PhD Mediated Sciences: how social media impacts climate communication practice.

Do you want to do field research on how social media platforms influence climate science communication in practice? In this PhD project, you will study the experiences, routine practices, and ideas of science communicators who use social media platforms such as X and LinkedIn to communicate academic knowledge about climate and sustainability. The project will investigate this by looking at concrete case studies within the Dutch context (within sites of commercial, academic, journalistic science communication/public engagement). The purpose is to understand how platform features like engagement analytics (e.g. views, likes) or perceptions of the affordances of interfaces become embedded within these communicators’ norms of content creation. How do practitioners seek to uphold science’s public credibility in their work as they participate in attention economies that have been shown to incentivize disinformation? These questions are all the more urgent and societally relevant today, because the rise of social media platforms has multiplied science communication actors and is challenging the dominance of traditional science communicators. This PhD research project will be situated within the team-project (Vidi), Mediated Science: Expanding How We Study Social Media’s Influence on Climate Disinformation led by Donya Alinejad at Utrecht University’s Department of Media and Culture Studies.

Your main responsibilities will include:

• Conducting research of excellent empirical and analytical quality in close collaboration with the PI and the Postdoc;
• Publishing in leading international peer-reviewed journals and contributing to edited volumes or other publications where relevant;
• Presenting research findings at international conferences, workshops, and academic networks;
• Supporting as well as independently organizing local and international academic events;
• Meaningfully engaging with societal stakeholders where relevant;
• Contributing to the project’s public communication strategy and knowledge dissemination activities;
• Managing your own project under the guidance of the supervision team;
• Participating actively in the intellectual life of the research group, including seminars, reading groups, and collaborative writing processes.

Postdoc in Computational Neuroscience of Adversity and Mental Health

The Department of Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University has a job opening for a Postdoctoral Researcher. You will analyse and publish findings from a large multimodal dataset including fMRI, salivary cortisol, behavioural tasks, and questionnaire data from young adults (age 18–24 years) with a history of childhood adversity (Buimer et al., 2025, preprint https://europepmc.org/article/ppr/ppr1071622). The project examines how adversity affects social learning and self-esteem, and how these processes contribute to mental health outcomes. You will apply advanced statistical and computational modelling approaches (e.g. reinforcement learning models, hierarchical modelling) and contribute to high-impact publications. You can present your work at national and international conferences and collaborate with researchers in experimental psychopathology, computational psychiatry, and clinical science. You will spend approximately 20% of your time on teaching, either through lecturing or supervising student research projects. Students may support your research by collecting pilot data for grant applications or preprocessing datasets. You will also be supported in developing your own research line and writing grant applications.

This position is initially offered for one year. Within this period, you will:

1. Analyse an fMRI dataset using a social evaluation paradigm developed by Dr Will (Will et al., 2017; eLife). You will apply computational models to investigate how experimentally manipulated self-esteem influences social learning in individuals with a history of childhood adversity. This work is intended to result in a first-author paper;
2. Analyse a second dataset collected by members of our department (e.g., Dr Gerritsen & Dr Krypotos) aligned with your expertise and interests, for example on computational modelling of avoidance (see Krypotos et al., 2022, Pain), ecological momentary assessment data on avoidance and pain, and intensive longitudinal data on sex hormones and mental health (see Doornweerd & Gerritsen 2025, Psychological Medicine). This work is intended to result in a second first-author paper.;
3. Prepare grant applications in collaboration with researchers in our department working on depression, trauma, anxiety, CBT, and hormonal influences on mental health, with the aim of securing follow-up funding and extending the position.

Postdoctoral Researcher “Eating Disorders"

As postdoctoral researcher you will contribute to research on eating disorders and teach in our Bachelor and/or Master Psychology program. In this role you will be working with dr. Lot Sternheim and be part of the Clinical Psychology: cognitive and emotional processes research group (Chair: Prof. Elske Salemink). You will also have the opportunity to work together with eating disorder researchers from both the Utrecht University and clinical eating disorder institutions.Fifty percent of the research time will be allocated to research projects on eating disorders in Southern African countries and their correlates (i.e. body image, trauma, globalization and food insecurity). The other fifty percent of research time can be used by the Postdoctoral Researcher to set up or establish their own research line, as long as this research is eating disorder related and in agreement with dr. Lot Sternheim. The core tasks of the Postdoctoral Researcher include (jointly) designing and conducting studies, analysing data, preparing manuscripts, and presenting findings at international conferences. Twenty percent of the position involves teaching responsibilities, to be agreed upon jointly with the department and the postdoc; these may include supervising BA and MA thesis students, supervising MA internship students, and teaching working groups.

This role provides a unique balance of mentorship, collaboration, and research autonomy, ideal for early-career scientists eager to advance their academic eating disorder profile in a supportive, innovative environment.

Managementassistent Farmacie

Je werkt samen met een collega op ons afdelingssecretariaat en zorgt voor optimale ondersteuning van de medewerkers van de afdeling. Je maakt veel gebruik van MS Office en Teams en denkt graag mee over het digitaliseren van werkprocessen. Verder bestaan je werkzaamheden onder andere uit:

• Je ondersteunt het dagelijks bestuur door vergaderingen te plannen, voor te bereiden en te notuleren. Daarnaast bewaak je de opvolging van acties.
• Je bent aanspreekpunt voor praktische vragen van collega’s en gasten en bereidt de komst van nieuwe medewerkers en studenten voor.
• Je bewaakt de voortgang van acties op het gebied van personeelszaken en financiën, bijvoorbeeld door het controleren van facturen en declaraties.
• Je verzorgt de algemene secretariële ondersteuning van de afdeling, zoals agendabeheer, correspondentie en de organisatie van evenementen.

Je denkt mee over het verder verbeteren van onze dienstverlening, met oog voor kwaliteit en resultaat. Je werkt zelfstandig op de afdeling, in goede afstemming met collega's en flexibel aansluitend bij de dagelijkse dynamiek. Binnen de afdeling staat samenwerking centraal en communiceren we open en direct.

Business Developer Life Sciences

Als Business Developer Life Sciences werk je aan meerdere projecten tegelijkertijd en ben je eindverantwoordelijk voor het maken van een business case en strategie rondom de commerciële potentie van wetenschappelijke innovaties en de bescherming van intellectueel eigendom. Samen met de wetenschapper(s) en onze jurist vorm je een team om een commerciële deal te maken met
een private partij. Dit kan ook een spin off zijn die je in hun opstart traject faciliteert.

In deze functie zijn de belangrijkste verantwoordelijkheden:

• Scouten en screenen van (uit)vindingen en ideeën van onderzoekers op potentie
  voor commerciële ontwikkeling.
• Onderzoekers begeleiden in de stappen van onderzoek naar de markt o.a. op het
  gebied van intellectueel eigendom, samenwerking met marktpartners, financiering
  en startup support.
• In samenwerking met betrokken onderzoekers, marktpartijen en juristen de
  onderhandelingen leiden om tot commerciële licenties
• Analyseren en adviseren ten aanzien van het business plan en (IP) development plan
• Ontwikkelen en onderhouden van relevante kennis en relaties binnen de
  kennisinstellingen, het bedrijfsleven en ecosysteem partners;