Your primary responsibilities are to design, plan, and perform experiments; perform analysis, interpretation, and storage of data; writing manuscripts and presenting results at (inter)national meetings; and collaborate with both scientific and non-scientific partners, including our lived experience consortium. You will:

• develop and validate a sensitive and objective online measure of misophonic severity based on sound-evoked pupil dilation, obtained via webcam;
• advance misophonic characterization by combining objective with subjective indices;
• provide a rigorous grounding of the sound-evoked (pupil) responses by combining pupillometry with ultra-high-field fMRI (7T);
• investigate the role of the brain's major neuromodulatory systems in the misophonic response;
• create a large, anonymized, and openly accessible sound-to-pupillometry database;
• contribute to the understanding, awareness, and acceptance of the misophonic condition through both scientific and non-scientific channels such as publications, presentations, interviews, and public outreach (e.g. a NEMO exhibition).

Your supervisors provide guidance throughout each stage of the project, but your strong intrinsic motivation, pro-active work ethic, and sense of responsibility for the project's planning and progress are required.

You are passionate about fundamental empirical research and motivated to advance the understanding of a condition that can deeply affect people's daily lives. You are hard-working and self-sufficient, open for discussions, and aware of when to ask guidance or support.  The position is fulltime, but part-time may be discussed (minimum of 0,8 FTE on-project).

Your experience and profile:

• PhD degree in Cognitive, Computational, or Clinical Neuroscience;
• good programming skills (R and/or Python);
• proficient in spoken and written English and Dutch (for interactions with misophonics);
• excellent social skills and enthusiasm for engaging in scientific and non-scientific partnerships;
• committed researcher, demonstrated by publications in international refereed academic journals or academic publishers;
• a team player with good communication skills and a positive, collaborative attitude

Experience with (f)MRI and pupillometry and/or an affinity with clinical research is preferred. Experience or interest in acquiring research funding through government agencies or the private sector is considered an advantage.

We offer a temporary employment contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 12 months. After satisfactory evaluation the contract will be extended with 18 months. The preferred starting date is as soon as possible.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between €3.546 to €5.538 gross per month. This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile Researcher is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Curious about our extensive secondary benefits package? You can read more about it here.