Maastricht University has a vacancy for a PhD student at the faculty of Health Medicine and Life Sciences in a joint collaboration between the division Gastroenterology of the MUMC+ and NUTRIM, School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism and the Clinical Data Science group.

At the Clinical Data Science group, we work on three main research areas: building global data sharing infrastructures; applying machine learning to build models from these data; and, using these models to improve healthcare.
The PhD position is embedded in the FRESH project: “Federated Data Driven Decision Support for Crohn’s Disease”. FRESH is a unique project that aims to create a decision support system that will aid shared decision making of healthcare professionals and people with the invalidating chronic bowel disease Crohn’s disease patients.
In this project, the successful candidate will be responsible for implementing federated learning infrastructure and developing federated algorithms. Federated learning has attracted the attention of major AI players like Google and Nvidia because it provides a workaround to the growing ethical and legal barriers to data sharing. Federated learning has the potential to play a key role in the next few years in the evolution of privacy-conscious, data-hungry AI, as shown by the fact that major AI conferences are already holding workshops dedicated to it.
The successful candidate will also be in charge of data harmonization pipelines to make research data comply FAIR data principles. In addition to this project, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to apply statistical and machine learning techniques to a range of clinical problems.
The successful candidate will join a cross-faculty team consisting of computer scientists, medical professionals, informaticians, PhD students, software engineers and post-doctoral researchers.

Specific:
You have a master’s degree in data science, statistics, artificial intelligence, machine learning or equivalent and have good programming skills.
Experience with machine learning, prediction modelling, ontologies, medical imaging and software engineering skills are a plus.

Generic:
You are an open-minded, motivated, independent, result-oriented researcher with ownership who is able to take initiative and takes pride in their work. You are fluent in English, both in speech and writing. We are looking for a researcher with a special interest in health care research and motivated to build a scientific career in the area of basic and translational research. You will closely collaborate with other members of both departments.

Fixed-term contract: 48 months.

The full-time position is offered for 4 years (1+3), with a yearly evaluation.

Your salary will be € 2,541 gross per month in the first year up to € 3,247 gross per month in the fourth year according to the PhD-candidate salary scale. On top of this, there is an 8% holiday and an 8.3% year-end allowance.
In addition to good primary employment conditions, UM also offers an attractive package of secondary employment conditions.

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 22,000 students and about 5,000 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.

Clinical Data Science group
The Clinical Data Science group is a computer science focused department embedded within a clinical environment (MAASTRO Clinic and Maastricht UMC). The Clinical Data Science group focuses on three main research areas: building
global data sharing infrastructures; applying machine learning to build models from these data; and, using these models to improve healthcare.

The division of gastroenterology-hepatology employs 14 consultants who care for patients with gastrointestinal disorders. To improve health from the patient perspective we work in interdisciplinary teams that promote transmural and integrated care.

Research by the Department of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases of the MUMC takes place in the research school NUTRIM, School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism. NUTRIM contributes to health promotion and personalized medicine through research into the role of lifestyle and metabolism on the human body. This contributes to the development of targeted interventions based on nutrition, exercise and medication. For this project, there is close collaboration with Maastro's Clinical Data Science group and with DataHub, MUMC+, Radboud UMC, UMCG and our private consortium partners. Together we take work towards sustainable healthcare of the future.