Postdoc: Climate, human behaviour and dengue forecasting

Postdoc: Climate, human behaviour and dengue forecasting Do you want to understand how climate and human responses shape disease risk? Join FEEL at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and help exploring whether emotions can improve dengue forecasts.

• Nieuwe Universiteitsgebouw (NU)
• Amsterdam
• 0.8 / 1

Your function

In the NWO-funded FEEL project (Forecasting dengue Epidemics using Emotion and Language), for 8 months you will investigate whether emotions expressed in news and public social media can improve dengue forecasts alongside climate information. Based at VU Amsterdam’s Institute for Environmental Studies, you will help shape research connecting human behaviour, climate and health.

Your duties

• you develop and evaluate methods to derive indicators of human emotions from news and public social media you and integrate them with dengue surveillance records and climate data
• you build and validate forecasting models to test whether emotion indicators improve predictions beyond climate and past dengue incidence
• you assess the usefulness of these indicators across locations and lead times
• you prepare a scientific manuscript and document your methods and code for reproducible research

Your profile

• you have, or will have completed by the starting date, a PhD in climate science, environmental science, physics or a related quantitative discipline
• you have experience with statistical modelling of climate impacts, health outcomes or social vulnerability
• you have strong programming skills in Python or R and experience combining and analysing spatial and temporal datasets
• you are motivated to learn and apply text analysis and emotion detection methods, with previous experience welcome but not essential
• you can work independently and collaborate across disciplines, with strong written and spoken English

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

What do we offer?

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 3.706,00 (Scale 10) and maximum € 5.760,00 (Scale 10) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 4. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE for the project duration of 8 months.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• a full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

About us

Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)
IVM is a leading environmental research institute that is internationally recognised for its high-quality research output in a range of environmental disciplines, as well as for its interdisciplinary work. The mission of the institute is to contribute to sustainable development and care for the environment through scientific research and teaching. IVM aims to do excellent problem-oriented research that is useful to a wide range of stakeholders in the Netherlands and internationally. A unique strength of our research is to understand sustainability problems in their social and economic context. IVM’s research community works within four departments: Environmental Economics; Environmental Geography, Environmental Policy Analysis; and Water and Climate Risk. Since 2001 IVM has been part of the Faculty of Science at VU Amsterdam (legal name Stichting VU).

The department of Water and Climate Risk (WCR) studies hydrological and climate processes, and how these processes lead to risks and opportunities for society, the economy, and the environment. A defining characteristic of the department is a multi-disciplinary approach that combines expertise from natural sciences with knowledge from the fields of economics, e-Science and geography. This approach has led to a unique research portfolio of water and climate risk projects, and the department is a global leading institute in flood and drought risk assessment, and risk management research.

Faculty of Science
Working at the Faculty of Science means collaborating with students, lecturers and researchers who are focused on their field, yet have a broad view of the world. We are proud of a positive and inclusive workplace culture within the faculty, where we work together with great energy and a pragmatic attitude to tackle social challenges. At the Faculty of Science, scientists and students work on fundamental and complex societal issues for a sustainable, healthy and just future.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research.

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility.