Doctoral scholarship holder immunopsychiatry

Department: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Regime Full-time

The University of Antwerp is a dynamic, forward-thinking, European university. We offer an innovative academic education to more than 20 000 students, conduct pioneering scientific research and play an important service-providing role in society. We are one of the largest, most international and most innovative employers in the region. With more than 6000 employees from 100 different countries, we are helping to build tomorrow's world every day. Through top scientific research, we push back boundaries and set a course for the future – a future that you can help to shape. 

The Department of CAPRI (Collaborative Antwerp Psychiatric Research Institute) in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is looking for a full-time (100%) doctoral scholarship holder in the field of immunopsychiatry.

Position

• You will work actively on the preparation and defence of a PhD thesis in the field of immunopsychiatry. The research will focus on the role of inflammatory processes in mood and psychotic disorders through a multidisciplinary approach of quantifying inflammatory markers in biobanked patient samples, effectuating an investigational clinical trial with anti-inflammatory add-on compounds and performing statistical analyses on an existing large database of inflammatory markers and psychiatric symptoms. 
• You will mainly operate from SINAPS (Scientific Initiative for Neuropsychiatric and Psychopharmacologic Studies), a collaboration between the Collaborative Antwerp Psychiatric Research Institute (CAPRI) of the University of Antwerp and the University Psychiatric Centre Duffel and as such be located at the psychiatric hospital in Duffel.
• You will publish at least 3 and preferably 4 scientific articles related to the research project.
• As a SINAPS team member, you will collegially contribute to other projects of our research group when opportune and carry out a number of limited teaching and research support tasks for CAPRI.

Profile

• You hold a master’s degree in Medicine, Biomedical Sciences or related or you will have obtained it by the time you start work.
• As manager of your project and thesis, you are a sufficiently independent researcher that functions optimally in a close-knit team.
• You are socially apt to interact with psychiatric patients with care and integrate fluently in a non-hierarchical operational team
• You demonstrate good knowledge in statistics and writing skills.
• Experience with psychiatric patients, experimental laboratory techniques (ELISA) or clinical trial management is advantageous.
• You speak and write fluently in English; knowledge of Dutch is an asset.
• Your teaching competences are in line with the University of Antwerp’s educational vision .
• Your research qualities are in line with the faculty and university research policies .
• You act with attention to quality, integrity, creativity and cooperation.

What we offer

• We offer a doctoral scholarship for a period of two years. Following a positive evaluation, the scholarship can be renewed once for another two-year period.
• The planned start date is the 1st of November 2022 or as soon as possible after that date.
• Your monthly scholarship amount is calculated according to the scholarship amounts for doctoral scholarship holders on the pay scales for Contract Research Staff (Dutch: Bijzonder Academisch Personeel, BAP).
• Find out more about working at the University of Antwerp here .

Want to apply?

• You can apply for this vacancy through the University of Antwerp’s online job application platform up to and including September 8th, 2022 (by midnight Brussels time). Click on the 'Apply' button, complete the online application form and be sure to include the following attachments: a motivation letter, your academic CV.
• The selection committee will review all of the applications as soon as possible after the application deadline. As soon as a decision has been made, you will be informed about the next steps in the selection procedure. Application interviews will be held between September 12th and September 23d 2022.
• If you have any questions about the online application form, please check the frequently asked questions or send an email to [email protected] . If you have any questions about the job content in itself, please contact Violette Coppens, [email protected] , +32 15 30 39 88.

The University of Antwerp received the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research Award for its HR policy. We are a sustainable, family-friendly organisation which invests in its employees’ growth. We encourage diversity  and attach great importance to an inclusive working environment and equal opportunities, regardless of gender identity, disability, race, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or age. We encourage people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse characteristics to apply.