PhD Position: Cognitive Neuroscience of Social Interactions

Imagine being so worried about talking to a cashier in a store that you wait until your cupboard is bare or avoid shopping in-store all together despite expensive online delivery costs. Social anxiety has a profound impact on everyday functioning in a world full of unpredictable and emotional social interactions. This ERC-funded project aims to investigate how socially anxious individuals deal with the communicative and emotional demands of social interactions using a multidisciplinary, cognitive neuroscience approach.

We are seeking two highly motivated PhD candidates to join our interdisciplinary research project. One PhD position will focus on conducting a hyperscanning fMRI study, in which pairs of socially anxious individuals will engage in controlled social interactions while their brain activity is being recorded. This project aims to uncover the neural mechanisms underpinning communicative challenges in socially anxious individuals.

The second PhD candidate will investigate how socially anxious individuals regulate negative emotions that emerge during these social interactions, focusing on the ability or inability to flexibly switch between different emotion regulation strategies. As a team, the two PhD candidates will be jointly responsible for designing and setting up the studies, recruiting participants, acquiring and analysing data, and publishing the results in peer-reviewed journals. You will have a 10% teaching load and will be given the opportunity to work on your teaching portfolio for the University Teaching Qualification (UTQ).

You will be embedded in the EPAN lab of Prof. Karin Roelofs at the Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment (EPT) department of the Behavioral Science Institute and the Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour. The research will be conducted at the Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, which has state-of-the-art lab facilities and supports hyperscanning studies.

Would you like to learn more about what it’s like to pursue a PhD at Radboud University? Visit the page about working as a PhD candidate.

• We will give you a temporary employment contract (1.0 FTE) of 1.5 years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, your contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4-year contract).
• You will receive a starting salary of €3,059 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €3,881 in the fourth year (salary scale P).
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus.
• We offer Dual Career Coaching. The Dual Career Coaching assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

Additional employment conditions
Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

Faculty of Social Sciences
At the Faculty of Social Sciences, humanity and society are our focus; we study how people behave, think and feel. Within this context, we look at themes such as human behaviour and the human psyche, education and upbringing, communication, society and culture. The faculty provides education to 6,000 students and employs 700 staff. Education is organised into six programme clusters: Psychology; Artificial Intelligence; Pedagogical Sciences and Educational Sciences; Communication Science; Sociology; and Cultural Anthropology and Developmental Sociology, and the Radboud Centre Social Sciences as an institute for post-master education have been merged into the Social Sciences Education Institute. Our research is carried out within three research institutes: the Donders Centre for Cognition, the Behavioural Science Institute, and Radboud Social Cultural Research.

Radboud University
At Radboud University, we aim to make an impact through our work. We achieve this by conducting groundbreaking research, providing high-quality education, offering excellent support, and fostering collaborations within and outside the university. In doing so, we contribute indispensably to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. To accomplish this, we need even more colleagues who, based on their expertise, are willing to search for answers. We advocate for an inclusive community and welcome employees with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. Will you also contribute to making the world a little better? You have a part to play.

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Work and science require good employment practices. Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions reflect this. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself. For example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports membership. In addition, you receive a 34% discount on the sports and cultural activities at Radboud University as an employee. And, of course, we offer a good pension plan. We also give you plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

You will work in an interdisciplinary team with expertise in communication, social disorders, emotion regulation and neuroscience at the Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment (EPT) department of the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI). At EPT, we aim to acquire fundamental scientific and applied knowledge to better understand the cognitive, behavioural and neurobiological mechanisms of psychopathology and its treatment. We strive to achieve this goal by empirically studying clinically relevant processes such as biased information and affective processing, approach-avoidance tendencies, cognitive control, emotion regulation, motivation, and executive functioning.

Behavioural Science Institute
The Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) is an interdisciplinary research institute where fundamental, applied, and translational research takes place, with the aim of understanding important societal issues and contributing to their solutions. BSI is one of three research institutes of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud University. Our researchers collaborate across the boundaries of psychology, communication science, and pedagogical and educational science. Our mission for the upcoming years is to join forces in interdisciplinary research on the theme 'Empowering the Young'. We study the challenges that young people face in our current society and contribute to their empowerment.

BSI performs high-quality research with scientific and societal impact. To foster this, the institute provides excellent research facilities and has strong collaborations with non-academic partners. Moreover, BSI is known for its successful graduate school and strong dedication to open science and team science. We stand for a warm, inclusive, and cooperative research environment in which our staff are well-supported in a work culture that promotes collaboration and respect.

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
BSI participates in the Donders Institute. The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour is a world-class interfaculty research centre that houses more than 700 researchers devoted to understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of the human mind. Research at the Donders Institute is focused around four themes:

1. Language and communication
2. Perception, action and control
3. Plasticity and memory
4. Neural computation and neurotechnology

Excellent, state-of-the-art research facilities are available for the broad range of neuroscience research that is being conducted at the Donders Institute. The Donders Institute has been assessed by an international evaluation committee as excellent and recognized as a ‘very stimulating environment for top researchers, as well as for young talent’. The Donders Institute fosters a collaborative, multidisciplinary and supportive research environment with a diverse international staff. English is the lingua franca at the Institute.