A future where people no longer get sick due to exposures in their workplace. As PhD candidate or Postdoctoral researcher, you can contribute to this aim with your research. You will work towards a healthy future together with committed and knowledgeable colleagues, and you will have ample opportunities to take the initiative to give substance to the research projects. For the research programme of the new Dutch national expertise centre for occupational diseases (LEXCES) we are looking for two to three researchers to strengthen our team.

It has been estimated that in the Netherlands around 3,000 people die annually due to exposure to hazardous agents in the workplace. Many more will become ill and contract an occupational disease, of which the consequences for (former) workers are considerable. Workers who contract a disease after exposure to a hazardous agent will not only face health issues, but also often experience psychological problems and financial insecurity.

As PhD candidate/Postdoctoral researcher you will work at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), where we collaborate internationally to improve the health of humans and their environment. IRAS is a world-leading institute in the research field of exposure assessment in the (work) environment and related health effects. We develop and apply advanced methods to further improve the research in this field. The international character of IRAS is also reflected in its employees whom originate from all over the world. We consider it important that, in your role as researcher, you:

• will set up collaborations with the other partners within and outside LEXCES;
• will work on developing new methods and share your insights with both the scientific community and the professionals in daily practice;
• will strengthen the field of occupational health by developing new knowledge and networks.

IRAS has recently established LEXCES together with four other partners within the Netherlands. Within LEXCES we combine scientific knowledge from different fields, aiming at developing more effective preventive measures and supporting technologies and methodologies that can be applied in daily practice. An example is early detection of exposure to hazardous agents and early biological effects. You can read more in this interview with Susan Peters: "We're aiming for a world where people no longer get sick as a result of their work.".

Within LEXCES you will work as a PhD candidate/Postdoctoral researcher on one or more of the following objectives:

• Mapping of existing data sources on occupational exposure and health, and how these sources are (or can be) connected.
• Improve exposure assessment, analyses of occupational exposure data and development of job-exposure matrices.
• Explore the possibilities of new AI-systems (like ASReview, INDRA and AOP finder) to map knowledge about potentially hazardous agents and exposure.
• Investigate which possibilities new biomonitoring techniques offer for early detection of chemical exposures and how biomonitoring can be used to detect any health effects as soon as possible after a new substance has been released on the market, so that preventive measures can be taken.
• Explore the literature on probability of causation and aspects that affect individual sensitivity, as well as performing analyses on existing (cohort) studies and/or simulation studies to evaluate alternative approaches on probability of causation.