The Postdoc project will, through interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders in the Netherlands and Denmark, help to better understand how the social-political context shapes the working life trajectories of young adults. In addition, the postdoc will be involved in comparative, quantitative research based on longitudinal data from TRAILS and Vestliv.
The PhD project will use data from the TRAILS cohort and the Vestliv cohort and register data for cross-national comparisons of young adults’ working life trajectories. Moreover, qualitative data will be used to help analysing the working life trajectories in the Netherlands and Denmark. The successful candidates will be expected to employ sophisticated qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques to investigate a series of research questions, and publish results in high quality, scientific journals. In addition, the section Community and Occupational Medicine expects active participation in research meetings and the willingness to fulfil some teaching obligations.

The successful Postdoc candidate is a starting scholar with a PhD in the Social, Medical or Health Sciences and has a key interest in studying mental health and work from a life course perspective.
Eligible Postdoc candidates should have the following qualifications:
- A PhD in the Social, Medical or Health Sciences
- A relevant publication record demonstrating the ability to publish in international academic publications, preferably in top-tier peer-reviewed journals
- Relevant experience in and affinity with the research theme
- Excellent skills in qualitative an quantitative research
- A clear interest in collaborative, interdisciplinary research
- Strong organizational skills
- Excellent English writing and presentation skills
- Team player with good communication skills
- Strong motivation and a great curiosity an enthusiasm for scientific research

Eligible PhD candidates should have the following qualifications:
- A degree in the Social, Medical or Health Sciences
- A passion for research
- Affinity with the research theme
- Experience in statistical methods for the analysis of complex longitudinal data
- Experience with qualitative research
- Excellent English writing and presentation skills
- Good organizational skills and communication skills, being a team-player

The UMCG has a preventive Hepatitis B policy. The UMCG can provide you with the vaccination, should it be required for your position.

In case of specific professions a ‘Certificate of Good Behaviour’ is required.

We offer a Postdoc position and a PhD position, both for a period of 4 years. The Post-doc position will be temporarily for the duration of one year, with the opportunity to extend for another 3 years. The PhD position will be for a total of 4 years; after the first year the PhD student will get a job evaluation where will be decided if the PhD project will continue for another three years.
The appointment will be at the Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG).

The UMCG offers a Postdoc salary between € 2.659,- (minimum scale 10) up to a maximum of € 4.917,- (maximum of scale 11) gross per month for a full time position (36 hours), based on the experience of the candidate.
The PhD salary is € 2.279,- gross per month in the first year up to € 2.919,- gross per month in the last year (scale PhD) for a full-time position (36 hours).

In addition, the UMCG will offer an annual 8% holiday pay, an 8.3% end-of-the-year bonus and a development budget. The terms of employment comply with the Collective Labor Agreement for medical centers (UMC-CAO).

Additional information
For additional information please contact Prof. dr. Ute Bültmann, principal investigator of the study, email: u.bultmann@umcg.nl, phone: +31 50 361 6975 (Please do not use emailadress for applications).

Department of Health Sciences, section Community and Occupational Medicine

Do you want to work with highly motivated researchers? Do you want to develop yourself? Do you want to do research within the field of work and health among young adults? Apply for a position within the project “Today’s youth is tomorrow’s workforce”!

What is the value of work? How does the context in the Netherlands and Denmark influence the working life trajectories of young adults?

Pathways to successful labour market participation and a healthy working life course are complex. The research program “Today’s youth is tomorrow’s workforce” is set up to elucidate the complex relationship between mental health, family life, and the working life of young adults. The research program consists of two Postdoc projects and three PhD projects, with the overall aim to improve our understanding of young adults’ working life trajectories from a life course perspective.

For our program, we are looking for a talented, curiosity-driven Postdoc and PhD student with strong interest in interdisciplinary, life course research. The program is designed to conduct in-depth trajectory and life course analyses with 15-year follow-up data from the unique Dutch TRAILS cohort (www.trails.nl) to derive the main working life trajectories of young adults. A new measurement wave at age 28/29 years will be added to TRAILS to extend these trajectories and to collect new data on mental health and the interaction of work and family life in early adult life. The program will also use the Danish longitudinal Vestliv birth cohort and register data for cross-national comparisons of young adults’ working life trajectories. New qualitative data will be collected from key stakeholders in the Netherlands and Denmark. The research group is involved in high-quality quantitative and qualitative research, often in close collaboration with policy makers and practitioners in public and occupational health.