Ivar Vermeulen

PhD opportunity in social data science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam , linked to Jon Roozenbeek’s Vidi project, The economy of digital influence operations . The project studies the market infrastructure behind influence operations in online environments, including the buying and selling of fake accounts, engagement, and bot services. The successful candidate will work on a fully funded four-year PhD and investigate the “online manipulation economy” through a mix of interviews with key actors and bespoke analysis pipelines for social media and financial data. The role is especially relevant for students interested in data science , economics , psychometrics , quantitative social science , and computational analysis of online behavior. Eligibility highlights include a research Master’s degree in social data science, economics, psychometrics, or another quantitative social science field; strong experimental research background in data science, quantitative psychology, or behavioural economics; and solid programming skills in Python and R . Knowledge of Russian and/or Mandarin is a plus. The position is advertised via VU Amsterdam, specifically VU Communication Science, with co-supervision by Prof. Ivar Vermeulen. The post says the student will be based in Amsterdam and also spend substantial time in Cambridge at the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge. Funding is fully covered, with salary stated as €3,204 gross per month in the PhD year and up to €4,051 gross per month in the fourth year. Deadline: 14 September 2026 . Interviews are expected between 21–30 September.