PhD Position: De-escalation Radboud University in Netherlands

Radboud University is offering a PhD position on de-escalation within the Faculty of Social Sciences, based at the Behavioural Science Institute in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

This project examines how stress, sleep, recovery, and physiological responses influence staff wellbeing and behaviour in residential care, especially in relation to the escalation or de-escalation of aggression and the potential use of coercive measures. The research sits at the intersection of psychophysiology, wearable technology, clinical and forensic psychology, behavioural science, and practical ethics. It is embedded in the larger consortium project De-escalating Aggressive Encounters between Frontline Workers and Citizens and specifically in Work Package 2, which focuses on frontline workers’ psychophysiology and subjective experience.

The PhD candidate will work with staff in residential treatment clinics for young people and adults, including settings with and without mild intellectual disabilities. The project uses a cross-sector perspective, while providing an in-depth healthcare and forensic focus. Depending on the PhD student’s interests and project development, the work may include wearable measurements, incident-related assessments, qualitative interviews or focus groups, and practice-based ethical analysis. A key theme is responsible innovation: exploring when wearable-based monitoring might help with timely reflection, support allocation, and decision-making in high-risk interactions, and when it may raise concerns around privacy, voluntariness, autonomy, and data sharing.

The project is designed to produce empirical studies that link physiological vulnerability and resilience (including sleep, cumulative stress, and recovery) to behaviour before, during, and after aggressive incidents. It also considers team-level or ward-level processes where relevant, such as shared stress patterns and team synchrony. The ethical component is practical and applied rather than purely theoretical, aiming to build grounded guidance for responsible use of wearables and physiological monitoring in care settings.

The successful candidate will collaborate closely with other consortium partners and treatment organisations, and will be expected to visit Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam approximately once a month. The position includes a 10% teaching load and offers a start to a teaching portfolio toward the University Teaching Qualification.

Eligibility highlights: a Research Master’s degree or equivalent background in psychobiology, clinical or forensic psychology, behavioural science, health sciences, neuroscience, or a related field; strong quantitative skills; interest in qualitative or mixed-methods research; ability to build trust in clinical settings; and proficiency in Dutch.

Funding and employment: this is a fully funded paid PhD employment contract at 1.0 FTE, initially for 1.5 years and extendable to 4 years in total if the evaluation is positive. The salary starts at €3,059 gross per month and rises to €3,881 in the fourth year, with holiday allowance, an end-of-year bonus, additional leave options, and standard university employment benefits.

Application deadline: 16 August 2026. The first interviews are planned for the week of 24 August 2026, and the preferred start date is 1 November 2026.