Postdoc in FitTape, Self-Reporting Smart Tapes for Material Passport and Health Monitoring

Job description

Project Vision

Civil infrastructure, industrial assets, and energy systems are ageing under increasing loads and harsh environments. Today’s monitoring solutions are often expensive, energy-dependent, and difficult to scale—limiting widespread adoption.

FitTape aims to change this.

FitTape is a self-reporting, zero-power smart polymer tape designed for structural health monitoring and material passports. By providing direct, visual feedback on structural condition, FitTape enables intuitive inspection, reduces reliance on costly non-destructive testing, and supports data-driven lifecycle decisions. The technology is currently at TRL 4 and is being developed within a funded TU Delft Take-off project.

I am looking to hire an entrepreneurially minded engineer or researcher to join this Take-off project and help translate FitTape from a validated concept into a commercially viable product.

Location: TU Delt, Netherlands
Start date: 10 June
Duration: 6 months
Future perspective: intention to continue together in a co-founder role if there is a strong mutual fit.

About the Role
This is not a traditional research position.

This role is strongly oriented toward commercialisation, customer discovery, and early venture development, while building on a solid technical foundation. You will work closely with me to:

• Translate FitTape toward real-world use cases (infrastructure, construction, industry).
• Engage with potential customers, asset owners, and stakeholders.
• Ssupport prototype development and validation.
• Help shape the spin-out strategy and scale-up pathway.

Job requirements
This opportunity is particularly suited for someone who:

• Has a technical background (materials, engineering, sensing, mechanics, or related fields),
• Is already based in the Netherlands,
• Has Dutch language skills and/or strong communication skills (a strong plus),
• Is motivated to work at the interface of technology and business.
• Is looking to transition from research into entrepreneurship.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.
Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.

Assistant Professor 2 : Datascience in Sport and Health

Are you a data scientist with a PhD degree in Human Movement Sciences, Biomedical Engineering or a related field? Do you want to conduct cutting-edge research and contribute to high-quality education in an international academic environment?
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam invites applications for an Assistant Professor position in Data Science in Sport and Health within the Department of Human Movement Sciences.

You have:

• a PhD in Human Movement Sciences or a related field (e.g. Biomedical Engineering, Psychology, Neuroscience, or Physiology);
• demonstrated training and expertise in data science
• a clear affinity with lecturing and student supervision
• experience with or strong interest in the application of data science in sport, health and/or rehabilitation, preferably in domains such as biomechanics, physiology, neuroscience or motor learning.
• a publication record in peer-reviewed international journals
• experience with acquiring external funding or academic entrepreneurship;
• a university teaching qualification (Dutch: BKO), or willingness to obtaining one.

You are able to teach in Dutch or willing to learn the Dutch language.

Two Postdoctoral Researchers on AI & Politics

Investigate the intersection of AI and contemporary politics
We are seeking for two ambitious postdoctoral researchers for the interdisciplinary Research Priority Area AI & Politics. As artificial intelligence (AI) diffuses through our lives, it reconfigures central aspects of politics and society as we know it. It affects political deliberation as well as how and to whom public services are delivered. It also transforms political issues into technical problems to be solved through private means, thus replacing or democratic institutions with private interests. Fuelled by rapidly expanding automated data collection, AI is an influential tool in the hands of the powerful, while also opening novel avenues for resistance.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences hosts the Research Priority Area in 'AI & Politics', which stimulates the interdisciplinary research in this field for a period of five years. The leading question for this RPA is: how does AI change contemporary politics, broadly conceived, and how is AI development and application itself shaped by political dynamics? The core team of the RPA currently consists of Claes de Vreese, Daniel Mügge, Hilde Voorveld, Theo Araujo, Valentina Carraro, and Jaron Harambam.

What are you going to do
The overall aim of the RPA is to strengthen and fuse the expertise of the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences about the interplay between AI and politics, and its societal consequences. This RPA embraces a broad definition of politics, spanning both formal and informal dynamics through which societal challenges and conflicts are processed in a variety of contexts. As a postdoctoral researcher you will play a key role in reaching these aims by conducting a research project on AI & Politics that focuses on at least one of the four dimensions in which AI challenges traditional political dynamics:

1. Investigating the impact of AI on politics
2. The politics of AI governance
3. How does (largely private) AI do traditional administrative “political” jobs
4. When, how and why is the use of AI politicized?

More extensive descriptions of these themes and potential topics and research questions can be found here: Artificial Intelligence & Politics - University of Amsterdam (uva.nl) This position gives you the possibility to shape your own research project within one of the four dimensions within the theme of AI & Politics.

Responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

• Developing, conducting, and publishing empirical research on AI & Politics, and its societal consequences
• Presenting your work at (inter)national conferences
• Writing white papers and blog posts aiming to disseminate academic knowledge among relevant stakeholders outside academia;
• Contributing to the overall RPA AI & Politics program in terms of community building, events, research meetings, and activities;
• Helping to write grant-proposals;

What do you have to offer
You have:

• A(n) (almost completed) PhD in one of the Social Sciences, such as Communication Science, Sociology, or Human Geography;
• A clear and demonstrable research interest in the topic of the project;
• Scientific creativity and productivity, as demonstrated in recent publications in international peer-reviewed journals and peer-reviewed conferences;
• Excellent (empirical) research skills using social scientific methods;
• The ability, willingness, and commitment to do autonomous work in a multidisciplinary team that includes researchers from ASCoR and AISSR;
• Experience with organizing workshops, lecture series, or similar events;
• An excellent written and spoken command of English;

You are:

• Intellectually curious and eager to learn;
• Passionate about contributing through your research to the RPA and knowledge on the interplay between AI and politics, and its societal consequences.
• Willing to learn and think across disciplines and integrate knowledge from different academic disciplines;
• A team player with strong interpersonal skills for building contact with colleagues and (external) stakeholders
• Proactive.

