The Department of Social Medicine, Maastricht University, is looking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated post-doctoral researcher in the field of socioeconomic inequalities in health. You will be part of the project “Inequities in type 2 diabetes: the role of environmental injustice and chronic stress” which has been funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The postdoctoral researcher’s main task will entail the translation of the findings of this project into policy and practice.

People in lower socioeconomic positions have heightened risks of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Instead of focusing on individual health behaviours (e.g. unhealthy diets), the project aims to describe how socioeconomic inequities extend to inequities in the exposome. People are differentially exposed to unhealthy residential (e.g. amount of green space), work (e.g. job control), and societal (e.g. classism) environments. Such environmental injustice is hypothesised to result in perceptions of powerlessness and inferiority, which contribute to a chronic stress-induced heightened risk of T2D in people with lower socioeconomic positions.

The project will make extensive use of Maastricht Study data (https://www.demaastricht-studie.nl/research) and residential data from GECCO. The Living Lab Public Health and the Living Lab Social Insurance will help in translating the findings into (policy) recommendations, together with stakeholders from the health care sector, work associations, and policy makers.

The postdoc will foremostly work on the integration of the findings and particularly to translate the findings into the Dutch practice in close collaboration with stakeholders. Main tasks include the contact with relevant local and national stakeholders; collaboratively work towards translating the epidemiological evidence into practice and policy recommendations; write scientific articles; and explore funding opportunities for research and implementation. Two PhD students have already been appointed on this project and the post-doc researcher may also be involved in supervising the PhD students.

This research position is 0.8 fte for 35 months. There is an opportunity for an additional 0.1 fte for teaching within the curricula of Health Sciences, Medicine, and/or European Public Health.

The successful candidate will be working within the department of Social Medicine of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences of Maastricht University together with Prof. dr. Hans Bosma (Professor of Social Epidemiology) and Dr. Annemarie Koster (Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Physical Activity). There is a project team involving experts from various fields related to the topic of the project, including two Living Labs. Opportunities for networking, acquiring and developing knowledge and skills, and room for self-initiatives will be available.

• You have a PhD degree and a background in social sciences (sociology, psychology), health sciences, epidemiology, public health or a related discipline with a substantial component of quantitative research training or relevant research experience;
• You have experience and/or affinity with looking for opportunities to integrate the project’s findings and to translate these into the Dutch practice, taking account of the Dutch institutional landscape;
• You have the ability to look beyond the “usual suspects”, such as people’s lifestyles, and to look for intervention possibilities that address the more upstream, environmental factors affecting people’s lives and disease risks;
• You have a demonstrated interest and understanding of socioeconomic inequalities in health and/or psychosocial determinants of health;
• You have published in international peer-reviewed journals;
• You are experienced in advanced statistical analysis techniques;
• You have experience in supervising (PhD) students;
• You are enthusiastic and like to work in an (inter)national context;
• You are a team player;
• You are able to work independently, to take initiative and capable of managing deadlines;
• You have excellent communication skills to effectively communicate with relevant stakeholder and to motivate a team to work towards the common success of a project;
• Preferably speak and write in Dutch.

Fixed-term contract: 35 months.

Temporary employment from 01-06-2022 until 01-05-2025 (0.8 fte). There is an opportunity to extend the appointment with an additional 0,1 fte for teaching.

The salary will be set in scale 10 (between € 2.846 and € 4.490 gross per month). The hight of the salary will be depending on the amount of years with relevant experience. On top of this, there is an 8% holiday and an 8.3% year-end allowance. 

A selection assessment is part of the application process.

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > About UM > Working at UM.

Maastricht University

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 20,000 students and 4,700 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. For more information, visit www.maastrichtuniversity.nl

Department of Social Medicine

Through both research and teaching, the mission of the department of Social Medicine is to contribute to the body of knowledge on the interrelations between health and social participation, across the different stages of life, and to strengthen both practice-based research and evidence-based practice (https://socialmedicine.mumc.maastrichtuniversity.nl/).

The department is part of the School Caphri (Care and Public Health Research Institute) of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/research/school-caphri-care-and-public-health-research-institute).

The Social Medicine department is closely affiliated with the Maastricht Study (https://www.demaastricht-studie.nl/research). The Maastricht Study is an extensive phenotyping study that focuses on the etiology of type 2 diabetes, its classic complications (cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, neuropathy and retinopathy), and its emerging comorbidities, including cognitive decline, depression, and gastrointestinal, respiratory and musculoskeletal diseases. The study uses advanced state-of-the-art imaging techniques and extensive biobanking to determine health status in a population-based cohort of 10,000 individuals that is enriched with type 2 diabetes participants.