CDTnet PhD Fellowship F9: Novel Intramyocardial Sensing to Inform Digital Twin-Based Therapy Optimisation Medtronic Bakken Research Center in United States

PhD fellowship in intramyocardial sensing and digital twin-based therapy optimisation at the Medtronic Bakken Research Center in Maastricht, Netherlands.

This doctoral project focuses on heart failure, diastolic dysfunction and the development of novel intramyocardial sensing technologies for improving cardiac pacing therapy. The successful candidate will work on innovative pacing leads with embedded sensors designed to measure myocardial relaxation, compliance and filling pressures, generating direct information about cardiac mechanics that is difficult to obtain in routine clinical practice.

The research combines sensor development, cardiovascular physiology and computational modelling. Sensor-derived data will be integrated into heart models to build personalised digital twins that can support therapy optimisation, identify optimal sensor placement, improve pacing strategies and enable real-time adaptation of treatment based on patient-specific responses. The project also includes preclinical validation, in-silico testing and consideration of regulatory requirements for clinical translation.

The PhD student will work with academic and industrial partners and complete secondments at Oslo University Hospital (preclinical data collection and analysis in models of diastolic dysfunction) and Maastricht University (integration of findings into digital twin simulations and validation against computational and clinical data).

Eligibility and background: applicants should hold a Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline such as Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Technology, Physics or Cardiovascular Science. Strong interest in cardiovascular physiology, heart failure, cardiac mechanics/hemodynamics and/or pacing therapies is expected, together with an affinity for sensor development, medical instrumentation, signal processing or embedded systems. Programming and quantitative data analysis skills in Python, MATLAB, R, C/C++ or similar are desirable, as are good organisational, project management and scientific writing skills. Excellent English is required. MSCA rules apply: applicants must not have lived or worked in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 3 years before recruitment, must have no prior doctoral degree, and must be eligible to enrol in the PhD programme at Maastricht University.

Funding: this is a funded PhD fellowship under Horizon Europe MSCA / Marie Curie, grant agreement 101312147.

Application: deadline is 30 September 2026, 23:59 (Europe/Brussels). Apply through the CDTnet application page: https://www.cdtnet.eu/apply-now.