PhD Candidate in Computational Cardiology

Unravel the complexity of valve disease in heart failure using Digital Twin technology. Help transform how cardiologists decide when and how to treat patients through personalized computer simulations.

Job Description

Are you passionate about bridging computational modeling with clinical cardiology to solve real-world healthcare challenges? We're seeking a PhD candidate to develop innovative Digital Twin technology that will help clinicians make critical treatment decisions for patients with heart failure and valve disease.

The Challenge You'll Tackle
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) affects millions worldwide, particularly elderly patients. Many of these patients also have mitral valve problems, creating a clinical dilemma: should we fix the valve or treat the underlying heart muscle disease? Wrong decisions mean unnecessary procedures for vulnerable patients or missed opportunities for effective treatment. Current diagnostic tools can't definitively answer this question – but your research will change that.

Your Mission
You'll develop patient-specific computational models – "Digital Twins" – that simulate how individual hearts with combined valve and muscle disease respond to different treatments. Working at the intersection of biomedical engineering, computational modeling, and clinical cardiology, you'll:

• Analyze comprehensive clinical data from our ongoing multicenter PRAISE-MR trial, including advanced exercise echocardiography from over 110 patients;
• Extend the internationally recognized CircAdapt cardiovascular modeling platform to accurately simulate the complex interplay between failing heart muscle and diseased valves;
• Create personalized simulations that predict which patients will benefit from valve interventions versus medical therapy;
• Validate your Digital Twin predictions against real-world treatment outcomes from clinical registries.

A Unique Dual-University Experience

This position offers an exceptional opportunity to work across two leading institutions. At UHasselt/Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg, you'll be embedded in one of Belgium's largest heart failure clinical research centers, gaining hands-on experience with cutting-edge cardiac imaging and patient data. At Maastricht University's Computational Cardiology group, you'll master advanced simulation techniques using the CircAdapt platform, working with the team that pioneered personalized cardiac modeling.

You'll spend approximately equal time at both institutions, benefiting from complementary expertise: clinical phenotyping and data collection in Belgium, computational modeling and simulation in the Netherlands. This dual environment ensures you develop both technical modeling skills and clinical understanding essential for translational research.

At Maastricht University, your project will be embedded within the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM, www.carimmaastricht.nl), part of the Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences at Maastricht University. Your appointment will be with the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, a diverse department committed to creating an open, team science environment for everybody to thrive. 

Your Impact
Your work will directly address an urgent clinical need, potentially transforming how thousands of elderly heart failure patients are treated. By creating a validated framework for predicting treatment responses, you'll help clinicians avoid unnecessary procedures while ensuring patients receive the most effective therapy for their specific condition. The Digital Twin technology you develop could evolve into commercial applications, with major medical technology companies already expressing interest in simulation-based treatment planning.

Join Us in Shaping the Future of Cardiac Care
This PhD position offers more than just research training – it's an opportunity to develop technology that will directly improve patient lives. You'll contribute to establishing the Hasselt-Maastricht axis as a European leader in computational cardiology while building expertise at the forefront of personalized medicine.

This PhD project is part of a joint doctorate programme between Maastricht University and Hasselt University. You will be employed by Maastricht University and registered as a doctoral candidate at both institutions. Upon successful completion, you will receive two jointly awarded doctorates from the two universities.

If you're ready to tackle complex clinical challenges through innovative computational approaches and want your research to make a real difference in healthcare, we want to hear from you.

Requirements
Success in this project will rely on collaboration and perseverance, uniting biomedical engineering, cardiovascular physiology, and clinical cardiology.

You should have:

• Master's degree in (Biomedical/Mechanical) Engineering, Technical Medicine, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or related field;
• Strong interest in cardiovascular physiology and computational modeling;
• Programming experience (preferably MATLAB, Python, or similar);
• Enthusiasm for interdisciplinary collaboration and clinical translation;
• Excellent communication skills for working across technical and medical domains.

Prior experience with cardiovascular modeling, medical imaging analysis, or clinical research is advantageous but not required – we value curiosity and dedication to learning above all.

