Postdoc on value-of-information from validating clinical prediction models and AI

Job Description
Artificial intelligence (AI) can support diagnosis and prognosis, and support optimization of patient care. Whether this is achievable depends on the reliability of an AI-model. Testing of AI is often done on small numbers, and AI-models are not equally useful in all locations and patient populations. Reliability can be measured with value-of-information measures that reflect the risks of uncertainty, expressed as the expected number of misdiagnoses. This allows physicians and policymakers to decide for each AI-model: is it ready for use, or is more research needed?

In this project, you will develop and disseminate these value-of-information measures. In this role, you will conduct interdisciplinary research at the intersection of statistics and health economics to assess and enhance the reliability of AI models in healthcare. You will share your findings through academic publications and presentations. To support the dissemination of methods developed in this project, you will engage with healthcare decision-makers and AI researchers, organize workshops, and develop guidance on the use of the methods for different stakeholders. You mentor junior team members, supporting their academic and professional growth. Additionally, you will actively contribute to the institute's academic environment by participating in seminars, workshops, and collaborative research.

Your daily worksite is the Department of Epidemiology at Maastricht University. Your work is part of a VIDI project, which will be carried out by a team of 2 PhD students and one postdoctoral researcher, under the supervision of Dr. Laure Wynants. You will have local collaborators from various departments (epidemiologists, clinicians, statisticians, health-economists, data scientists) and will benefit from access to an international network of experts in clinical risk prediction modelling and value-of-information analysis.

Your day-to-days tasks and responsibilities are to:

• Develop new predictive performance and value-of-information metrics;
• Propose computational algorithms to estimate these metrics;
• Design and execute simulation studies to evaluate the above;
• Develop workshops and guidance documents for diverse stakeholders;
• Provide support and guidance to PhD students to uphold research quality and drive project progress;
• Deepen subject-matter knowledge trough literature review and active engagement with current research developments;
• Write up, publish and present findings;
• Assist in teaching activities.

Requirements
You are interested in interdisciplinary research, bridging medical statistics and health-economics. The ideal candidate should possess strong analytical and critical thinking skills and have excellent communication skills. Collaboration, leadership, time management and organizational skills are vital for balancing multiple responsibilities. Additionally, adaptability and a proactive learning attitude are key to staying updated with the latest developments in the field and responding to feedback or challenges during the research process.

The candidate:

• Has a PhD in Statistics, Health-Economics, or equivalent,
• Has proven ability to conduct high-quality, independent methodological research,
• Has strong expertise (as evidenced by a publication record) in one or more of:
  
  • validation of diagnostic or prognostic models created with regression or supervised machine learning;
  • HTA of diagnostic or prognostic models created with regression or supervised machine learning;
  • decision curve analysis;
  • value-of-information analysis.
• Has experience working in interdisciplinary teams or a strong desire to do so;
• Masters scientific English for speaking, reading, and writing;
• Can program in R or is proficient in another language and willing to learn R.

Knowledge of or experience in clinical epidemiology is considered an asset.

PhD in Epidemiology on value-of-information from validating clinical prediction models and AI

Job Description
Artificial intelligence (AI) can support diagnosis and prognosis, and support optimization of patient care. Whether this is achievable depends on the reliability of an AI-model. Testing of AI is often done on small numbers, and AI-models are not equally useful in all locations and patient populations. Reliability can be measured with value-of-information measures that reflect the risks of uncertainty, expressed as the expected number of misdiagnoses. This allows physicians and policymakers to decide for each AI-model: is it ready for use, or is more research needed?

In this project, you will develop and refine these value-of-information measures. In this role, you will conduct interdisciplinary research at the intersection of statistics and health economics to assess and enhance the reliability of AI models in healthcare. To support the dissemination of your methods, you will create user-friendly statistical software, such as an R package. You will share your findings through academic publications, conference presentations, and engagements with stakeholders. Additionally, you will actively contribute to the institute's academic environment by participating in seminars, workshops, and collaborative research.

