At the Department of Public Health and Primary Care of KU Leuven, a full-time position is vacant in the Independent Academic Staff within the domain of leadership and management in healthcare.
Within the Group of Biomedical Sciences at KU Leuven, the Department conducts research on the societal aspects of healthcare. Its members include experts with experience in disease prevention, health protection, health promotion, quality of care, healthcare policy, bioethics, health law, health economics, health communication, biostatistics, epidemiology, geriatrics and gerontology, nursing and midwifery, emergency medicine, and general practice. Members of the Department conduct interdisciplinary research with significant impact at national and international levels. The Department also coordinates a network focused on leadership development in healthcare.
In addition, they provide high‑quality education across various training domains. They also equip professionals and institutions in the healthcare sector with insights, concepts, and techniques that enable them to respond effectively to the needs and expectations of patients and society regarding healthcare. Furthermore, they aim to improve collaboration with clinical medicine and research and are closely involved in national and international partnerships. The Department of Public Health and Primary Care offers a dynamic research environment that provides room for interdisciplinary collaboration.
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Duties
Research
You are an ambitious, internationally oriented researcher and are willing to further develop a research line on leadership in healthcare. Possible research themes include, for example:
- Investigating the mechanisms and conditions under which leadership can be effectively developed among various healthcare professionals and managers
- Designing, evaluating, and implementing leadership and management strategies tailored to the complex, context‑specific dynamics of different healthcare environments (such as elderly care, primary care, or mental healthcare, in addition to the hospital setting)
- Deepening the understanding of the contribution of leadership to improved care outcomes, the implementation of integrated care models, and sustainable system change, as well as to team‑based outcomes such as burnout prevention and job satisfaction, and organization‑level outcomes such as staff retention and quality improvement
You obtain research funding and strive for excellence in your research, thereby contributing to the reputation of KU Leuven and the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.
You have a demonstrable affinity with healthcare and with the challenges related to leadership and management in this specific sector.
You publish your research in leading international journals.
You build successful interdisciplinary scientific collaborations with actors from various fields such as medicine, psychology, nursing, ethics, and healthcare management, both within and outside the department, and at regional, national, and international levels.
In addition to the scientific impact of your research, it also serves as a lever for high‑quality, integrated, and future‑oriented care. To this end, you collaborate with existing networks of stakeholders in primary care, elderly care, and mental healthcare, and—where necessary—develop new, sustainable networks.
Teaching
You provide high‑quality teaching in the field of leadership, management, and human resource management in the Master of Nursing and Midwifery, the Master of Health Care Management and Policy, or related programmes within the Group of Biomedical Sciences, with a clear commitment to the overall quality of the curriculum. You also contribute to the educational mission of the faculty/university by supervising master’s theses and acting as a supervisor for doctoral students.
You are a motivated, inspiring lecturer and consider it self‑evident to contribute to the quality of the programme(s).
Your teaching meets the standards required of academic programmes in terms of level, orientation, and academic rigor, and aligns with KU Leuven’s educational vision.
You develop your teaching in accordance with KU Leuven’s approach to active and research‑based education and make use of the opportunities for educational professionalisation offered by the faculty and the university.
Service
You provide relevant scientific and service‑oriented activities related to leadership in healthcare to the department and KU Leuven, as well as to regional, national, and international partners and networks.
Over time, you take on policy and educational responsibilities within KU Leuven and contribute to enhancing the visibility of the department at both national and international levels.
Profile
You have a PhD in an academic discipline related to this vacancy (preferably health related).
You have a strong research profile in the field of study and you are willing to develop a strong research line about leadership in healthcare. The quality of your research is proven by publications in prominent/international journals and book. International experience is an important advantage.
You have experience in applying for research funds.
You have demonstrable qualities related to academic education. Teaching experience is an advantage.
You possess organisational skills and have a cooperative attitude. You also possess leadership capacities within a university context.
Proficiency in English is required.
The official administrative language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in meetings.
Before teaching courses in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn Dutch, respectively English, to the required standard.
Offer
We are offering full-time employment in an intellectually challenging environment. KU Leuven is a research-intensive, internationally oriented university that carries out both fundamental and applied scientific research. It is highly inter- and multidisciplinarily focused and strives for international excellence. In this regard, it actively works together with research partners in Belgium and abroad. It provides its students with an academic education that is based on high-quality scientific research.
You will work in Leuven, a historic, dynamic and lively city located in the heart of Belgium, within 20 minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
Depending on your record and qualifications, you will be appointed to or tenured in one of the grades of the senior academic staff: assistant professor, associate professor, professor or full professor. In principle, junior researchers are appointed as assistant professor on the tenure track for a period of 5 years; after this period and a positive evaluation, they are permanently appointed (or tenured) as an associate professor.
KU Leuven is well set to welcome foreign professors and their family and provides practical support with regard to immigration & administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, partner career coaching, …
To facilitate scientific onboarding and accelerate research in the first phase a starting grant of 110.000 euro is offered to new professors appointed for at least 50%.
KU Leuven places great importance on research integrity and ethical conduct and will therefore ask you to sign an integrity statement upon appointment.
Interested?
For more information please contact Prof. dr. Pascal Borry, mail: [email protected] or Mrs. Sarah Gorissen, mail: [email protected].
For problems with online applying, please contact [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.
