working in a programming language such as R or Python, and preferably also with working on a high performance cluster;
- good communicative and organizational skills;
- excellent ability to express himself or herself in oral and written English;
- capacities as a team player who can also work independently and has perseverance.

The UMCG has a preventive Hepatitis B policy. The UMCG can provide you with the vaccination, should it be required for your position.

In case of specific professions a ‘Certificate of Good Conduct’ is required.

We offer A PhD position for a period of four years. The appointment will be at the Department of Psychiatry of University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). Your salary will be a minimum of € 2.570,- gross per month in the first year and a maximum of € 3.271,- gross per month (scale PhD) in the final (4th) year, based on a full-time appointment. In addition, the UMCG will offer you 8% holiday pay, and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The conditions of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for Medical Centres (CAO-UMC).

Universitair Centrum Psychiatrie

This vacancy for a talented PhD student is available at the Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE) of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). The ICPE performs high-quality research on common mental disorders at the crossroads of various disciplines, and offers attractive career perspectives for motivated, gifted PhD students who are driven by curiosity and have a strong interest in multidisciplinary research.
The ICPE is part of the University Center of Psychiatry (UCP) of the UMCG. The UCP offers state of the art and innovative treatments to psychiatric patients, and has competitive research programs. The UCP includes about 450 employees who work in psychiatric health care, research, or both. The UCP offers excellent training for psychiatrists, psychologists, and other disciplines. The ICPE collaborates with the department of Internal Medicine (UMCG), in particular the Tertiary referral center for Unexplained complaints, symptoms, and abnormalities.

The study
The 4-year PhD position is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and is dedicated to the newly established research project “An integrative approach to the etiology of internalizing and functional disorders”. Internalizing and functional disorders are highly comorbid and run strongly in families, but common genetic and environmental pathways are understudied. The project investigates common and unique genetic and environmental risk factors for these disorders in data from 167.729 participants of Lifelines, a longitudinal multigenerational population-based cohort in the Netherlands. This multidisciplinary project combines knowledge and methods from molecular genetics, epidemiology, and psychiatry to investigate causal mechanisms of internalizing and functional disorders.

Within this project, the PhD candidate will focus on common and unique genetic risk factors for internalizing and functional disorders using methods from statistical genetics and/or genetic epidemiology. During the PhD program the student will deepen the knowledge in molecular biology and develop skills in analysis of genome wide association data, i.e. basic genetic statistical analysis, polygenic risk scores, machine learning tools, and causal models (Mendelian Randomization), and in scientific writing and presentation. The student will apply his skills to the dataset of 80.000 samples with GWAS data, and gain a unique international work experience. The PhD candidate will collaborate with other researchers to integrate his/her findings with environmental risk factors to better understand the causes of internalizing and functional disorders.