Fully funded PhD Medicine & Health Belgium 29 days left

Vacancy for a full-time PhD researcher (NL)

KU Leuven, Belgium

Institution: KU Leuven
Country: Belgium
Position type: PhD
Subject area: Medicine & Health
Application deadline: 30 September 2026
Location: Leuven, Belgium
Funding: Fully funded position

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About this position

Within the Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation research group of the Faculty of Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences at KU Leuven, we are looking for a PhD researcher (Dutch-speaking and holding a Master's degree in Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy) who will contribute to the MULTIPREP research project (funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders). The PhD is part of an FWO-TBM-funded research project entitled “The added value of MULTImodal biopsychosocial telePREhabilitation for individuals undergoing lower limb arthroPlasty: the MULTIPREP trial”. In the long term, the TBM programme aims to contribute to the implementation of (new) therapies, diagnostic techniques and preventive methods that, due to a lack of industrial interest, would not reach patients without government funding. The PhD takes place within an inter-university collaboration between VUB, KU Leuven and UHasselt, together with international (Auckland University of Technology) and clinical (including UZ Brussel, UZ Leuven, ZOL and Ziekenhuis Geel) partners.

Project

The added value of MULTImodal biopsychosocial telePREhabilitation for individuals undergoing lower limb arthroPlasty: the MULTIPREP trial

Within this project, we investigate whether a multimodal biopsychosocial teleprehabilitation intervention can improve outcomes in patients undergoing hip or knee replacement. The abstract of the funded project can be found below:

Lower limb joint arthroplasties (TJA) are among the most performed elective surgeries (>50k/year in Belgium). Unfortunately, 13-30% of the patients ends up with moderate-severe persistent pain, which negatively impacts quality of life and induces high socio-economic burden. Moreover, in those experiencing favorable outcomes, the expected (re)uptake of physical activity often fails to materialize, illustrating that current (p)rehabilitation strategies do not effectively promote physical activity. Nevertheless, sufficient physical activity is desirable to improve surgical recovery and obtain general health and socio-economic benefits. Therefore, a shift in TJA care is warranted with a specific focus on improving psychosocial recovery mediators and facilitation of a behavioral shift towards a more active lifestyle. Based on the proof-of-concept delivered by our pilot trial and the literature, we propose multimodal biopsychosocial teleprehabilitation. This intervention constitutes optimal timing and a comprehensive design to achieve its intended goals, i.e., improved functional recovery post-TJA and general health, and decreased socio-economic burden. The scientific objectives are to assess if: 1) multimodal biopsychosocial teleprehabilitation on top of treatment as usual (TAU) is more effective than TAU alone to improve clinical outcomes at 12 months post-TJA; and 2) multimodal biopsychosocial teleprehabilitation + TAU is cost-effective as compared to TAU alone.

Profile

Who are we looking for?

• You hold a Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy.

• You are intrinsically motivated by the subject.

• You work accurately.

• You have a good command of Dutch and are fluent in English and have an academic writing style.

• You have good communication skills and can work well as part of a team.

• You are willing to take on 10% clinical work at UZ Leuven as part of your appointment.

Offer

What do we offer?

• A full-time position as a PhD researcher within an inter-university collaboration between VUB, KU Leuven, UHasselt and Auckland University of Technology, as well as clinical partners UZ Brussel, UZ Leuven, ZOL and Ziekenhuis Geel. Specifically for this vacancy, this concerns a joint PhD position with KU Leuven as the main institution and primary workplace (and VUB as the partner institution).

• Subject-matter expertise and an international research network.

• A specific PhD topic and a developed study design.

• PhD training and intensive supervision.

• Research infrastructure and training in its use.

• Training and guidance in writing scientific papers.

• A pleasant and inspiring working environment with numerous team-building activities.

• A contractual appointment as a PhD researcher (100%) for a period of 1 year, with the possibility of a 4-year PhD trajectory in case of a favorable evaluation.

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Liesbet De Baets, mail: [email protected].

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Applications close 30 September 2026.