Dementia is a highly feared devastating disease that affects an increasingly number of people and their loved ones. Unfortunately, no cure is currently available and too little is known about its mechanistic origin. For the far majority of patients the smallest brain vessels are involved in the development of the disease. With the candidate’s work, we aim to focus on the current understanding of the role of small brain vessels in the physiological and disease processes that precede dementia and cognitive decline. As the smallest human brain vessels cannot be visualized itself, novel MRI techniques will be developed and improved to measure physiological properties of small brain vessels and cells in the smallest entity where they interact: the so-called neurovascular unit.
We invite applications for 1 PhD position in clinical neuroimaging at the departments of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine and Neurology of the Maastricht University Medical Centre. The position is embedded in the School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNS) of the Maastricht University. As a PhD-student you will be participating in the European CRUCIAL study, with a technical focus on all aspects pertaining to MR image acquisition, computational modeling, and data analysis. You will be working in a stimulating interdisciplinary biomedical team, including MRI scientists, physicists, neuroradiologists, neurologists, and other clinicians.

The PhD candidate has skills with and talent for technology, team work, and data analyses. Preferably, you have affinity with scientific research, working in a multidisciplinary setting, like complex problems, and have good skills in English writing. For the communication with patients and hospital employees, an adequate level of the Dutch language is highly preferred. A M.Sc. degree is required in biomedical engineering, technical medicine, physics, electrical engineering, or other related fields of study. Experience with MRI, image data analysis, and MATLAB/Python programming is a strong advantage.

Temporary employment for 4 years. The first year will be a probation period, after a positive assessment the position will be extended for another 3 years, which happens in the vast majority of cases.

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. An 8% holiday and an 8.3% year-end allowance is also provided.

In addition to good primary employment conditions, UM also offers an attractive package of secondary employment conditions.

Each year an evaluation will take place.

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.

School for Mental Health and Neuroscience 
MHeNs is one of the internationally leading institutes on neuroscience research, and aims at advancing our understanding of brain-behavior relationships by adopting an integrated approach between the various disciplines in neuro- and behavioral science, medicine and life sciences. The project fits into the research lines ‘Imaging’, ‘Rehabilitation and Prevention’, and ‘Monitoring’, and the clinical theme ‘Cognition’ and ‘Stroke’ of the Brain Nerve Center of the Maastricht UMC+.

Neurology
The Department of Neurology of the Maastricht UMC+ is part of the Brain & Nerve Center. Care for stroke patients is one of the major activities and is embedded with a Comprehensive Stroke Center with serves as a supra-regional stroke intervention center. Stroke research has a rich portfolio of clinical neurovascular research, with a main focus on cerebral small vessel disease. There is a strong collaboration with the neuroimaging research group to apply various advanced vascular MRI techniques and image analysis methods to patients with stroke and vascular cognitive impairment.

Brain Imaging Maastricht
Neuroimaging and in particular neurovascular imaging is a special area interest of research in the department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine. The neuroimaging research lines of prof. W.Backes and dr. Jansen at the Maastricht UMC+ focus on state-of-the-art clinical neuroscience using advanced neurovascular and microstructural imaging techniques. The research has been published in a wide spectrum of leading academic journals, including the Lancet Neurology, Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Neurology, Radiology, Journal Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, Neuroimage, NMR in Biomedicine, and Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Equipment
Currently, state-of-the art 1.5T, 3.0 Tesla Philips MRI and Siemens PET-MRI systems are available at the MUMC+. Furthermore, Maastricht University hosts 3.0, 7.0 Tesla and 9.4 Tesla MRI systems from Siemens.