Postdoc in Health Behavior and Implementation Science

Innovative evidence-based interventions to improve health behaviour in various target groups are being developed at unprecedented rates. However, without effective implementation, the impact on people’s lives and society remains limited. Implementing evidence-based programs often fails due to problems with awareness, skills, access to knowledge and resources, misalignment with priorities, organizational structures and policies, and much more.

Our group aims to contribute to closing the gap between research and practice by studying methods for integrating and embedding evidence-based interventions and practices in real-world settings. Specifically, we conduct research into tailored implementation, system dynamics, scaling-up/out, and conceptual work related to causality and mechanisms of specific implementation strategies, as well as methodological issues in implementation research such as measurement instruments, process evaluations, and developing logic models.

There are many interesting topics to explore. Initially, we are looking for someone who is interested in exploring impact systems, contributing to conceptualizing equity in implementation research, and addressing issues related to defining implementation success.

We envision the postdoc taking responsibility for three topics:

• Collaborating to develop and conduct a qualitative (meta-narrative) systematic review on the issue of equity in implementation research and practice;
• Collaborating to develop and conduct a qualitative (meta-narrative) systematic review on implementation success and issues related to measuring implementation outcomes;
• Collaborating on developing an implementation system dynamics approach to simulate implementation processes and outcomes.

• A flying start to your career in scientific research.
• Plenty of room for your drive to shape tomorrow's healthcare.
• Working on large-scale and in-house research, with motivated colleagues from all over the world.
• You will be employed by Amsterdam UMC Research BV.
• A contract for 12 months, with the possiblity to extend to 2 years.
• Salary scale 10: € 3.598 to € 5.669 gross based on full-time employment (depending on education and experience) and a year-end bonus of 8.3%. Calculate your net salary here.
• Holiday hours: 190,4 per year for fulltime and a possibility to save additional hours.
• Pension accrual with BeFrank, a modern, comprehensible and fairly priced pension.
• For >7 km each way, 100% reimbursement for public transport travel costs and, for private transport, €0.18 per km up to a maximum of 40 km each way.
• Do you prefer walking or cycling? Take advantage of our good bike scheme. Moreover, you will receive a reimbursement of €0.18 per km.

Watch this video with more information about joining Amsterdam UMC Research BV.

You will be part of the Department of Public and Occupational Health at Amsterdam UMC, at location VUmc. The department is made up of six sections. This position falls within the Health Behaviour and Prevention section, which consists of about 40 researchers/teachers, with different disciplinary backgrounds (public health, epidemiology, behavioural science, implementations science, nutrition, complex systems science, etc.).The section's mission is to promote health behaviour in the broad social context - to prevent health problems and reduce health inequalities - through high quality and impactful research, teaching and dissemination. The section's research falls within Amsterdam Public Health research institute of which Amsterdam Center of Implementation Science (AmsCIS) is also part.

Amsterdam UMC Research BV supports non-profit scientific research. In doing so, we provide researchers with everything they need to excel. Our principal investigators (PIs) and project leaders offer support in the field of project management, finance and human resources. In medical scientific research projects, legal support is also provided.

Watch the video to find out more.