Part-time / full-time Professor in Youth Health Care

At the Department of Public Health and Primary Care of KU Leuven, a part-time or full-time academic position is vacant in the domain of youth health care.

Within the Biomedical Sciences Group at KU Leuven, the Department of Public Health and Primary Care conducts research in public health. Its members include experts with experience in disease prevention, health protection, health promotion, quality assurance, health care policy, bioethics, health law, health economics, health communication, biostatistics, epidemiology, geriatrics and gerontology, nursing and midwifery, emergency medicine and general practice medicine.

Members of the Department conduct interdisciplinary research with a major impact on the national and international level. They also provide high-quality education in various educational areas. In addition, they provide professionals and institutions from the health sector with insights, concepts and techniques that should enable them to respond optimally to the needs and expectations of the patient and society in the field of health care. In addition, they seek to improve collaboration with clinical medicine and are closely involved in national and international research partnerships.
The Department of Public Health and Primary Care is a dynamic research context that stimulates interdisciplinary collaboration. Unit website.


Research

• You are an ambitious, internationally oriented researcher in the field of youth health care. You have experience in a relevant research field within youth health care and wellbeing (such as vaccinations and screening, growth and development, nutrition and physical activity, mental health, health literacy and behavior, or health inequalities in young populations).
• You will develop a research program within youth health care, publish in international journals, acquire research funding, and develop national and international research partnerships.
• You strive for excellence in your research and thus contribute to the reputation of KU Leuven and the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.

Teaching

• You will take up teaching tasks within public health in general, and youth health care in particular, as well as teaching tasks related to your specific research expertise.
• You will provide this contribution in the medical curriculum and within the interuniversity master programme in youth health care. For the latter, you will take on the role of academic coordinator.
• Additionally, you will supervise master and doctoral dissertations.
• The educational instruction you provide will meet the requirements set for academic programs in terms of level, orientation and academic orientation and will be in line with the educational goals of KU Leuven. Commitment to the quality of the program as a whole will be self-evident.

Service

• You will partake in teaching and research activities at the service of society by participating in domain-specific service activities.
• Over time, you will be willing to engage in academic responsibilities within KU Leuven and to contribute to the national and international visibility of the department.
• You will develop a network of contacts within youth health care that provide an added value in your field of research and/or education.

Profile

• You must hold a PhD.
• You are expected to demonstrate significant research experience in one or more topics relevant to youth health care. The quality of your research must be evidenced by publications in international journals and experience in writing project applications. International research experience is an added value.
• You have strong teaching skills and preferably demonstrable teaching experience. Furthermore, you should have the necessary communication and organizational skills and you are a team player.
• Your spoken and written English must be excellent.
• The official administrative language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in administrative meetings. Before teaching courses in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn Dutch, respectively English, to the required standard.

Offer
We offer a part-time (minimum 50%) or full-time academic position in an intellectually challenging environment. KU Leuven is a research-intensive, internationally oriented university that conducts both fundamental and applied scientific research. It is strongly interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary and strives for international excellence. To this end, it actively collaborates with its research partners at home and abroad. It offers its students an academic education based on high-level scientific research.

You will work in Leuven, a historic, yet dynamic and lively city in the center of Belgium, 20 minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
Depending on your file and qualifications, you will be appointed to one of the grades of the independent academic staff: assistant professor, associate professor, professor or full professor. In principle, assistant professors are appointed as tenure track professors for a period of 5 years. Afterwards, they are permanently appointed as associate professors, if the evaluation is positive.

KU Leuven is well set to welcome foreign professors and their family and provides practical support with regard to immigration & administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, partner career coaching,...

To facilitate scientific onboarding and accelerate research in the first phase a starting grant of 110.000 euro is offered to new professors appointed for at least 50%. Postdoctoral fellows may be asked to end their fellowship first.

Interested?
For more information please contact Prof. dr. Pascal Borry, tel.: +32 16 37 95 17, mail: pascal.borry@kuleuven.be. For problems with online applying, please contact solliciteren@kuleuven.be.

KU Leuven places great importance on research integrity and ethical conduct and will therefore ask you to sign an integrity statement upon appointment.

You can apply for this job no later than January 15, 2026 via the online application tool.

KU Leuven strives for an inclusive, respectful and socially safe environment. We embrace diversity among individuals and groups as an asset. Open dialogue and differences in perspective are essential for an ambitious research and educational environment. In our commitment to equal opportunity, we recognize the consequences of historical inequalities. We do not accept any form of discrimination based on, but not limited to, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, ethnic or national background, skin colour, religious and philosophical diversity, neurodivergence, employment disability, health, or socioeconomic status. For questions about accessibility or support offered, we are happy to assist you at this email address.