项目介绍

2026年4月22日

Are you passionate about affective neuroscience, biofeedback and virtual reality and looking for a project with which you can make direct societal impact? The recently started CONTEXT project will connect fundamental human affective neuroscience to direct societal impact in youth and police.

In the NWO National Science Agenda-funded CONTEXT project, researchers from neuroscience, developmental psychology and forensic psychiatry collaborate with societal stakeholders, including youth organisations and police, to improve emotion regulation at moments when it is needed most.

The project is a unique collaboration between eight academic institutions in the Netherlands and more than twenty societal partners, representing fields such as security, education, healthcare and social services. The CONTEXT project will develop personalised biofeedback methods that train youth and police to recognise subtle, often unconscious, signals of stress. It will enable target groups to react more adequately in stressful moments by improving the early recognition of these signals in daily life and by training specific context-appropriate emotion-control techniques for stressful situations through virtual reality. By preventing violent escalations, CONTEXT aims to enhance societal safety and resilience while fostering stronger connections between societal groups that often experience high-impact conflict.

As a PhD candidate, you will help further refine and validate our virtual reality biofeedback game for both youth and police. You will collaborate with stakeholders, end-users, game designers and our CONTEXT science team to improve our virtual reality game and its biofeedback algorithms. You will perform user-interaction tests in target groups and record and analyse psychophysiological measures of autonomic nervous system balance during acute stress such as heart rate variability. You will help optimise our biofeedback algorithms and, after small N assessments, contribute towards setting up a large-scale trial to assess the efficacy of the newly developed methods. For this you will interact extensively with other work packages in the project that focus on neuroimaging, ecological momentary and physiological assessments, theory and ethics, as well as societal impact.

You will have the opportunity to make a start with your teaching portfolio and dedicate 10% of your working time to teaching in the psychology curriculum.

Does this sound like you?

• You hold a Master’s degree in cognitive neuroscience or an adjacent field (psychology, biology, biomedical sciences, computer sciences, or any other relevant MSc).
• You have a strong interest in fundamental research in affective neuroscience and/or its application to wellbeing and performance. 
• You have affinity with, and experience in, the acquisition and analysis of psychophysiology (i.e. autonomic nervous system measures) using Matlab, Python or similar software tools.
• You have affinity with, or experience in, virtual reality serious game design and user experience (UX) assessment.
• You have affinity with, or experience in, advanced statistical analyses (including linear mixed-effects models and computational learning models) in R or similar statistical analysis tools.
• You are able to participate effectively in an interdisciplinary and translational research environment.
• You possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills to effectively collaborate and communicate in academia as well as with stakeholders.
• You have a proactive and goal-directed attitude and good organisational skills.
• You are fluent in written and spoken Dutch and English.

Even if you do not meet all criteria, you are encouraged to apply if the role interests you.

What we offer you

• 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. 
• 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. 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.

Where you will be working

The position will be hosted at Radboud University but you will be in contact with a variety of institutes throughout the country. You will be based at the Faculty of Social Sciences and embedded within the Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment department of the Behavioural Science Institute.

The CONTEXT consortium
This is a nation-wide Dutch collaboration aimed at improving emotion regulation in groups regularly exposed to stressors such as police officers and youth in contact with police. It brings together 13 leading researchers: Floris Klumpers (project coordinator and lead on Virtual Reality Biofeedback) and Karin Roelofs (research in police) fromRadboud University; Erno Hermans (neuroscience lead) and Florian Krause from the Radboud university medical center; Eveline Crone (youth at risk lead),  Ilse van de Groep, and Marta Marciniak (digital just-in-time interventions lead) from Erasmus University;  Lucres Nauta Jansen (impact lead), Carmen-Silva Sergiou, and Annelinde Vandenbroucke from Amsterdam UMC; Dr Willem Frankenhuis (theory development lead) from the University of Amsterdam; Dr Karin Jongsma (ethics lead) and Dr Katherine Bassil from Utrecht University; and Prof. Annika Smit from the University of Humanistic Studies. CONTEXT collaborates with key stakeholders including the Police Academy, Young Perspectives, Kenniscentrum Mens en Politieorganisatie, Bureau Halt, iHub, Politie Zorg Polis, Levvel, National Police, Fivoor, Stichting Lieve Mark, MIND Us, Albeda MBO, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Arq Centrum ’45, Royal Netherlands Military Constabulary , Fyment, Municipal Executive of Emmen and the Ministry of Defence, ensuring that cutting-edge research translates into practical, impactful interventions that strengthen resilience and wellbeing in society.

Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment (EPT)
The Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment group’s major aim is to contribute fundamental scientific knowledge to the domain of clinical psychology and see to its implementation. This is achieved by experimental and applied studies of cognitive, neuro-affective, biological and decision-making processes in psychopathology, with an emphasis on the development and maintenance of psychological and bodily dysfunctions and on the processes of change caused by psychological and preventive interventions. This combination of basic research with clinically useful applications is a particular strength of EPT.

Behavioural Science Institute (BSI)
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 the 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 coming 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.  

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.

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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.