PhD position within the EU project
SURREAL (A systems approach towards urban health).
- An exciting, multi-disciplinary and international research environment with ample opportunities for exchange with scholars from related disciplines at the universities and research institutes in the consortium, as well as with the local partner organizations and local stakeholders;
- A creative, entrepreneurial, innovative and holistic training environment consisting of:
- Individual Research Projects (IRP), providing excellent supervision and mentoring with academics and non-academics;
- Structured local training programs, comprising specific training courses in research-related skills and well as training in complementary skills, offered on the basis of a Personal Career Development Plan;
- Network-wide activities, i.c. Network Schools in Paris and Barcelona;
- Secondments, i.c. at least two inter-sectoral secondments to participants within the SURREAL Network;
- Collaborative learning in practice (CLiP), allowing to engage continuously with and learn from working in real urban health intervention situations;
- Career development modules, i.c. the use of Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) and how to effectively employ the RDF Planner as basis for a Personal Career Development Plan (PCDP);
Additional training and networking opportunities through participation in international conferences.
An individual's residential neighbourhood has been shown to be related with various health outcomes. In this project we aim to better understand the impact of changes in residential neighbourhood on health and behaviour. For example, an individual can move to 1) a greener and safer area, or 2) to a more deprived area, or 3) a neighbourhood where an individual resides can change (e.g. gentrification). In addition, we aim to explore the role of SES in these associations. The candidate will enrich large health datasets with environmental data and maps changes in physical environment over time and relates these changes with health outcomes and SES. We will focus on cardiovascular health.
This PhD is part of the SURREAL project which is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) action funded by the European Commission. The network will employ 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESR students) for a 3 years' high quality interdisciplinary and intersectoral PhD training. The aim of the action is to deliver a unique, creative and single training network for 15 ESR students working on an improved understanding of the urban health systems complexity, and on co-designing and applying adequate interventions in the system. The action will draw upon interactions between academic disciplines such as epidemiology, public health, human movement science, psychology, sociology, geography, and urban planning and a wide range of entities such as medical centres, public authorities, firms, and NGOs as well as citizens.