Postdoctoral researcher on drones and virtual reality 1,0 fte

Are you excited about studying innovative technologies, such as medical drones? Do you have an interest in virtual reality, spatio-temporal analyses, geoinformatics, and psychology? Are you drawn to interdisciplinary research with a focus on collaborations between academia and industry? Then this postdoc position may be the one for you!

The Department of Computational Cognitive Science at Tilburg University is looking for a Postdoctoral researcher at the DAF Technology Lab investigating virtual reality simulations of drone flights. We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow with a strong academic interest in experimental psychology and virtual reality. The ideal candidate would be employed on the three-year BeNeDrone project. BeNeDrone is a cross-border research and innovation project aimed at unlocking the potential of medical drones for emergency and healthcare logistics. The project addresses the legal, logistical, and societal challenges of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to deliver critical medical goods like AEDs, blood, and organs quickly and efficiently across national borders.

In this project you will be working in a team of virtual reality experts, including programmers and research scientists, to advise in the development of a Drone Route Simulator and test the simulation with participants.

Your position
As a postdoctoral researcher, you will study measuring the quality of the VR simulations and analyzing complex datasets related to learning, behavior, and interactions between humans and systems using advanced quantitative methods. You will be part of a team developing and testing VR simulations. You will perform and conduct experiments, analyze data, and publish in international journals.

We are looking for an ambitious and talented researcher in experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive science or a related discipline. The ideal candidate should have the following qualities for this position: 

• (nearly) completed PhD and an excellent (early career) track record in publishing research findings in recognized scientific journals in the field of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computer science, or related field.
• strong enthusiasm for these fields, specifically with enthusiasm for drones
• excellent research and analytical skills, including experience with conducting experiments, analyzing and reporting data.
• experience with, or a willingness to learn packages such as R, Python and Unity
• written and spoken command of Dutch and English. In order to connect to stakeholders in regional and national projects, understanding and speaking Dutch is crucial.
• proactive, independent, curious, self-motivated, and result-driven
• excellent communication, presentation and organizational skills.

Tilburg University offers excellent benefits in a pleasant working environment:

• Starting date is negotiable but no later than beginning of October 2025.
• The candidate will be ranked in the Dutch university job ranking system (UFO) as Researcher 3. The starting gross salary for a full-time appointment is (minimally) € 4.728,- up to (maximally) €6.433,- per month. Grading based on relevant experience.
• A holiday allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% (annually)
• Researchers from outside the Netherlands may qualify for a temporary tax-free allowance equal to 30% of their taxable salary. Tilburg University will apply for such an allowance on their behalf;
• Tilburg University will provide assistance in finding suitable accommodation (for foreign employees);
• Tilburg University is rated among the top Dutch employers and offers excellent fringe benefits, including excellent technical infrastructure, savings schemes and excellent sport facilities. The collective labor agreement of the Dutch Universities applies.

Research and education at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD) has a unique focus on humans in the context of the globalizing digital society, on the development of artificial intelligence and interactive technologies, on their impact on communication, culture and society, and on moral and existential challenges that arise. The School of Humanities and Digital Sciences consists of four departments: Communication and Cognition, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Culture Studies and Philosophy; several research institutes and a faculty office. Also the University College Tilburg is part of the School. Each year around 275 students commence a Bachelor or (Pre) Master Program. The School has approximately 2000 students and 250 employees.

The Computational Cognitive Science DCS) department performs cognitive and computational research in the domains of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science and runs educational programs on Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and Society. The department is partially housed on Tilburg University campus and in the near Tilburg central station as member of Mind Labs. We maintain close collaborations with the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

The research group consists of about 70 researchers covering a broad range of topics relevant for cognitive science and artificial intelligence, including about 35 PhD students. Core research domains include cognitive science, machine learning, deep learning, games, virtual reality, computational psycholinguistics, brain-computer interfaces, robotics, cognitive modeling of language, computational linguistics, educational technologies, computational modeling of evolutionary and adaptive systems, image and signal processing, with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods.

The DAF Technology Lab is a university facility consisting of office space, three research cabins and two CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) systems. The two CAVE systems offer a 5x5 meter immersive environment with VR projections on the four CAVE walls combined with advanced audio facilities. The CAVEs have been used for education and research purposes, the research cabins have been used for (VR) research purposes. In addition, sensing technologies (eye trackers, EEG and fNIR scanners, heart rate and skin response monitors, etc.), are available to researchers to monitor participant behavior in experiments.