PhD in Mental Disorders as Harmful Stable States, Time-Series and EMA Data Leiden University in Netherlands

Leiden University is advertising a PhD position on “Mental disorders as harmful stable states” within the large-scale NSMD consortium (New Science of Mental Disorders). The project sits at the intersection of mental health, clinical psychology, statistical modeling, time-series analysis, and ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

The PhD candidate will be embedded in the lab of Professor Eiko Fried at the Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, and supervised by Janna Cousijn, Jonas Haslbeck, and Bart Verkuil. The research investigates whether mental health problems can function as self-maintaining, harmful attractor states, using intensive longitudinal patient data and NSMD single-case experimental design data to identify recurring within-person states, persistence, transitions, and links to outcomes such as relapse, comorbidity burden, symptom severity, and functioning.

This is a strong fit for applicants interested in quantitative psychology, data science, network theory, complexity science, and personalized mental health interventions. The role includes analyzing time-series databases, contributing to collaborative interdisciplinary research, publishing peer-reviewed papers, and presenting at conferences in the Netherlands and internationally.

Eligibility highlights: a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, Quantitative Psychology, Statistics, Data Science, or a related field; excellent academic record; strong analytic and programming skills; fluency in English; and good collaboration/communication skills. Experience with EMA, network models, systems science, open science, or interdisciplinary mental health-statistics research is desirable.

Funding and contract: full-time PhD appointment for 4 years, initially 1 year with extension after positive evaluation. Salary is €3059–€3881 gross per month plus holiday allowance, end-of-year bonus, pension, commuting reimbursement, and other employment benefits.

Deadline: 2026-08-06. Applicants should apply through AcademicTransfer and upload a CV with two academic references plus a 1-page motivation letter.