Junior Lecturer in Mathematics

The Department of Mathematics of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam welcomes applications for two Junior Lecturer positions for 4 years in (applied) mathematics. As a Junior Lecturer, you will play a central role in higher education within the mathematics department. Your tasks will include: lecturing, supervising internships, working with students to improve their academic skills, initiating and participating in innovation projects related to educational improvement, coordination and organizational tasks (10%) related to the educational programs. The mathematics department hosts state-of-the-art bachelor and master programs in Mathematics and Business Analytics, and contributes to many other programmes at the university. The precise tasks will be determined in consultation, taking into account your background and interests as well as the needs of the department.

As a Junior Lecturer you will be encouraged to work on academic innovations and to build a portfolio as preparation for various career paths. To this end, you will have the opportunity to acquire a basic qualification in teaching at university level (‘BKO’) and to follow relevant teaching modules provided by our Center for Teaching and Learning. The junior lecturer position is ideally suited for early-career teachers. You will be working in close cooperation and with the support of enthusiastic and experienced colleagues. A full junior lecturer trajectory is 4 years and 2 months and cannot be extended beyond this period. This position therefore does not lead to permanent employment.

We aim to appoint an inspiring teacher, keen to disseminate mathematics at all levels, to classes with various backgrounds. The Junior Lecturer should be motivated by a strong desire to have an impact on students' learning, and on our educational policies. We expect the Junior Lecturer to contribute to our inclusive, welcoming, international environment.

The preferred starting date is 1 July 2026.

Applications from all groups currently under-represented in academic posts are especially encouraged. We particularly welcome applications from women and people with an ethnic minority background.

Student Wellbeing Point Peer

For next academic year, we are looking for a new team member. As a Point Peer you represent and work at the Student Wellbeing Point at VU.

The Student Wellbeing Point
In the Fall of 2021, the Student Wellbeing Point opened its doors as a student-led initiative: for students by students, without appointment, and completely anonymous. Since then, the SWPoint has become a fixed staple at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, which has continued as a permanent service since the start of 2023. At the Student Wellbeing Point, trained students will help you with wellbeing-related questions or by offering a listening ear. In our informal living room on campus you can find a safe space to take a breather, find more information about other VU services (e.g. the Student Psychological Counselors), and/or have a helping conversation with a cup of tea. With this low-threshold approach, we hope to help connect you to the right services or communities.

Job description
Your main task as Point Peer is to engage in helping conversations with students about wellbeing-related topics, both in person and digitally via the live chat, email, and DM. This task includes creating and holding a safe space at the Point, as well as being knowledgeable about wellbeing services at the VU and externally. In addition to activities within the SWPoint, you will also be an active ambassador: you will be visible on campus (during events) and will help increase awareness about Student Wellbeing at our university through events, promotional strategy, and social media content creation.

Stagiair (Digital) Marketing

Naast bachelors en masters biedt de VU ook onderwijs aan voor professionals. Wij houden ons bezig met de marketing en communicatie voor alle opleidingen voor professionals VU breed.

Als stagiair in ons team zijn je werkzaamheden erg divers. Je zult veel met het CMS (Content Management Systeem) werken, website aanpassingen doen, pagina’s SEO-proof maken, concurrentieanalyses maken, nieuwsbrieven versturen, interviews houden met alumni, testimonials schrijven en andere marketeers ondersteunen. Daarnaast krijg je ook de mogelijkheid om te werken aan je stageopdracht en onderzoek te doen.

PhD in Welfare State Transformation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

This fully funded four-year PhD position is part of an ERC Starting Grant ‘(Re)distributive Politics after the AI Revolution (REPAIR)’ funded by the European Research Council and led by Dr. Juliana Chueri at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

The broader ERC project examines how welfare state institutions and welfare politics shape political and societal responses to AI-driven labor market transformation across OECD countries. Moving beyond techno-deterministic perspectives, the project emphasizes the active role of political institutions, policies, and collective choices in shaping how AI affects work, employment, and social protection.

