项目介绍

2024年12月1日

Are you interested in computational modelling of human behaviour?  Do you also want to apply this interest to a societally relevant research question, that is, how to mitigate the climate crisis? Join the project “How do intentions and outcomes shape adolescents’ climate friendly choices: a reinforcement learning approach”. A one-page summary of the project can be found here. 

What are you going to do?

You will, in cooperation with your fellow PhD student:

• Develop materials for a reinforcement learning task to assess climate-friendly choices;
• Develop and test a computational model and estimation procedure in R;
• Gather data in a diverse adolescent sample;
• Pre-register studies, write results up in peer-reviewed journals, present them at (inter)national conferences;
• Actively participate in the communication with adolescents to gather input on how to set up studies, and to discuss the implications of outcomes of these studies;
• Develop an educational package for high school students end project (‘’profielwerkstuk”);
• Devote 5% of your time to supervision of bachelor or master students performing research related to your project.

What do you have to offer?

• You have a (research) master in the behavioural or cognitive or computer or sustainability sciences, or you will obtain the degree before the 1st of February 2025. 
• You have at least one year of programming experience in R. 

In addition, you satisfy some (nobody fits all of the criteria) of the requirements listed below:

• You have a genuine interest in computational modelling of human behaviour, for example, by means of reinforcement learning models;
• You have a genuine interest in adolescent development, sustainability science, or behaviour change;
• You have demonstrable experience in Bayesian modelling;
• You are accurate, constructive, and creative;
• You have good writing and presentation skills;
• You value open science;
• You have the ability to function well both in a team as well as independently;
• You can start between the 1st of February and the 1st of April 2025.

What else do we offer?

The position concerns temporary employment of 38 hours per week for a maximum term of four years. The initial employment is for one year. Following a positive assessment and barring altered circumstances, this term will be extended to four years in total, which should result in the conferral of the doctorate. We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international events.

Part-time is negotiable, which will result in a longer contract with a maximum of 5 years. It may also possible to add a teaching component to the contract, which will also result in a longer contract, of approximately 4.5 years.

Your application & contact

If you have questions regarding this position, please contact:

• Hilde Huizenga  h.m.huizenga@uva.nl

Do you recognize yourself in the job profile? Then we look forward to receiving your application by 10 January 2025. You may apply online by using the link below.

Applications in one bundled .pdf should include: (upload in the resume box)

• a curriculum vitae;
• a grade list for all bachelor and master course;
• a letter of motivation.