Our health is largely determined by our environment: how we live and work, how we travel, what we eat, the level of exposure to air pollution, our social relations, social status and lifestyle choices. Up to 70% (!) of today’s health issues such as heart and vascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and neurodegeneration are driven by these factors.

Urbanization is a global trend that applies also to the Netherlands. It is expected that by 2030 over 80% of the Dutch population will live in an urban environment. In the next 10 years over 1 million new homes need to be built within the restraints of climate, energy, biodiversity and health boundaries. These developments define a tremendous challenge for creating a healthy living environment for the future.

To provide solutions to a healthy living environment, Utrecht University (UU), Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM), Hogeschool Utrecht (HU), University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU), together with the public partners the Province of Utrecht, the Municipality of Hilversum and Amersfoort, the Future City Foundation and private partners Heijmans, WeCity, Mecanoo and Urban Sync have recently joined forces through the consortium Data and Knowledge Hub Healthy Urban Living (DKH HUL). This consortium has been established to develop evidence based (data-driven) solutions for a healthy living environment and bring this into practice through living labs and urban developments.

The innovation agenda of DKH HUL is well connected to the four strategic themes of Utrecht University, and forms a means to valorize (new) knowledge. DKH HUL is one of the hubs which facilitates and therefore enables Utrecht University to collaborate with societal partners, such as other knowledge institutions, businesses, government authorities, NGOs and lobby groups.
To foster the connections with the relevant faculties and research groups and unlock the relevant science/scientific domains for a broader valorization and implementation, we are looking for a Scientific Manager Healthy Urban Living. Together with the Scientific Director DKH HUL (Roel Vermeulen, Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Exposome Science) you will be responsible for the scientific quality of the services the DKH HUL offers and for the scientific quality of the tools and methods that are developed within the hub.
As our new Scientific Manager you will:

• work with consortium partners on developing evidence based HUL concepts;
• engage with DKH HUL partners to further shape and develop the innovation tracks (special focus on FAIR datapoint, Smart Monitoring strategies, Decision Support systems);
• strengthen the collaboration between participating faculties within Utrecht University, in particular the Faculty of Geosciences and the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS, part of the Faculty of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine);
• contribute to the strategic objectives of Utrecht University by involving relevant faculties and disciplines to DKH HUL, i.e. act as an alliance manager to the Utrecht University Ambassadors of DKH HUL;
• facilitate and support practice-by-doing through the establishment of living labs with DKH HUL partners.

Other activities include:

• taking the lead in initiating and forging public-private partnerships;
• connecting with different stakeholders (industry, associations, government) and seeking their integration into the programmes and projects of DKH HUL;
• co-developing with the Manager Communication the community and knowledge sharing of the hub;
• acting as a linking pin to other relevant scientific activities within Utrecht University, such as Exposome, the Artificial Intelligence hub on living environment, and Climate and health.

We are looking for a scientific manager who:

• has a strong affinity with the field of healthy urban living and is eager to work on the forefront of HUL;
• is willing to contribute to building a cross-partnership team;
• has innovative ideas on the progression of building and developing DKH HUL and is able to integrate these ideas with the partner organizations' objectives.

Given the focus area of the hub and your role in this position you need to:

• have a PhD degree (or MSc with relevant experience), preferably with a background in preventive or environmental health or social/physical geography/urban planning with a minimum of 10 years’ experience;
• be able to construct inter- and cross-disciplinary networks and to build working networks across institutes;
• be able to work together with different stakeholders in the public and private domain;
• have commercial awareness. You are able to translate science and knowledge into products and services;
• have excellent communication, negotiation, collaborative and facilitation skills;  
• have a strong ability to work and communicate across scientific disciplines and organizational cultures.

We offer a temporary position (0.8-1.0 FTE), initially for a period of one year. The gross salary - depending on previous qualifications and experience  - ranges between €4,612 and €6,421 (scale 12 according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) per month for a full-time employment. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3% per year. In addition, Utrecht University offers excellent secondary conditions, including collective insurance schemes, an attractive retirement scheme, (partly paid) parental leave and flexible employment conditions (multiple choice model). More information about working at Utrecht University can be found here.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has a unique position in the Netherlands. Not only is this the only institution where Veterinarians are trained, but is also where Researchers are working together on innovative scientific research. In addition, the faculty provides specialist clinical care in the largest academic veterinary hospital in Europe. Thanks to this position, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is a point of contact for all veterinary matters, both nationally and increasingly internationally. The faculty employs approximately 900 Veterinarians, Scientists and support staff and counts 1,500 students.