From January 2024, the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology & Clinical Pharmacology will coordinate a Horizon Europe project (acronym SUSTAIN-HTA). This project aims to build a supporting infrastructure to ensure ongoing implementation of the latest and fit-for-purpose Health Technology Assessment (HTA) methodologies and tools in HTA practice. The overall objective of SUSTAIN-HTA is to create a sustainable framework to understand the needs of European HTA bodies for new innovative HTA methods and tools. These are than aligned with the development of methods and tools by academic groups (globally, but with a specific focus on EU funded HORIZON and IMI/IHI projects). The SUSTAIN-HTA consortium involves 15 partners around Europe including academic institutions and national/regional HTA bodies. 

As a postdoc, you will contribute to setting up the SUSTAIN-HTA framework that will combine perceived needs for and developments in HTA methods. Next to this, you will be involved in the overall scientific coordination of the SUSTAIN-HTA project. You will be employed at the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology which consists of a multidisciplinary team of internationally oriented researchers. The mission of the division is to improve the safe and effective use of medicines by patients and society. Our research contributes to a better understanding of the variability in medicines’ use and patient outcomes, both from a clinical, policy and methodological perspective.

In this position, you will dedicate 60% of your time to research and 40% of your time in coordination activities. As your core tasks, you will among others:

• Initiate a horizon-scanning mechanism that will structurally and continuously scan for the methodological needs of regional, national, and European HTA organisations.
• Start the development of an HTA Methods Observatory that will regularly evaluate the development of new HTA methods coming from international scientific projects and initiatives.
• Contribute to the review of the current state of HTA methods and tools and provide input to the prioritisation process of HTA methods and tools for implementation.
• Carry out and (co-)supervise research (PhD and MSc students) within the scope of the SUSTAIN-HTA project.
• Contribute to the scientific management of the SUSTAIN-HTA project, particularly to WP1 (identification, synthesis and prioritisation) and WP5 (Sustainability & CSA Project Management) that are led by Utrecht University.
• (optional for Dutch-speaking applicants) Contribute to HTA teaching within the pharmacy curriculum (0.2 FTE). This would also allow you to obtain your university teaching qualification.

We are looking for someone to complement our team, both on an academic and personal level, who:

• has a PhD degree in Health Technology Assessment, Pharmaceutical Policy, Public Health, Health Economics, Epidemiology, (Bio)Statistics or another relevant research field;
• has a strong research track record in method development/evaluation/implementation in health technology assessment;
• has scientific creativity and productivity, as evident in recent publications in (international) peer-reviewed journals;
• has experience with European projects and collaboration with different international /multidisciplinary teams;
• has preferably experience with the implementation of methods in daily HTA practice;
• is effective, efficient and can think conceptually;
• is fluent in English and willing to learn Dutch, has good communication skills.

We offer:

• a challenging position in a dedicated team of researchers;.
• a temporary position (0.8 - 1.0 FTE) for one year, which can be extended after good evaluations by three years;
• a full-time gross salary ranging from € 3.226,- to €5.090,- in scale 10;
• benefits including 8% holiday bonus and 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities.

In addition to the employment conditions from the CAO for Dutch Universities, Utrecht University has a number of its own arrangements. These include agreements on professional development, leave arrangements, sports and cultural schemes and you get discounts on software and other IT products. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment through the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we encourage you to grow.

For more information, please visit working at Utrecht University.

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