About the University

The University of Luxembourg aspires to be one of Europe’s most highly regarded universities with a distinctly international and interdisciplinary character .

It fosters the cross-fertilisation of research and teaching , is relevant to its country, is known worldwide for its research and teaching in targeted areas, and is establishing itself as an innovative model for contemporary European Higher Education.

The University s core asset is its well-connected world-class academic staff which will attract the most motivated, talented and creative students and young researchers who will learn to enjoy taking up challenges and develop into visionary thinkers able to shape society.

The Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) brings together expertise from the humanities, linguistics, cognitive sciences, social and educational sciences.

People from across 20 disciplines are working within the Faculty. Along with the disciplinary approach a very ambitious interdisciplinary research culture has been developed.

Description of the Action

SURREAL (Systems approach of urban environments and health) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) action funded by the European Commission, which started as of January 2021.

The network will employ 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESR students) for a 3 years’ high quality interdisciplinary and intersectoral PhD training.

The aim of the action is to deliver a unique, creative and single training network for 15 ESR students working on an improved understanding of the urban health system's complexity, and on co-designing and applying adequate interventions in the system.

The action will draw upon interactions between academic disciplines such as epidemiology, public health, human movement science, psychology, sociology, geography, and urban planning and a wide range of entities such as medical centres, public authorities, firms, and NGOs as well as citizens.

Equipped with this expertise and supported by innovative training formats, such as Collaborative Learning in Practice (CLiP), SURREAL trains the next generation of professionals in urban health.

The team

The consortium is composed of 10 universities and research institutes joining forces with 20 partner organizations. Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research - LISER (LU) (Martin Dijst) is the managing coordinator in the project.

The other beneficiaries are Université du Luxembourg - (LU), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale INSERM (FR), Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht - UMC UTRECHT (NL), Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam - ERASMUS MC (NL), Wageningen University WU (NL), Universiteit Hasselt UHASSELT (BE), Tel Aviv University TAU (IL), Fundacion Privada Instituto de Salud Global Barcelona - ISGLOBAL (ES) and Tartu Ülikool UTARTU (EE).

The partner organizations are located in The Netherlands, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Israel, Spain, France, UK, and Estonia.

Your Role

The SURREAL consortium invites highly qualified and motivated applicants for an ESR position within the framework of the Innovative Training Networks (ITN) action SURREAL - Systems approach of URban enviRonmEnts and heALth , which was has been awarded under the Horizon 2020 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action of the European Commission.

Project Description :

The PhD will set out to understand if and how gamified location experiences can support interventions in the urban-health system.

This project will explore the different roles of citizens in gamified experiences and appraise their impact for supporting health by encouraging citizens to explore viewpoints and reflections on the social determinants of health.

You will used a case study approach to evaluate different levels of engagement and forms of experience to acquire understanding and insights of how future gamified citizen science projects can / should best contribute to public health knowledge and policy dialogues.

The work will support (1) the creation of a best practice evaluation framework and analysis of the involvement of citizens in gamified experiences to explore social determinants of health and (2) An improved understanding and knowledge of the value of location-based games in citizen science processes for the creation of public health knowledge.

Project Title :

Evaluating the role of citizens in gamified experiences for understanding social determinants of health

Required Diploma :

Required Research Experience :

Knowledge of mixed method approaches in geography.

Eligibility : If you are interested in this ESR project, you are required to :

be working exclusively for the action; AND

not have resided AND not have carried out your main activity (work, studies) in Luxembourg for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date; AND

be at the date of recruitment in the first four years of your research career and not have a doctoral degree. Considered is : time spent as FTE research experience, measured from the date when you obtained the degree entitling you to embark on a doctorate even if a doctorate was never started or envisaged.

In Short

Further Information

Please submit your complete application via the email address or platform indicated in the project(s) you wish