The Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University in Nijmegen (Netherlands) is seeking a PhD candidate for a research project that is sponsored by the North Limburg Security Region and Municipal Health Service for a project on “Risk Factory: Behaviour change by learning and experience”.

Research on behaviour change and behaviour change interventions have become increasingly popular and important in our society to overcome societal problems (e.g. health and risks). However, most of the research focused on effects within specific situations and concerned relatively short-term effects. The current project offers a unique opportunity to investigate behaviour change by focusing on learning and experience within the so-called Risk Factory. The aim is to understand conditions to create sustainable behaviour change in the domain of health and risk behaviour. The Risk Factory is based on several scenarios. Here, rather than learning about problems in an abstract manner, children and elderly are able to learn about risks by experience.

Your tasks will include setting up the research, analysing the effects of current scenarios from a behavioural change perspective, testing modifications of the scenarios, preparing new scenarios and interventions, instructing others to start new scenarios ,running experiments at the Risk Factory, writing pre-registrations, testing children, analysing the data, and writing scientific articles, a dissertation in English and reports for the Risk Factory.

• you hold an academic degree in psychology, behavioural science or a related field in the behavioural sciences. A Research Master’s diploma is a plus;
• you are interested in basic psychological mechanisms of behaviour regulation and behaviour change;
• you are independent, flexible and proactive;
• you enjoy challenges;
• you have excellent organisational and social skills;
• you are willing and able to deal with the various perspectives of the stakeholders in this project
• you like to supervise or learn to supervise students in behaviour change projects;
• you have a sharp analytical mind and good statistical skills;
• you should be fluent in spoken and written Dutch (native or near-native level);
• you have excellent English writing skills.

• employment: 0.8 FTE
• the gross starting salary amounts to €2,325 per month, and will increase to €2,972 in the fourth year (P scale)
• in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• term of contract: you will be appointed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years
• it may be possible for you to extend your contract by 0.1 or 0.2 FTE for teaching (supervising projects within the Master’s degree programme ‘Behaviour Change’)
• you will be classified as a PhD Candidate in the Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO).
• you will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service where our Dual Career Officer will assist with family related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation

 
The intended start date is 2 September 2019.

Are you interested in our excellent employment conditions?

Faculty of Social Sciences
You will be working in the Behaviour Change and Well-Being programme of the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) at Radboud University. The project will be supervised by Dr Harm Veling, Dr Thijs Verwijmeren and Prof. Rob Holland, in close collaboration with people from the North Limburg Security Region. The Behaviour Change and Well-Being programme conducts fundamental research on the regulation of behaviour with practical implications.

The Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud University. The BSI is a multidisciplinary behavioural research institute. Our researchers collaborate across the boundaries of psychology, educational science, and communication science. The BSI has seven research programmes covering three major research themes: 1) development and learning, 2) psychopathology, health and well-being, and 3) social processes and communication. Fundamental research as well as applied/translational research is being conducted. For more information, please visit our website.

The BSI has state-of-the-art research facilities for observational studies, experiments, eye-tracking studies, EEG and other physiological measures, and behavioural measurements in real and 3D virtual environments. The neuroimaging facilities of the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (fMRI, MEG and TMS) are available for research on the neural bases of behaviour.

Radboud University is one of the leading academic communities in the Netherlands. Strategically located in Europe, it is a place with a personal touch, where top-flight education and research take place on a beautiful green campus, in modern buildings with state-of-the-art facilities.
 
Further information on Behaviour Change and Well-Being Mission statement
Further information on Risk Factory Limburg-Noord
Further information on Behavioural Science Institute