PHD Stress in Action

As a PhD student your main mission is to help the Stress in Action community research and implement the most effective tools for the continuous, reliable and daily life recording of the physiological stress response. You will begin by contributing to data collection and reporting in the Stress in Action validation pipeline at VU where we assess the reliability, validity, and usability of both research-grade and consumer wearables in natural settings. These include smartwatches, rings, skin patches, stretch-band electrodes, and sensor-infused clothing. With the most promising tools selected for stress assessment in daily life you will then coordinate an extensive study that uses this toolkit in the Netherlands Twin Register. Monozygotic and dizygotic twins will be monitored in daily life for a period of six months using wearables, passive sensing and Ecological Momentary assessment. In the first two days we also employ the VU-AMS that measures the heart period time series, blood pressure, the pre-ejection period, electrodermal activity, and peak-valley based respiratory sinus arrhythmia as measures of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. Your thesis will be grounded in the rich, high-resolution datasets generated through the validation pipeline and this ambitious cohort study. You’ll focus on ambulatory psychophysiology, exploring which features are most predictive of stress-protective lifestyles (e.g. exercise), coping and personality styles, and polygenetic risk for stress-related cardiometabolic and mental health outcomes.

Requirements:

• MSc-degree (research master) in (bio)psychology, neuroscience, behavior genetics, health sciences, biomedical technology, medical physics, computer science or a related discipline (also candidates close to graduating are encouraged to apply)
• Strong interest in experimental (psycho)physiological research and/or advanced signal analytics
• Knowledge of predictive modelling using multilevel models or machine learning approaches
• Familiarity and/or affinity with behavior genetics and genetic epidemiology
• Programming skills in Python, R, Matlab or other tools for physiological signal analysis
• Strong affinity and preferably experience with writing research papers
• English conversation, writing skills, and presentation skills
• Communication and social skills

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.

Salary Benefits:

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 minimum € 2.901,00 (PhD) in the first year and maximum € 3.707,00 (PhD) in the fourth year gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile PhD candidate.
• Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. 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
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• solid pension scheme (ABP)

Van der Boechorststraat 7