It is well known that climate change is progressing, and extreme weather events such as heat waves will become more frequent in the future. Therefore, there is an increasing scientific and political interest in improving building design and operation to protect humans from heat events. However, it is not just the built environment that can be prepared to cope better with weather extremes, but humans can adapt as well. The goal of this project will be to investigate optimal dose-response relationships between passive and active heat acclimation elements (with and without physical activity), to develop straightforward but at the same time nuanced and tailor-made heat acclimation guidelines that can be followed by the general population, keeping in mind different ages, fitness levels and potential (chronic) diseases. We also aim to develop heat acclimation guidelines for vulnerable populations with preexisting conditions that can be implemented under medical supervision. We hypothesize that timely heat acclimation, making use of warming thermal conditions before an extreme heat event occurs, will improve human thermal resilience, thermoregulatory capacity, overall fitness, and performance levels in the heat, and thereby may prevent medical emergencies.

• A (research) master’s degree in health sciences, biomedical sciences, medicine or a related field.
• Skills with and talent for human (whole-body) research, team work, data analysis and technology
• Strong statistical skills, preferably (programming) skills in R, SPSS, or similar statistical software.
• Well-developed analytical skills and creativity.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills (English).
• Excellent communication and organization skills.
• For the communication with participants, an adequate level of the Dutch language is an asset, but not a necessity.

Fixed-term contract: 48 months.

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.

Department of Nutrition and Movement Sciences
This project will be situated within the Department of Nutrition and Movement Sciences. Please see this website for more information.

“A healthy lifestyle is generally considered as the cornerstone for metabolic health and this balanced metabolism is a prerequisite for prevention of many non-communicable diseases. We as Department of Nutrition and Movement Sciences explicitly state that a healthy lifestyle is more than only a healthy diet and being physically active.

Our group is working on lifestyle in a broader context, i.e healthy nutrition, physical activity, less sedentary lifestyle, optimal regulation of temperature and appreciating the importance of circadian rhythms. Our holistic approach of integrating the contribution of all lifestyle factors is unique and reflected in the Healthy Lifestyle Model.”

School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism
NUTRIM is one of 8 graduate school/institutes of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML) and aims to contribute to health maintenance and personalised medicine by unraveling lifestyle and disease-induced derangements in metabolism and by developing targeted nutritional, exercise and drug interventions.

This is facilitated by a state of the art research infrastructure and close interaction between scientists, clinicians, master and PhD students.

NUTRIM is internationally recognised as Centre of Excellence for research on obesity, diabetes, COPD and cancer cachexia.

NUTRIM has approximately 134 researchers, 256 PhD students and 63 support staff. Our core research programme is organised around integrated multidisciplinary themes in three divisions including 18 clinical and basic sciences departments of Maastricht University Medical Centre+ (MUMC+).

Translational research on lifestyle, ageing and diseases induced metabolic and inflammatory disorders is conducted with a specific focus on nutrition.