Your daily worksite is the Department of Epidemiology at Maastricht University. Your work is part of a VIDI project, which will be carried out by a team of 2 PhD students and one postdoctoral researcher, under the supervision of Dr. Laure Wynants. You will have local collaborators from various departments (epidemiologists, clinicians, statisticians, health-economists, data scientists) and will benefit from access to an international network of experts in clinical risk prediction modelling and value-of-information analysis.

Your day-to-days tasks and responsibilities are to:

• Develop new predictive performance and value-of-information metrics;
• Propose computational algorithms to estimate these metrics;
• Design and execute simulation studies to evaluate the above;
• Develop and test statistical software;
• Deepen subject-matter knowledge trough literature review and active engagement with current research developments;
• Work closely with academic advisors and collaborators to ensure research quality;
• Write up, publish and present findings;
• Assist with teaching duties.

Requirements
You have strong analytical skills and an interest in interdisciplinary research, bridging medical statistics and health-economics. The ideal candidate will be highly self-motivated, with excellent time management skills to balance research, coursework, and deadlines. Strong communication abilities are essential for communicating research findings and collaborating effectively with peers and supervisors. The candidate should demonstrate resilience and adaptability, managing challenges and feedback with a positive, solutions-oriented approach. Teamwork, critical thinking, and the ability to work independently with a pro-active attitude will be key to thriving in this dynamic research environment.

The candidate:

• Has a Master’s degree in Statistics, Health-Economics, or equivalent;
• Has knowledge of / experience with one or more of:
  
  • validation of diagnostic or prognostic models created with regression or supervised machine learning;
  • Health technology assessment of diagnostic or prognostic models created with regression or supervised machine learning;
  • decision curve analysis;
  • value-of-information analysis.
• Has a strong interest to bridge different academic or practical disciplines,
• Masters scientific English for speaking, reading, and writing,
• Can program in R or is proficient in another language and willing to learn R.

Knowledge of or experience in clinical epidemiology is considered an asset.

Financieel administratief management ondersteuner

Functieomschrijving
Wij zijn op zoek naar een enthousiaste collega om het management van twee vakgroepen binnen de School of Business and Economics (SBE) te ondersteunen op het gebied van bedrijfsvoering.

Wat ga je doen?
Een van de strategische pijlers binnen de Universiteit Maastricht (UM) is een omgeving te creëren waarin iedereen zich thuis voelt. Het doel is samen met studenten, collega’s en alumni een hechte gemeenschap te vormen. Als ondersteuner van het management van de vakgroepen Microeconomics and Public Economics (MPE) en Macro, International and Labour Economics (MILE) speel je hierin een belangrijke rol. Jij zorgt er namelijk voor dat de dagelijkse bedrijfsvoering effectief en efficiënt verloopt. Hierin heb je een constaterende, uitvoerende en adviserende rol. Je hebt dan ook een gevarieerd takenpakket dat onder andere bestaat uit:

• Controleren, adviseren en bijhouden van financiële planning;
• Organisatie, administratie en bijhouden van onderwijsplanning;
• Ondersteuning bij HR gerelateerde activiteiten;
• Opstellen van actielijsten en het bewaken van deadlines;
• Informatievoorziening voor collega’s: je maakt collega’s wegwijs in regelingen en processen.

Functie-eisen
Wie zoeken wij?
Jij hebt een proactieve, sociale houding. Je staat klaar voor je collega’s, bent oplossingsgericht en gaat zorgvuldig te werk. Daarnaast heb je:

• HBO werk- en denkniveau;
• Uitstekende beheersing van de Nederlandse en Engelse taal in woord en geschrift;
• Cijfermatig inzicht en boekhoudkundige kennis;
• Sterk ontwikkelde communicatieve vaardigheden;
• Ervaring binnen een dynamische en complexe omgeving zoals de universiteit is een pré.

