PhD Position: Digital Lifestyle Interventions for Financially Vulnerable Groups

Would you like to contribute to reducing health inequalities by co-creating, evaluating, and optimizing an adapted digital health intervention (i.e. a Combined Lifestyle Intervention, CLI) that truly aligns with people’s everyday realities? As a PhD candidate in this project, you will work on an innovative, systems-oriented, and participatory research project in which financial support and lifestyle support are integrated for people who struggle to make ends meet. You will have the opportunity to combine scientific research with societal impact, in close collaboration with municipalities, professionals, and people with lived experience.

Financial insecurity negatively affects health and well-being through chronic stress. These factors often reinforce one another, causing people to enter a downward spiral in which overweight and obesity are highly prevalent among financially vulnerable groups. Although combined lifestyle interventions (CLIs) and digital health solutions have significant potential, they are rarely designed for or with people experiencing financial difficulties. This often results in low participation rates, high dropout, and limited effectiveness. A holistic and personalized approach—integrating financial and lifestyle support, co-developed with the target group, and taking into account societal context, living conditions, and available resources—is therefore essential to achieve sustainable impact.

The aim of this project is to co-create, evaluate, and optimize an adapted digital CLI with the target group that supports lifestyle change for people who struggle financially. By integrating support across multiple life domains into the digital CLI and embedding it within the local context, we strive for a multi-level systems approach to improving health and well-being. The project follows an integrated approach consisting of four work packages. First, we will map the complex system surrounding financial difficulties and lifestyle behavior. These insights will form the basis for developing a digital CLI tailored to different user profiles. Finally, the adapted digital CLI will be tested and evaluated, generating insights for further optimization and scaling.

Your tasks and responsibilities

• Mapping system dynamics related to financial problems, lifestyle behavior, and health;
• Identifying factors that contribute to and co-developing a digital CLI for people who struggle to make ends meet;
• Evaluating and optimizing a personalized digital CLI prototype;
• Conducting participatory research with participants and stakeholders;
• Analyzing qualitative and quantitative data and publishing results in peer-reviewed scientific journals;
• Actively collaborating with academic and societal partners and contributing to knowledge sharing.

Your workplace
The research is embedded within the Chair Group of Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles, led by Prof. Dr. Harm Veling. You will be supervised by Dr. Annemien Haveman (promotor; Wageningen University), Dr. Ayla Schwarz (Wageningen University), Dr. Monique Simons (Wageningen University), and Dr. Jantien van Berkel (Utrecht University, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences).

The Chair Group of Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles studies consumption behavior and lifestyle patterns of individuals and groups from an interdisciplinary perspective. The group focuses on improving understanding of the determinants of healthy consumption and lifestyles, and on investigating intervention strategies that support behavior change and promote long-term health. A socio-ecological perspective is central, acknowledging the interaction between individual, social, and environmental factors.

You are a curious, motivated, proactive, reflective, and impact-driven researcher with a strong interest in health inequalities, digital health, and complex interventions. You have strong interpersonal and communication skills and enjoy working in an interdisciplinary project team (including industry partners, practice-based organizations, and researchers from different disciplines). You feel comfortable engaging with diverse stakeholder groups.

In addition, you have:

• A successfully completed MSc degree in health sciences, nutrition sciences, behavioral sciences, social sciences, or a related discipline;
• Demonstrable affinity with intervention development and evaluation research in public health, and an interest in digital and personalized interventions;
• Demonstrable affinity with qualitative and quantitative research methods, or strong motivation to further develop these skills;
• Strong analytical and writing skills, combined with the ability to clearly communicate research findings to diverse audiences;
• Excellent organizational skills (e.g. project management);
• A strong professional stance as a researcher, with the ability to navigate complex (interdisciplinary) collaborations, take responsibility, and actively contribute to the team.

Excellent command of both English and Dutch is required to effectively collaborate with stakeholders and research partners. For both Dutch and English, language level C1 is required.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• Partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will receive a fully funded PhD position and you will be offered a course program tailored to your needs and the research team.

The gross salary for the first year is € 2.901,- per month rising to € 3.707,- in the fourth year in according to the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale P). This is based on a full-time working week of 38 hours. We offer a temporary contract for 18 months which will be extended for the duration of the project if you perform well.

Wageningen University & Research offers plenty of opportunities for growth and development, with a strong internal recruitment policy and excellent training programmes.

You will work on the greenest and most innovative campus in the Netherlands, in an international and open working environment. For 20 consecutive years, we have been voted the "best university" in the Netherlands! A place to be proud of.

The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7,600 employees (6,700 fte) and 13,100 students and over 150,000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch the video below to get an idea of our green campus!

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.

We welcome candidates from all over the world, but please be aware that an excellent command of both English and Dutch is required for this position.

Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees.

Because we expect you to work and live in the Netherlands our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. We can assist you with any additional advice and information about for example helping your partner to find a job, housing, or schooling. Finally, certain categories of international staff may be eligible for a tax exemption on a part of their salary during the first five years in the Netherlands.