PhD in Environmental Determinants of Obesity and Vulnerability Mapping

Obesity is influenced by factors at individual, neighbourhood, municipal, and national levels, yet there is no clear framework to assess vulnerability within obesogenic environments. For example, people in the same neighbourhood may differ in their ability to access healthy food or sports facilities due to financial resources.

This PhD project addresses this gap by developing a conceptual framework and a vulnerability index for obesogenic environments in the Netherlands, with potential to scale to Europe.

You will start with a scoping review to define vulnerability, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, and map determinants across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. Based on this, you will develop an index that integrates indicators on food and physical activity environments, socioeconomic factors, and policies, using statistical modelling and composite indicator methods.

You will be based at the Department of Epidemiology and Data Science at Amsterdam UMC and collaborate within two Horizon Europe research consortia.

Would you like to know more about the different phases within the PhD trajectory? You can read more about this on this page.

As a PhD candidate, you will build upon earlier work on obesogenic environment both conceptually and technically. The current framework focuses purely on the built environment, but can be expanded to include other environments through the vulnerability framework. While the main application of the index is the Netherlands, it is foreseen to also scale up the index to the European level. 

Your main tasks include:

• Developing a conceptual framework for obesogenic environment vulnerability through a structured scoping review.
• Identifying and classifying components of vulnerability, including exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.
• Mapping determinants across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels.
• Exploring composite indicator methodologies, in collaboration with field experts.
• Contributing to broader research on environmental determinants of health and vulnerability mapping.
• Publishing results in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
• Writing and defending your PhD thesis at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

You are an analytically strong and conceptually curious researcher who enjoys working across disciplines. You bring:

• A completed MSc degree in environmental science, sustainability science, public health, geography, economics, or a related field.
• Strong modelling and programming skills, preferably in R (experience with Python or similar languages is a plus).
• Knowledge of statistical methods such as dimension reduction and regression techniques.
• Interest in composite indicator development (experience with COIN/COINr is an advantage).
• A clear motivation to work on environmental health, vulnerability assessment, or sustainability research.
• Excellent communication skills and a strong command of English.
• The ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team.

Since the project is expected to start around May/June, candidates who are already based in Europe or able to start on short notice are preferred. However, we welcome all international applicants. If you are excited by the idea of shaping a new conceptual field and developing a national-level vulnerability index with real policy relevance, we look forward to your application.