Post-Doc in Making and Design in Hospitals

Job Description
The Department of Society Studies is looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to undertake exciting research about hospital practices. You will be part of a new team doing research helping to address the escalating issue of clinical waste. The project is called The Upcycled Clinic: A global ethnography of material creativity in contemporary medicine. The focus of this European Research Council funded project is on hospitals and clinics, which have become sites of disposability in recent years. Attempts to address this can be top-down and technocratic, often still reliant on a mode of further production. The Upcycled Clinic takes a different route into the problem. It focuses on creative practices already happening in the clinic, involving making the most of existing materials. You will be part of a team conducting research around the world where such improvisations are highlighted due to different constraints.

The project focuses on the unexplored yet potentially insightful practices of material creativity where existing materials are being repurposed for another use. This post-doc will focus on spaces in or connected to hospitals, either formally or informally, such as makerspaces and design labs. Makerspaces have been studied critically and ethnographically by scholars (e.g. Richterich 2022), and in the U.S. build on a long-celebrated nation-building history of “great tinkerers” (Foege 2013). The post-doc will look specifically at hospital makerspaces, a yet to be explored site in social studies of medicine. Another well-established approach to practices relevant to this project comes from design. Examples of hospital design spaces include the Helix Centre at St Mary’s Hospital, in the UK. Existing examples of creative material practices in both sites include designing mask patterns, feeding tube holders and carer kits.

The goal of this postdoc will be to examine what is happening in these experimental spaces, and the role of making and design spaces in hospitals more generally. Two cities have already been identified as fruitful places for exploration: London where Helix is situated, as well as important archives on material experimentation at the Wellcome and city makerspaces active during the pandemic; as well as Boston, with initiatives such as Maker Health, which aims to build the “health making capabilities” of hospital staff. In your role you will design an ethnographic research project around these sites, with the potential to adapt the fieldwork program depending on your own research, interests and contacts.

Relatedly, you will also work with the project team to develop workshops involving making and design to be co-designed in and for hospitals and other clinical environments. These workshops may relate to themes of upcycling, repurposing or other aspects of the project. In the social sciences, text and talk still takes priority over making (Jungnickel 2018). This project thus aims to expand social science methods, drawing inspiration from colleagues thinking otherwise with making, such as speculative sewing (Jungnickel 2023), design ethnography (Gunn, Otto and Smith 2013) and ethnographic experiments (Estalella and Sánchez Criado 2018). Thus one of the goals of the post-doc will be to help shape “making” as a guiding principle for a critical technoscientific engagement with medicine, one that considers radical reconfigurations that might result if the role of collaborators and the materials produced are thought about differently.

You will work in a team environment led by the Principle Investigator (PI) (Professor Anna Harris), along with two other post-docs, a PhD, a project manager and research assistants. You will also receive guidance with your work by an external advisor and local advisors. Sharing research material and comparison with the other cases within this team environment will be part of the project, and there will be opportunities for visiting another research group for inspiration.

As a postdoc on the project you will specifically be involved in:

• Designing your own research project within the scope of the larger study.
• Conducting comparative ethnographic fieldwork in design labs and makerspaces in/connected to hospitals, in the UK and US (approx. 3 - 4 months each site).
• Publishing within 3.5 years with respect to the project, including academic articles, guidelines and training material (single and co-authored).
• Taking a leadership role in designing and documenting the making workshops, liaising with the Marketing and Communication team and other local colleagues as relevant.
• Participating in and helping to organise group meetings, events and workshops.
• Optional: teaching 0.1 - 0.2 fte such as tutoring in Bachelor courses and/or Bachelor or Masters theses supervision.

Thus in this role you will have the opportunity to develop further in ethnographic skills, writing and teamwork and have access to further trainings as necessary and according to interest. There is also the option to undertake, if desired, teacher training and take Dutch language classes.

In sum, you will be able to do a post-doc project with considerable scope for creativity, in an exciting team project with inspiring colleagues conducting cutting edge research. You will be conducting research with the potential for significant societal impact in relation to sustainability in healthcare, while working on furthering and strengthening the role of creative methods in ethnographic research.

What we are looking for
All team members hired in the The Upcycled Clinic project will be chosen because they have evidence of the ability to carry out or be sensitive to qualitative research skills, especially ethnography, so that we can quickly build together the more innovative methodological elements of the team project.

