2 PhD positions offered at the Department of Neonatology, Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands, within the frame workof the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network “INFANS – INtegrating Functional Assessment measures for Neonatal Safeguard” (http://www.infansproject.eu/), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.

The goal of INFANS is to develop a new neonatal brain monitoring system, designed to overcome the severe shortage of clinically viable means to high quality monitor the brain function in infancy, crucial to prevent later life neurological, cognitive and motor impairment. To accomplish this goal, INFANS established a structured European PhD training programme in biomedical engineering, signal processing and clinical procedures to train a new generation of creative and entrepreneurial young researchers. The individual research projects of the 15 early stage researchers (ESRs) recruited by the INFANS partners encompass the topics: technological innovation, industrial development, clinical validation, identification of neonatal healthcare needs. As part of their research, the INFANS ESRs will develop a novel platform for high quality, clinically-viable EEG-NIRS monitoring accessible worldwide. Well-targeted visits and secondments, soft skills and dynamic training activities, an Open Science strategy, extensive involvement of ESRs in the network events organization, extensive contacts with other research, training and industrial European networks, dissemination activities and if the conditions are met, the award of doctoral degreesare further assets offered to INFANS ESRs.

The 2 PhD positions offered at the Department of Neonatology, Wilhelmina Childrens Hospital, University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands) are reserved for young researchers within their first 4 years of research career who must not have been already awarded a doctoral degree. All candidates must also comply with the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions international mobility requirement: the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in The Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the starting date of the scholarship (i.e. September 1st, 2019). The research projects planned for the 2 PhDs regard the implementation of advanced analytical methods and tools for the pre-processing and analysis of neonatal EEG signals.

Details on the job offers, conditions to be met to apply and related application forms are available on the EURAXESS portal at the link https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/ . The successful candidates will receive an attractive salary in accordance with the MSCA regulations for Early Stage Researchers. The exact salary will be confirmed upon appointment and is according to Dutch University standards. The salary includes a living allowance, a mobility allowance and a family allowance (if specific requirements are met). The guaranteed PhD funding is for 36 months. For further information:please contact Dr. Jeroen Dudink (j.dudink@umcutrecht.nl)

Position #1 (internal ID code “ESR14”), will work on clinical multicentre validation of hardware and software, with a focus on novel sensors and cap for long-term EEG-NIRS monitoring. The direct supervisors will be Prof. Benders (UMCU), Prof. Vanhatalo (UH), and Dr. Dudink (UMCU). The objective is to evaluate novel dry electrode, optode, integrated neonatal neuromonitoring cap with respect to usability, safety and signal quality in long-term EEG-NIRS monitoring of preterm born babies admitted in the NICU. We will make clinical protocols, provide data for automated EEG-NIRS scoring, report on extensive testing of safety, quality and clinical feasibility on the novel systems to technical partners and finally report on future clinical standards for critically ill (pre-)term infants and set up drafts for a multicentre cohort study.

Position #2 (internal ID code “ESR15”): will perform a technical and clinical evaluation of the INFANS neuromonitoring system (i.e. usability, safety and signal quality) in infants born very preterm. The supervisors will be Prof. Benders (UMCU), Prof. Vanhatalo (UH), and Dr. Dudink (UMCU). To providing long-term clinical data and testing the automated EEG-NIRS scoring in long-term NICU monitoring.We will work on implementation of clinical protocols to assess the performance of the GUI interface during combined long-term EEG-NIRS neuromonitoring of very preterm infants in the NICU. We will make a database of clinical parameters to support quantification of linked dynamics between EEG and NIRS measurements. We will clinical test the software toolbox for long-term EEG-NIRS labeling of relevant coupled EEG-NIRS patterns and analyze the first prospective results on user interface validation in the NICU.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Benefits

Excellent science, industrial leadership and societal challenge are merged in the INFANS network. The INFANS consortium includes 6 academic and 4 non-academic partners from 6 EU countries, among which leading universities, companies and clinical institutions. The partners involved in INFANS share complementary expertise and facilities to provide international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral research training and mobility that will complement local doctoral training. The INFANS ESRs will become independent researchers with improved career prospects in both the academic and non-academic sectors, and will advance the EU capacity for innovation in biomedical engineering.

Eligibility criteria

The 2 PhD positions offered at the Department of Neonatology, Wilhelmina Childrens Hospital, University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands) are reserved for youngresearchers within their first 4 years of research career (with a Masters degree) who must not have been already awarded a doctoral degree. All candidates must also comply with the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions international mobility requirement: the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in The Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the starting date of the scholarship (i.e. September 1st, 2019).

Selection process

The selection process will be according to the EU-ITN guidelines. Your CV and motivation letter has to be send to Dr. J. Dudink. E-mail: j.dudink@umcutrecht.nl. Next a selection committee of the UMCU-WKZ will select candidates for interviews.

Web site for additional job details

http://www.infansproject.eu

REQUIREMENTS

Required Research Experiences

RESEARCH FIELD: Medical sciences › Medicine
YEARS OF RESEARCH EXPERIENCE: 1 – 4

Offer Requirements:

REQUIRED LANGUAGES: ENGLISH: Good

Skills/Qualifications

Researchers within the first 4 years of research career who must not have been already awarded a doctoral degree, but have a Masters degree.

Specific Requirements

All candidates must also comply with the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions international mobility requirement: the candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in The Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the starting date of the scholarship (i.e. September 1st, 2019).