We seek to appoint a Research Assistant Professor within the Psychology, Health and Technology (PHT) section at the University of Twente. This post has been created to work with Professor Falko Sniehotta on developing a Centre for Translational Behavioural Science. The aim of this Centre is to develop and apply behavioural science to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, to contribute to grand challenges in prevention and healthcare and to educate and train the future European workforce in translational behavioural science. At Twente we have a focus on technology and work interdisciplinary, in particular on the thresholds of behavioural science with social sciences, engineering and data science.

The challenge
Behavioural science can make substantial contributions to prevention, health and social care. With its strategy UT Shaping 2030 - Healthy Living, the University of Twente sets out an agenda to contribute to fair and sustainable population health in an increasingly digital society. Technology and data science offer novel opportunities to measure behaviors and other environmental factors that contribute as actual causes of disease. Interventions developed to support prevention and self-management often involve the use of technology. Nevertheless there is a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of such interventions and their evidence base. The goal with this post is to conduct an evidence synthesis of intervention development frameworks for the development and evaluation of digital interventions to shape behavior.  Another part of this challenge will be to focus on the issues associated with multiple goal pursuit. Understanding multiple goal pursuit is crucial to support behaviour change and maintenance.
The ultimate aim is that the knowledge created will lead to the development of a virtual research center named: Implement. This will involve qualified senior investigators from various research and teaching groups across BMS and the UT together with external senior scholars to form the core of this research group that will aim to be the European Centre of Excellence for Translational research in Public Health and Technology. This center will work with local authorities, charities and industry to transform health in a region spanning the Eastern Netherlands and the EUREGION running across the border with Germany into Niedersachsen and North-Rhine Westphalia.
Implement will be directed by Professor Falko Sniehotta. The academic director is will be working with Public Health Netherlands, national and local governments and the third sector in this European cross-border Region on population health improvement.

In your research, you contribute to the interdisciplinary research domain ‘health, well-being and technology’ in both the faculty BMS and the university-wide TechMed Centre. You will carry out research in close cooperation with (regional and international) partners in health care.

• You hold a PhD, preferably in psychology or another behavioural science;
• You have experience in behavioural research related to health;
• You are an interdisciplinary team worker, collaborating with scholars from different backgrounds in social sciences and technology;
• You have an excellent publication and presentation track record in peer-reviewed international journals;
• You are able to use initiative to decide relevant actions and make recommendations to manager, with the aim of improving deliverables;
• You have excellent communication and collaboration skills - strong written skills to summarise scientific issues for scientific and lay audiences; strong oral skills to represent the team in a range of settings;
• You are able to plan and organise a broad range of complex activities, formulating and adjusting plans to reflect changing circumstances;
• You are skilled at building and managing relationships;
• You are fluent in English. Dutch language stills would be desirable, not essential;
• You have a good understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships, both in terms of day-to-day working practices, but also in relation to management systems.

We offer an appointment as Assistant Professor (0,8-1,0 fte) for 4 years, after which your position can become permanent, subject to a successful evaluation. The salary, depending on your experience, ranges between € 3.746 to € 5.826 gross per month plus holiday allowance (8%) and end-of-year bonus (8.3%). The terms of employment are in accordance with the collective labour agreement CAO-NU for Dutch universities. In addition, the University of Twente offers excellent facilities for professional and personal development; including facilities in obtaining an University Teaching Qualification; and good secondary conditions, including pension, health care benefits, a generous holiday leave and the use of an optional model to compile your own package of employment conditions such as save up holidays for sabbatical leave.

The HIB-department is one of  four departments at the faculty. The department is committed to design, evaluation and implementation of and teaching about comprehensive technology-based solutions supporting people in behaviour that promotes their health, safety, resilience, connectedness and joy. The HIB-department comprises research groups of Communication Science; Psychology, Health & Technology; Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety; and Public Administration. For more information on these groups, see: https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/organization/departments-institutes/#department-clusters