Post-doc researcher (0.8 fte) at the Department of Social Medicine

The Department of Social Medicine, Maastricht University, is looking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated post-doctoral researcher in the field of socioeconomic inequalities in health. You will be part of the project “Inequities in type 2 diabetes: the role of environmental injustice and chronic stress” which has been funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The postdoctoral researcher’s main task will entail the translation of the findings of this project into policy and practice.

People in lower socioeconomic positions have heightened risks of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Instead of focusing on individual health behaviours (e.g. unhealthy diets), the project aims to describe how socioeconomic inequities extend to inequities in the exposome. People are differentially exposed to unhealthy residential (e.g. amount of green space), work (e.g. job control), and societal (e.g. classism) environments. Such environmental injustice is hypothesised to result in perceptions of powerlessness and inferiority, which contribute to a chronic stress-induced heightened risk of T2D in people with lower socioeconomic positions.

The project will make extensive use of Maastricht Study data (https://www.demaastricht-studie.nl/research ) and residential data from GECCO. The Living Lab Public Health and the Living Lab Social Insurance will help in translating the findings into (policy) recommendations, together with stakeholders from the health care sector, work associations, and policy makers.

The postdoc will foremostly work on the integration of the findings and particularly to translate the findings into the Dutch practice in close collaboration with stakeholders. Main tasks include the contact with relevant local and national stakeholders; collaboratively work towards translating the epidemiological evidence into practice and policy recommendations; write scientific articles; and explore funding opportunities for research and implementation. Two PhD students have already been appointed on this project and the post-doc researcher may also be involved in supervising the PhD students.

This research position is 0.8 fte for 35 months. There is an opportunity for an additional 0.1 fte for teaching within the curricula of Health Sciences, Medicine, and/or European Public Health.

The successful candidate will be working within the department of Social Medicine of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences of Maastricht University together with Prof. dr. Hans Bosma (Professor of Social Epidemiology) and Dr. Annemarie Koster (Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Physical Activity). There is a project team involving experts from various fields related to the topic of the project, including two Living Labs. Opportunities for networking, acquiring and developing knowledge and skills, and room for self-initiatives will be available.