Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is a leading, innovative and growing university that is at the heart of society and actively contributes to new developments in teaching and research. Our university has ten faculties which span a wide range of disciplines, as well as several institutes, foundations, research centres, and support services. Its campus is located in the fastest-growing economic region in the Netherlands (the Zuidas district of Amsterdam), and provides work for over 4,500 staff and scientific education for more than 23,000 students.

The PhD study on Research Integrity is part of the research project “The Epistemic Responsibilities of the University” (funded by the Templeton World Charity Organization and co-funded by the four Amsterdam academic institutions). The aim of the project is to analyze, ground and understand the determinants of research integrity and designing effective ways to foster responsible conduct of research by performing surveys, focus group interviews and interventions.

The start of the PhD trajectory is planned for January 2017, an earlier start date is negotiable,  with a total duration of 4 years. The candidate will be part of a research team of +/- 10 other scientists from the department of Philosophy within the Faculty of Humanities at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and will closely collaborate with the department of epidemiology and biostatistics of the VU University Medical Center.

We are looking for a PhD candidate that is interested in answering the following questions; what is responsible conduct of research? How do scientists perceive the current scientific culture and the role of scientific integrity. And what are the challenges of the current research climate?
Under supervision of postdoc (Dr. J.K. Tijdink) and professor of Methodology and Integrity (Prof. dr. L.M. Bouter) the PhD student will find empirical answers to the abovementioned questions using qualitative and quantitative research methods. The results will lead to several international publications and to a PhD dissertation after 4 years. The description of the project is available upon request.

Tasks
•The PhD Student will work under supervision of the members of the research group
•With the help of several validated  questionnaires, the organizational research climate and publication pressure will be surveyed among 2 universities and 2 university medical centers in Amsterdam.
•With the use of a semi-structured protocol, the PhD student will perform focus group interviews
•The PhD student coordinates and manages the data collection
•The PhD student performs the data analyses under supervision of the research team
•The trajectory will result in 4-5 manuscripts for scientific journals
•The trajectory will result in a PhD dissertation including these manuscripts
•The PhD student will participate in the vocational training in research methods and other courses that are part of the VU PhD training program.

Requirements
We are looking for a highly motivated and talented candidate who is both passionate about academic research, and aspires to improve responsible research practices.. The candidate should have a finished Master degree in Psychology, Social Sciences, Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences or a related discipline with a specific interest in research methods. You already have participated in several research projects and have some experience in performing literature research, organizing and performing empirical (qualitative) research, the use of statistical methods in data analysis and experience in writing a scientific publication. As you will be working with academics from various disciplinary fields, strong communicative skills and the ability to connect with different target groups are important for this project. Moreover, you need to be curious and persistent in the execution of your research. You are a team player, are capable of working independent, you are creative, ambitious and like to initiate new ideas or proposals. You are willing to improve yourself and your skills, you are capable to reflect on yourself and others, and are reliable, eager to learn and conscientious. You have a flexible work spirit and have excellent planning and organizational skills. Finally, because of the nature of the project, we prefer a candidate who speaks the Dutch language fluently and has advanced English language skills in speaking and writing.

See for more information and application the VU corporate website.