The Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law (Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven) is looking for a PhD student to conduct research on research integrity.
The Centre for Biomedical Ethics at KU Leuven (www.cbmer.be) is an interdisciplinary research centre that analyzes ethical, legal, and societal questions regarding biomedicine and healthcare. The research units consists of a motivated team of researchers, including professors, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD students. The research groups collaborate closely with researchers from KU Leuven and UZ Leuven, as well as with various external partners such as healthcare providers, patient organizations, umbrella organizations of healthcare institutions, governmental representatives at national, European, and international levels. Staff members publish research in international academic journals, participate in national and international research projects, disseminate their findings through participation in national and international conferences, and are involved in providing advice to academic and professional organizations.
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Project
Commitments to research integrity (RI) are no longer viewed as an affair of individual ethics, but have become institutionalized across the board through mandatory training sessions in RI, revised hiring and promotion criteria, and the advent of research integrity officers. In this way, research integrity is trending towards a corporate-style compliance, where the ethical responsibility of researchers is understood as compliance with pre-existing rules and regulations. However, is this good for integrity development and for science in general — and what would this even mean? In this project we look at how ethics has been institutionalised in corporate context, and will especially investigate how in corporate settings additional rules and regulations are often viewed as insufficient to prevent malpractice. Growing individual ethics and the development of a far more complicated and intangible “culture of integrity” remains crucial. We develop these insights in a “compliance model” for research integrity, and work to draw normative conclusions for science policy. This will contribute towards addressing some unintended consequences of the institutionalisation of research integrity, which apart from the obvious growth in administrative workload might result in an ambivalent attitude towards integrity in general.
Profile
• You will conduct research (literature review, qualitative and quantitative surveys) in the described research domain. You will be involved in the design, setup, and execution of the research, and you will report on the results in scientific publications. This research aims to lead to a doctoral degree (PhD).
· You have completed a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, Theology, Bioethics, Medicine, Economy, Social Sciences, Psychology or another relevant discipline.
• You will work with other PhD candidates and colleagues within the research team.
• You will collaborate with external to achieve widely supported solutions and recommendations.
• You will follow the program "Patient-related and Public Health Research" of the Doctoral School of Biomedical Sciences.
• You will co-supervise master's students in carrying out their master's theses.
• You will contribute to collective activities of the research group (such as educational services, lab meetings, research proposals, etc.).
• You are enthusiastic and committed to a four-year research project. You are ambitious, dynamic, flexible, and open to challenges and developments.
• You have good organizational skills and can work independently and make decisions.
• You have excellent social and written communication skills in English; speaking Dutch is a substantial asset.
• You can work in an international multidisciplinary team.
• You have good teaching skills and can coach and motivate others.
• You have experience with social scientific methods, such as qualitative methods.
· You have not yet worked in the status of doctoral grantee.
Offer
A full time position within an internationally leading multidisciplinary team with relevant experience and expertise. The supervisory team consists of the professors Luc Van Liedekerke ( KU Leuven and UAntwerpen), Hugh Desmond (Wageningen UR) and Kris Dierickx (KU Leuven)
For this job, a contract of 1 year is offered that, after a positive evaluation, can be extended yearly to a period of 4 years.
The research will take place at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law, KU Leuven.
The start date will be determined in consultation with the candidate with the ambition to start no later than 1 December 2026.
Interested?
For more information please contact Prof. dr. Kris Dierickx, mail: [email protected]
KU Leuven strives for an inclusive, respectful and socially safe environment. We embrace diversity among individuals and groups as an asset. Open dialogue and differences in perspective are essential for an ambitious research and educational environment. In our commitment to equal opportunity, we recognize the consequences of historical inequalities. We do not accept any form of discrimination based on, but not limited to, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, ethnic or national background, skin colour, religious and philosophical diversity, neurodivergence, employment disability, health, or socioeconomic status. For questions about accessibility or support offered, we are happy to assist you at this email address.