If the vacancy appeals to you, but you are doubting whether you might be THE person we are looking for, please do apply. We encourage all qualified applicants, particularly including minorities, women, people with disabilities, and members of other groups underrepresented in academia to apply. We wish to create a team in which members can contribute in their own, unique ways. Complementarity, not homogeneity, is what we are looking for.

What else do we offer you

• access to research funds to conduct studies and attend international conferences
• possibilities for further professional development and education.
• a position in which initiative and input are highly valued
• an enthusiastic and warm team that is open to new colleagues
• a favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants
• an inspiring academic and international working environment in the heart of Amsterdam.

Depending on your interest and the needs of the educational institutes of the department in which the candidate will be placed, it may be possible to extend the duration of the contract by adding up to 0.2 FTE of teaching in the appointment depending on approval from the teaching institutes. The duration of the contract will then be extended. This is determined after the interview process.

You will work here
The postdoctoral researchers will be part of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) or the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), depending on the profile of the candidate. In the AISSR, researchers would be hosted by either the Department of Sociology or the Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development.

A challenging work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organisation. The social and behavioural sciences play a leading role in addressing the major societal challenges faced by the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam, now and in the future.

PhD Position Application of eXtended Reality for Inclusive Wayfinding and Infrastructure Design 1

Job description
As cities become denser and more intricate, wayfinding and navigating urban environments during travel is becoming increasingly challenging for people with disabilities. Outdoor spaces, indoor areas and transport facilities connecting them can become formidable barriers for people with disabilities during a travel journey.

The diverse needs of individuals with different types of disabilities further complicate this issue, as each group may face unique obstacles during wayfinding and navigation. There is an urgent need for innovative approaches and methods to design and test accessible and inclusive infrastructure and wayfinding systems.

This PhD position is part of the NWO-funded BRIDGE-XR project, which aims to provide a comprehensive examination of accessibility barriers in the Dutch public transportation and public space context. You will focus on employing Virtual Reality technologies to design and test inclusive wayfinding systems and infrastructure.

In this role you will:

• Develop a theoretical framework for designing accessible and inclusive infrastructure and wayfinding systems.
• Develop VR simulators for people with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive disabilities.
• Conduct VR experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of inclusive infrastructure and wayfinding systems.
• Employ real-world testing to evaluate inclusive solutions in real-world urban settings.
• Collaborate closely with other PhD researchers and project partners across different work packages to ensure that findings contribute to the shared goals of creating accessible and inclusive travel journeys.

Your home base will be the Mobility in eXtended Reality Lab in the Department of Transport & Planning within the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. Our diverse team of researchers, project managers, and professors shares the ambition to create smart, sustainable, and equitable mobility systems. In our 12 collaborative labs we apply advanced technologies such as sensing, data analytics, modelling, and AI to turn scientific research into real-world impact. You’ll join an open, supportive environment that fosters learning and professional growth.

Job requirements
Must haves:

• Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., transportation, human-computer interaction, architecture, cognitive science, or related disciplines).
• Experience with XR technologies, including development in Unity or Unreal Engine.
• Demonstrable experimental and analytical skills, including designing and conducting studies, programming (e.g., Python, C#), and statistical analysis.
• Proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English and ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in serious game development or interactive simulation design.
• Curiosity-driven mindset with openness to interdisciplinary research across mobility, HCI, and urban planning.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.

PhD Position: Network Neuroscience of Language at the Donders Centre for Cognition

The ERC project investigates language as an emergent property of distributed brain networks, integrating white-matter connectivity, functional neuroimaging and individual variability. Moving beyond classical localisationist accounts, the project aims to understand how language functions arise from large-scale network organisation and how these networks differ across individuals.

You will join the ERC Consolidator project EMERGENCE, which investigates how language networks arise from multi-scale neurobiological variability. The project combines multimodal neuroimaging (structural MRI, diffusion-weighted imaging, functional MRI), advanced connectomics, and receptor-enriched modelling to characterise individual differences in language organisation across healthy participants and clinical populations (e.g. stroke, brain tumour and neurodegenerative conditions). You will contribute to data preprocessing, and advanced analysis, including tractography, network modelling and computational approaches to identify latent dimensions of language network organisation.

You will be embedded within the Donders Graduate School and will also participate in the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Language Sciences. This provides access to a structured and interdisciplinary training curriculum, advanced methodological courses, transferable skills workshops, and a vibrant international doctoral community. Within this framework, you will develop and implement reproducible analysis pipelines, contribute to hypothesis generation, collaborate across institutes, and disseminate findings through publications and international conferences.

Your teaching tasks are limited and integrated into the training trajectory, typically amounting to approximately 10% of your working time. These may include supervising Bachelor’s or Master’s theses, assisting in practical courses or tutorials and contributing to guest lectures within relevant programmes at Radboud University.

You will be supervised by Dr Stephanie Forkel (PI) and co-supervised by senior researchers affiliated with the Donders Institute at Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.

More information about pursuing a PhD at Radboud University can be found here: working as a PhD candidate.