For this particular position we are looking for someone who is open, willing, and excited about doing research in a team and willing to engage in opening up ethnographic methods with design and/or making approaches. Specifically we are looking for someone who has:

• A completed PhD (or assessment concluded no later than end of February 2025) in relevant fields such as: anthropology; design ethnography; interactional design; industrial design; sustainable innovation; experience design; industrial design; design research; or in other related ethnographic and design fields (necessary).
• Experience as a designer or maker (necessary).
• Either ethnographic fieldwork experience or demonstration of an ethnographic sensibility (preferred).
• Experience organising and facilitating workshops (or related public engagement events) (preferred).
• English language competency, C1 level, academic English (necessary).
• Is willing to move to Maastricht or the nearby area (necessary).
• Is willing to help develop the creative methods used in the whole project, meet deadlines and work towards shared goals (necessary).

Candidates should be available to start the position no later than 1st June 2025 and free to travel to US and UK sometime between Nov 2025 and Nov 2026.

People & Organisation adviseur

Functieomschrijving
Ben jij een creatieve denker die graag bouwt aan duurzame oplossingen? Als People & Organisation adviseur bij UM speel je een belangrijke rol in het begeleiden van verandertrajecten en de ontwikkeling van teams. Je werkt nauw samen met leidinggevenden en andere stakeholders om teams en afdelingen toekomstbestendig te maken. Je adviseert en ondersteunt het management op tactisch en strategisch niveau en denkt mee over onderwerpen zoals leiderschapsontwikkeling, teamdynamiek en strategische personeelsplanning. Je schroomt daarnaast niet om operationele taken op te pakken als de situatie daarom vraagt. Je schakelt soepel tussen beleid en praktijk en weet leidinggevenden te inspireren met heldere inzichten en praktische oplossingen. Daarnaast lever je een bijdrage aan een van de programmalijnen binnen onze nieuwe People Strategy, waarbij je je richt op concrete en impactvolle initiatieven die aansluiten bij de dagelijkse realiteit van onze organisatie.

De afdeling P&D, onderdeel van het Maastricht University Office, speelt een sleutelrol in het vormgeven en uitvoeren van de People Strategy van de universiteit. Binnen P&D werken diverse disciplines samen, o.a. in het People Support Office, Talent Development team en binnen Connect & Recruit. Als People & Organisation adviseur vorm je, samen met je 25 collega’s, het People & Organisation adviesteam, dat naast advisering van management en medewerkers, de komende jaren sterk inzet op de ontwikkeling tot strategisch adviseur.

Wij zoeken een gedreven professional die met enthousiasme en visie bijdraagt aan het succes van onze organisatie. Specifiek zoeken wij iemand die:

• Ruime ervaring heeft met verander- en ontwikkeltrajecten binnen complexe organisaties;
• Een innovatieve blik meebrengt en ruimte ziet voor nieuwe manieren van werken;
• Communicatief sterk is en effectief schakelt tussen verschillende lagen binnen de organisatie;
• Een sterke focus heeft op samenwerking en verbinding, met oog voor zowel mens als resultaat.

Functie-eisen
Ben jij een empathische verbinder met een strategische blik, die met creativiteit en daadkracht verandering weet te realiseren? En steek je graag de handen uit de mouwen om jouw ideeën in de praktijk te brengen? Dan zoeken we jou! Met de volgende vaardigheden en ervaring maak je het verschil:

• Een afgeronde HBO- of academische opleiding op het gebied van HR, juridisch, Arbeids- en Organisatiepsychologie, of een vergelijkbare richting;
• Minimaal 5 jaar ervaring als tactisch-strategisch adviseur, bij voorkeur in een dynamische, bestuurlijk-politieke omgeving;
• Uitstekende mondelinge en schriftelijke vaardigheden in zowel Nederlands als Engels, of de bereidheid om deze te ontwikkelen;
• Omgevingsbewustzijn en het vermogen om effectief te navigeren in een complexe organisatie;
• Een ondernemende instelling, waarbij je initiatief toont en daadkracht combineert met empathie.