The School of Psychology and the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) at Radboud University are looking for a Junior Lecturer/PhD Candidate to fill a position in the field of development and mental health shared by the departments of Developmental and Clinical Psychology.

Are you an aspiring researcher, looking to start off your academic career well-prepared? As a Junior Lecturer / PhD Candidate, you will not only be contributing fundamental scientific knowledge in the domain of psychology, but also teach this knowledge to students in the Psychology programme. This way, you will be able to obtain both your PhD and university teaching qualification as part of your position. 

The School of Psychology and the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) at Radboud University are looking for a Junior Lecturer/PhD Candidate to fill a position in the field of development and mental health shared by the departments of Developmental and Clinical Psychology. As a Junior Lecturer/PhD Candidate you will have research duties (60%) and teaching duties (40%) for a 6-year period. The position will lead to a PhD degree and university teaching qualification (BKO). We have similar openings for a Junior Lecturer/PhD Candidate in Methods and Statistics and in Work and Organisational Psychology and Social and Cultural Psychology (see the job advertisements on our website).

Your teaching will involve various activities in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in Psychology, mostly related to 1) tutoring research-related work groups in the first year of the Bachelor’s programme in Psychology, 2) supervision of third-year students in their Bachelor’s degree research project, which will align with your own PhD research, 3) teaching or supervision of Master’s theses in the Master programme in Healthcare Psychology. Over the course of six years, you will gain a diverse range of teaching skills, including lecturing courses in both developmental and clinical psychology. This will enable you to obtain your university teaching qualification under the guidance of a mentor. Within Developmental Psychology, we aim to train our students in the theories and methods of understanding human development, from both normative and developmental psychopathology perspectives, with a focus on longitudinal research. Within Clinical Psychology, we aim to train our students as scientist-practitioners, using scientific knowledge of psychopathology and its treatment, evidence-based methods of assessment, prevention, and clinical interventions.

Given the shared nature, this Junior Lecturer/PhD candidate position will be part of two BSI research programmes, namely Social Development (SD) and Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment (EPT). You will be enrolled in the BSI Graduate School, which will support your research and research training. Because of the strong link between research and teaching in this position, your research topic should attract students so that you will be able to supervise Bachelor’s and Master’s theses on your topic. The focus of this position will be on a self-chosen topic that falls within the main research lines of the programmes Social Development and Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment, and connects the two programmes. Your research will contribute to fundamental and/or applied scientific knowledge in developmental and clinical psychology. Your project can focus on, for example, the interplay between biological, intrapersonal psychological, and social contextual influences on developmental psychopathology and/or child, adolescent, or adult mental health.

We are open to all ideas in the domains of developmental and clinical psychology (see our websites). However, your ideas should align with our current projects and expertise and we explicitly invite you to develop a research project that connects the two domains. For instance, you may decide to study development and mental health in (but not limited to) one or more of the following ways:

• Link a clinical question to our ongoing longitudinal studies (Nijmegen Longitudinal Study, Kandinsky Longitudinal Study) that have clear developmental psychopathology perspectives (e.g. consistently assessing externalising and internalising behaviours).
• Look for aged-related patterns in cognitive biases in mental disorders.
• Relate adult trauma to family context and social cognitive functioning.

(In the last two examples the focus is on the interface between age-related topics and mental disorders or psychological interventions.)

Profile

• You hold a Master’s/Research Master’s degree in Psychology, Behavioural Science or equivalent.
• You have experience in teaching and research, and a strong motivation to excel in both. Experience as a psychologist within the domain of mental health care would be an advantage.
• You have very good academic performance, as demonstrated by your grade transcripts and CV.
• You have very good methodological and statistical skills.
• You are willing to conduct, teach and promote open science.
• You have good writing skills, as evidenced by a writing sample, such as a chapter from your Master’s thesis, a forthcoming or published article, or a presented conference paper.
• You can teach in English. As part of the selection process, you may be invited to a job interview in English. An ability to teach in Dutch would be an advantage.
• You are a proactive and enthusiastic team player.
• You are a competent project manager, flexible and proactive, so that you will be able to finish your PhD thesis before the assigned deadline.

We are

Strategically located in Europe, Radboud University is one of the leading academic communities in the Netherlands. A place with a personal touch, where top-flight education and research take place on a beautiful green campus, in modern buildings with state-of-art facilities. You will be embedded in the School of Psychology and the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI), both part of the Faculty of Social Sciences. 

The School of Psychology currently offers excellent educational programmes to approximately 1,800 students. Each year, our Bachelor’s programme welcomes approximately 500 new students. The Master’s degree programme in Psychology has three specialisations that prepare students for an academic or professional career: Work, Organisation and Health; Behaviour Change; and Healthcare Psychology. The School of Psychology offers two Research Master’s programmes: Behavioural Science (in collaboration with the Behavioural Science Institute) and Cognitive Neuroscience (in collaboration with the Donders Institute for Cognition, Brain and Behaviour). We approach teaching as a team science endeavour and offer lecturers of the future training with a strong basis in both education and research. This Junior Lecturer/PhD Candidate position was created as part of this policy. We are housed in the new Maria Montessori building, in which you will share an office with fellow teachers and/or junior lecturers/PhD candidates.

The Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) is a multidisciplinary research institute and one of the three research institutes of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud University. Our researchers collaborate across the boundaries of psychology, educational science, and communication science. Our mission is to strengthen people through understanding the foundations of human behaviour, by creating synergy between different paradigms and by facilitating craftsmanship, curiosity and connection in scientific research. BSI has seven research programmes covering three major research themes: 1) development and learning, 2) health and mental health, and 3) social processes and communication. BSI conducts fundamental as well as applied/translational research and has excellent facilities and support for lab and field research.

Radboud University
We want to get the best out of science, others and ourselves. Why? Because this is what the world around us desperately needs. Leading research and education make an indispensable contribution to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. This is what unites the more than 24,000 students and 5,600 employees at Radboud University. And this requires even more talent, collaboration and lifelong learning. You have a part to play!

We offer

• Employment for 1.0 FTE.
• The gross monthly salary amounts to a minimum of €2,846 and a maximum of €4,490 based on a 38-hour working week, depending on previous education and number of years of relevant work experience (salary scale 10). The starting salary will be scale 10, grade 0 (€2,846) or scale 10, grade 1 (€2,979), based on qualifications and relevant experience.
• You will receive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• It concerns a temporary employment for 6 years. 
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services. Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment  and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Working for us means getting extra days off. In case of full-time employment, you can choose between 29 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the legally allotted 20.

Additional employment conditionsWork and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University’s primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

Would you like more information?

For questions about the position, please contact Prof. Giel Huschemaekers at +31 24 361 26 68 or giel.hutschemaekers@ru.nl. Alternatively, you can contact Prof. Toon Cillessen at toon.cillessen@ru.nl.

Practical information and applications

You can apply until 1 May 2022, exclusively using the button below. Kindly address your application to Prof. Giel Huschemaekers. Please fill in the application form and attach the following documents:

• A letter of motivation.
• Your CV.
• A writing sample in English (e.g. a chapter from your Master’s thesis or a forthcoming paper).

The first round of interviews will take place around mid-May. The second round of interviews will take place at the end of May. You would preferably begin employment on 1 September 2022.
We can imagine you’re curious about our application procedure. It offers a rough outline of what you can expect during the application process, how we handle your personal data and how we deal with internal and external candidates.

We drafted this vacancy to find and hire our new colleague ourselves. Recruitment agencies are kindly requested to refrain from responding.