Elien De Caluwé

Tilburg University is advertising 2 PhD positions within the NWA-funded project “De-escalating Aggressive Encounters between Frontline Workers and Citizens (DE-ESCALATING)” . The positions are based in the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences , Department of Developmental Psychology, and focus on stress, behavior, and decision-making in real-life social interactions. The project is highly interdisciplinary and combines psychophysiology , stress responses , multimodal data integration , behavioral observation, video analysis, qualitative research, surveys, and field experiments. It aims to understand how aggressive encounters escalate and how they can be de-escalated, with direct relevance for frontline workers such as police officers, public transport staff, service workers, and healthcare professionals. PhD Position 1 focuses on physiological stress responses, including heart rate, arousal, and other psychophysiological signals, and how these relate to behavior and de-escalation in context. PhD Position 2 focuses on subjective experiences, perceived threat, emotions, cognition, and decision-making, and how these connect to physiological and behavioral data. The post emphasizes collaboration with academic and societal partners, including regular in-person meetings at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam laboratory of Prof. dr. Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard . The work includes independent research, data collection, statistical/computational analysis, publications, conference presentations, open science, and some teaching/supervision duties. Eligibility highlights: a relevant MSc degree is required, along with motivation, curiosity, proactivity, and interest in multidisciplinary research. The vacancy is for full-time PhD employment and is funded by the NWA project. Funding: full-time appointment (1.0 fte), initial 12-month contract with extension to 36 months, and a gross monthly salary of €3,059–€3,881. Deadline: 2026-06-08. Interested candidates should review the vacancy text and apply via the provided application link.