项目介绍

2025年4月29日

Your function

This Postdoc position will be embedded in the EU project INQUIRE “Improving indoor air quality and health: identification of chemical and biological determinants, their sources, and strategies to promote healthier homes in Europe” (https://inquire-he.eu/). INQUIRE aims to find innovative actions to reduce harmful exposure in the home environment and positively impact the health of young children. Many consumer products (e.g. plastics, building materials, and furniture) contain large amounts of organic chemicals such as flame retardants, plasticizers, PFAS, and antioxidants, which can emit from these products and enter the indoor environment. The Postdoc project will focus on the analysis of large data sets collected in this project. These contain high resolution mass spectra of hundreds of samples as well as data from toxicological assays and questionnaires. A task will be to identify potentially hazardous and toxic compounds and to identify the sources of these compounds using statistical modeling and machine learning techniques.

Your duties:

• Develop methods to identify potentially hazardous compounds among the plethora of compounds present in dust, air and consumer product samples
• Develop methods to identify potential sources of these compounds
• Report about the results obtained

Your profile

• You hold a PhD in bioinformatics, chemoinformatics or a related field
• You have experience in the analysis of biological data and preferably also in the analysis of mass spectrometry data
• You are able to communicate results clearly to non-experts
• You are able to work independently and pro-actively interact with collaborators
• You have strong communication skills in English

What do we offer?

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 € 3.378,00 (Scale 10) and maximum € 5.331,00 (Scale 10) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 4. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year.   

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
• discount on (and occasionally exclusive access to) theater performances and courses at the Griffioen Cultural Center
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

About us

About A-LIFE

The position is offered within the Amsterdam Institute of Life and Environment (A-LIFE) department at the Faculty of Science of the VU University Amsterdam. A-LIFE is created by the merger between the departments of Ecology, Health and Environment and Molecular Cell Biology. 

Faculty of Science
Researchers and students at VU Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science tackle fundamental and complex scientific problems to help pave the way for a sustainable and healthy future. From forest fires to big data, from obesity to malnutrition, and from molecules to the moon: we cover the full spectrum of the natural sciences. Our teaching and research have a strong experimentally technical, computational and interdisciplinary nature.

We work on new solutions guided by value-driven, interdisciplinary methodologies. We are committed to research, valorisation and training socially engaged citizens of the world who will make valuable contributions to a sustainable, healthy future.

Are you interested in joining the Faculty of Science? You will join undergraduate students, PhD candidates and researchers at the biggest sciences faculty in the Netherlands. You will combine a professional focus with a broad view of the world. We are proud of our collegial working climate, characterised by committed staff, a pragmatic attitude and engagement in the larger whole. The faculty is home to over 11,000 students enrolled in 40 study programmes. It employs over 1,600 professionals spread across 10 academic departments.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely – a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility.  Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of VU Amsterdam. VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.