The project is structured around four interlinked objectives:

1. to analyze how different welfare state and labor market regimes are affected by AI-driven automation
2. to map how political actors frame AI and articulate policy responses across countries
3. to examine public support for alternative welfare and labor market reforms in response to AI
4. to develop a new theoretical understanding of welfare state adaptation and transformation in the age of artificial intelligence

The PhD project

The PhD project will primarily contribute to Objectives 1 and 4, with a focus on welfare state institutions, labor market regulation, and long-term transformation of the welfare state.

Adopting a forward-looking perspective, your research will examine how welfare states adapt to labor market transformations driven by AI. This research will enable both empirical analysis and theoretical development of context-specific pathways of welfare state transition in an emerging AI society.

Specifically, the PhD research will analyze how welfare state and labor market institutions mediate countries’ social exposure to AI-driven automation. This includes examining how institutions may:

• shape firms’ incentives to adopt labor-replacing technologies
• mitigate social risks for workers displaced by automation
• support reskilling, retraining, and labor market transitions
• and condition longer-term pathways of welfare state recalibration and transformation

The project will involve the development of comparative indicators or typologies of countries, combined with in-depth institutional analysis. Methodologically, the PhD project will employ a mixed-methods approach, combining comparative institutional analysis, quantitative cross-national data analysis, and qualitative case studies.

Your duties
As a PhD candidate, you will complete a cumulative PhD dissertation within four years, consisting of four publishable journal articles. Working closely with your supervisory team, led by Dr. Juliana Chueri, and in collaboration with the ERC research team, which includes another PhD candidate and a postdoctoral researcher, you will play an integral role in advancing Objectives 1 and 4 of the ERC project.

As part of your PhD, you will contribute to the development of an international comparative database capturing countries’ social exposure to AI-driven labor market change. You will conduct quantitative cross-national analyses using this dataset to construct a typology of welfare states and to identify ideal-type cases for in-depth institutional analysis.

You will actively participate in the intellectual life of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, present your work at international conferences and workshops, contribute to collaborative research activities within the project, and have the opportunity to undertake research stays abroad within the project’s international network of collaborators.

PhD involvement in clinical studies in Europe

Health systems face a time of unprecedented change, with spiralling costs, increasing cultural disparity in access to healthcare, research, and an infrastructure that is decades old, resulting in increasing health inequities between social groups. Furthermore, research to address the health challenges often fail to engage diverse participants that accurately represent the general population. These so-called underserved (US) and underrepresented (UR) communities often face geographic barriers as well as mistrust and prejudice by research communities. This contributes to knowledge gaps in research on many diseases and conditions, preventative care and treatments in different demographic groups, thereby widening and deepening existing healthcare disparities.

It is widely acknowledged that patient centeredness and patient involvement can contribute to public accountability of clinical research and to more effective translation of research outcomes into care practices. However, patient centeredness and involvement are often addressed superficially, focusing solely on patient choice and preferences based on input by easy-to-reach patient groups. Achieving meaningful and diversity-sensitive patient-centeredness necessitates a transition from predominantly disease-oriented, top-down patient involvement tools to more integral inclusive approaches.

Contributing to such approaches is the aim of a large EU project, in which we offer a PhD position that focusses on the broad research question: how to include a wide variety of groups, including currently US and UR communities, in clinical studies in order to enhance patient centredness in intervention design and implementation? Exploratory studies will be conducted to understand mechanisms of exclusion and identify more effective approaches to patient centredness and involvement. Practical tools, frameworks, and training modules will be co-created together with patient groups and diverse stakeholders.

Your duties

• to create an agreed understanding (definition/categorization) of US/UR populations in Europe using literature review, real-world data, interviews and expert workshops
• to identify populations missing from clinical studies using a mixed-methods case study approach, with different data sources, as well as expert interviews with e.g. industry, clinical researchers, patient representatives and regulators
• to co-create a model of stakeholder engagement and collaboration through literature review, retrospective studies and stakeholder workshops
• to assist in the co-creation of approaches and related tools and training programs essential for patient engagement, including recruitment and retention of US/UR patients, in clinical studies

You will work in inter- and transdisciplinary teams and engage with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds (patient groups, academia, healthcare, industry, regulatory bodies, etc.). The work is typically collaborative and publications will be co-authored by the research team.

Next to your research, resulting in a PhD thesis, you will be a coaching lecturer in Bachelor and Master courses taught by the Athena Institute (15% of your time). For this duty you will be able to receive training.