What we offer
As PhD Candidate at Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, you will be employed by the most international university in the Netherlands, located in the beautiful city of Maastricht. In addition, we offer you:

• Good employment conditions. The position is graded in scale P according to UFO profile PhD, with corresponding salary based on experience ranging from €3059,00 and €3881,00 gross per month (based on a full-time employment of 38 hours per week). In addition to the monthly salary, an 8.0% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus apply.
• An employment contract for a period of 12 months with a scope of 1,0 FTE. Upon a positive evaluation, an extension of 3 years will follow. 
• At Maastricht University, the well-being of our employees is of utmost importance, we offer flexible working hours and the possibility to work partly from home if the nature of your position allows it. You will receive a monthly commuting and internet allowance for this. If you work full-time, you will be entitled to 29 vacation days and 4 additional public holidays per year, namely carnival Monday, carnival Tuesday, Good Friday, and Liberation Day. If you choose to accumulate compensation hours, an additional 12 days will be added. Furthermore, you can personalize your employment conditions through a collective labor agreement (CAO) choice model. 
• As Maastricht University, we offer various other excellent secondary employment conditions. These include a good pension scheme with the ABP and the opportunity for UM employees to participate in company fitness and make use of the extensive sports facilities that we also offer to our students. 
• Last but certainly not least, we provide the space and facilities for your personal and professional development. We facilitate this by offering a wide range of training programs and supporting various well-established initiatives such as 'acknowledge and appreciate'. 
   

The terms of employment at Maastricht University are largely set out in the collective labor agreement of Dutch Universities. In addition, local provisions specific to UM apply. For more information, click here.

Maastricht University
Why work at Maastricht University?
At Maastricht University (UM), everything revolves around the future. The future of our students, as we work to equip them with a solid, broad-based foundation for the rest of their lives. And the future of society, as we seek solutions through our research to issues from all around the world. Our six faculties combined provide a comprehensive package of study programmes and research.

In our teaching, we use the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) method. Students work in small groups, looking for solutions to problems themselves. By discussing issues and working together to draw conclusions, formulate answers and present them to their peers, students develop essential skills for their future careers.

With over 22,300 students and more than 5,000 employees from all over the world, UM is home to a vibrant and inspiring international community.

Are you drawn to an international setting focused on education, science and scholarship? Are you keen to contribute however your skills and qualities allow? Our door is open to you! As a young European university, we value your talent and look forward to creating the future together.

Click here for more information about UM. 

Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
At the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML), everything revolves around healthy living. Our research and education are not solely focused on recovery, but place a strong emphasis on prevention, health preservation, and health promotion. Our aim is to use our knowledge and expertise to genuinely contribute to the well-being of individual people as well as society in total. 

In, research, and healthcare, FHML is closely collaborating with the academic hospital in Maastricht, together forming the Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC+).  FHML is strongly connected in education, research, and care with the Maastricht academic hospital, together with which it forms the Maastricht University Medical Centre (MUMC+). 

FHML, which is the largest faculty of Maastricht University, is formed by an (inter)national community of employees and students. The faculty offers a wide range of Dutch and English-taught bachelor's and master's programs in innovative educational concepts in which the emphasis is always on building bridges to practice.
 

The multidisciplinary research of the FHML focuses on a number of carefully chosen topical current themes. In addition to research aimed at gaining new insights, it also concerns research whose results can be directly translated into concrete applications and innovations. The implementation of the various research programs is organized in our six graduate schools and two institutes.

Curious?
Are you interested in this exciting position but still have questions? Feel free to contact Joost Lumens at joost.lumens@maastrichtuniversity.nl for more information. 

Applying?
Or are you already convinced and ready to become our new PhD Candidate? Apply now, no later than 24 September 2025, for this position.

An orientation day can be part of the application procedure. 

The vacancy is open for internal and external candidates. In case of equal qualifications, internal candidates will be prioritized.

Maastricht University is committed to promoting and nurturing a diverse and inclusive community. We believe that diversity in our staff and student population contributes to the quality of research and education at UM, and strive to enable this through inclusive policies and innovative projects led by teams of staff and students. We encourage you to apply for this position.