GUTS: Growing Up Together in SocietyThe Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS)consortium, funded by a Gravitation grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science,includes the collaboration of seven Dutch universities that together investigatehow young people successfully navigate and grow upin our complex society.
We will study individual neurobiological development in relation to educational processes, social networks, and societal norms, including antisocial behavior. We will use state-of-the-art designs and methodological advances to develop an integrative framework on self-regulation development and contributions to society that will have explanatory as well as predictive power across multiple domains of functioning in adolescence and early adulthood.
Work descriptionYour Role
As a PhD you are part of a sub-team of the GUTS project that operates in Amsterdam, which has the unique aim to include 400 young participants (ages 10-12-years) that are at high risk of developing severe behavioral problems.
During your PhD, you will mainly focus on understanding the role of affective empathy in developing successful social interactions, in a cohort of children (10-12 years) that are at high risk of developing antisocial and delinquent behavior.Affective empathy will be mainly measured through fMRI as activity in response to the emotional state of other individuals. Social behaviour will be measure through social behavioural tasks and inteviews. During your PhD you will have the opportunity to:
- study the role of affective empathycombining forensic-, behavioral- and neuroscience;
- setting upand recruit the high risk antisocial cohort of 400 children in the age range between 10-12, together with the PIs, a postdoc and two other PhDs
- collect and analyze fMRI (the empathy task in particular), behavioural (e.g. a social variation of the flanker task) and interviews (e.g. from questionnaires, and structure interviews) data
- access and analyse previously acquired large cohorts data to develop brain signature to be used to predict anti-social behavior in the newly acquired cohort
- closely collaborate and coordinate with other member of the GUTS consortium at different seniority levels
- publish your findings in open access scientific journals.
- actively participate in the communication with young people about their perspective on the study an relevant assessments, as well as the clinical and societal impact of your research findings.
You should expect from us
In this 4-year-project, you will learn lots of skills related to being a scientist of the next generation. You enjoy team science and you like to dive into challenging scientific questions. We value an open culture where everybody feels free to ask questions and make suggestions.
- Acquiring the skills to manage a challenging, varied project with major scientific andsocietal impact.
- The position offers the unique opportunity to translate fundamental cognitive neuroscience to society.
- The opportunity to work with leading researchers from a wide variety of different disciplines.
- Within GUTS, you'll be part of a larger community of PhD student with a specific training program
- Guidance, support and mentoring from at least two PIs
- A contract for 4 years for 1.0 fte conform the CAO UMC for PhD students.
- Additional benefits including an 8.3% end-of-year bonus and 8% holiday pay;
Diversity & Inclusion
The KNAW considers a working environment in which everyone feels welcome and appreciated of great importance. A working environment in which attention is paid to individual quality and where development opportunities are paramount. Together we strive for an inclusive culture in which we embrace differences. We would therefore like to invite candidates who want to contribute to this through their background and experience. In the event of equal suitability, preference will be given to the candidate who thus enhances diversity within the Academy.