During your PhD project, you will conduct groundbreaking research and collaborate with experts to develop an AI-based app for individuals affected by osteoarthritis.

Individuals with osteoarthritis experience pain and stiffness when moving, which hinders their daily activities. Although various non-surgical treatment options exist, they are often underutilized in practice. The AI & Behaviour research group of the VU Amsterdam is involved in the SMART project, in which we aim to develop and evaluate a personalized self-management app that supports patients with osteoarthritis using expert knowledge and Artificial Intelligence models.

Location: AMSTERDAM (and a few days per month in UTRECHT)

We are seeking a PhD candidate to develop these AI models. The candidate's responsibilities include:

• Collaborating with a diverse team of experts to create AI models aimed at offering individuals with arthritis just-in-time advice and suggestions.
• Combining expert knowledge-based models with data-driven techniques.
• Leveraging AI to translate data into insights for testing predictors of arthritis-related complaints.
• Developing guidelines for the creation of AI models for health apps.

Your duties

• Improving an expert-based knowledge model for predicting the worsening of pain, physical complaints, and social participation.
• Creating a refined model for providing personalized guidance, based on the application of learning algorithms on continuously collected self-administered data.
• Developing methods for combining expert-knowledge-based models with data-driven knowledge.
• Establishing guidelines for assessing the added value of measurements for model effectiveness.
• Producing at least four scientific articles on these topics.

You must:

• have completed a Master in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science including AI courses, or a related Master programme;
• have experience with both machine learning and symbolic AI;
• be enthusiastic about collaboration with people from other scientific disciplines and have the communicative and social skills to do so;
• have affinity with the health care domain;
• be proactive and able to work independently;
• have strong oral and written communication skills in English;
• possess good organizational skills.

The ability to speak Dutch is a pre.

As a university, we strive for equal opportunities for all, recognising that diversity takes many forms. We believe that diversity in all its complexity is invaluable for the quality of our teaching, research and service. We are always looking for talent with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This also means that we are committed to creating an inclusive community so that we can use diversity as an asset.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

Fixed-term contract: 18 months.

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of € 2.770,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.539,00 (PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
• the appointment will initially be for 18 months. After a satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment, the contract will be extended for a total duration of 4 to 5 years (depending on the FTE).

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

About the department
The VU Department of Computer Science maintains highly successful programs in areas including Artificial Intelligence, Bio-Informatics, Computer Security, Computer Systems, Software Engineering and Green Computing, Information Sciences, Theory, and User-Centric Data Science. The AI & Behaviour group works on Artificial Intelligence technology that empowers humans to adopt healthy, safe and sustainable behaviour.

Faculty of Science
Researchers and students at VU Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science tackle fundamental and complex scientific problems to help pave the way for a sustainable and healthy future. From forest fires to big data, from obesity to malnutrition, and from molecules to the moon: we cover the full spectrum of the natural sciences. Our teaching and research have a strong experimentally technical, computational and interdisciplinary nature.

We work on new solutions guided by value-driven, interdisciplinary methodologies. We are committed to research, valorisation and training socially engaged citizens of the world who will make valuable contributions to a sustainable, healthy future.

Are you interested in joining the Faculty of Science? You will join undergraduate students, PhD candidates and researchers at the biggest sciences faculty in the Netherlands. You will combine a professional focus with a broad view of the world. We are proud of our collegial working climate, characterised by committed staff, a pragmatic attitude and engagement in the larger whole. The faculty is home to over 11,000 students enrolled in 40 study programmes. It employs over 1,600 professionals spread across 10 academic departments.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely. - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility. Over 5,500 staff work at the VU and over 30,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of the VU. The VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

We want to develop talent and creativity by bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. We recruit and select based on competencies and talents. We therefore encourage anyone who recognizes themselves in a vacancy, regardless of age, gender, origin, religion, philosophy of life, orientation, disability or chronic illness, to respond. Candidates with a jobs agreement indication (“doelgroepregistratie”) will be given priority if suitable. For these candidates applies:

• A PhD candidate with a registration (“doelgroepregister”) may apply for a minimum of 0.7 fte
• An extra supervisor is available for PhD students with target group registration and their supervisors.