Postdoctoral Researcher in AI for Longitudinal and Population Health Risk Prediction Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium

Postdoctoral Researcher in AI for Longitudinal and Population Health Risk Prediction at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium.

The Faculty of Engineering, Department Electronics and Informatics (ETRO), and its research group Electronics and Informatics: Research – Development – Innovation, are recruiting a full-time postdoctoral researcher to join an interdisciplinary team at the intersection of artificial intelligence, biomedical data science, digital health, epidemiology, and environmental health. The work is embedded in the broader VUB research environment and benefits from close collaboration with UZ Brussel, as well as links to imec and international research networks.

The project focuses on developing, validating, and interpreting AI models for health risk prediction using heterogeneous and longitudinal data sources. Research topics include longitudinal patient-level prediction of disease progression, deterioration, and hospitalization; population-level modelling of environmental exposures and health risks; and interpretable, uncertainty-aware machine learning for heterogeneous health data. The role is designed for a researcher who wants to bridge methodological AI development with clinically and epidemiologically meaningful applications in real-world health settings.

The successful candidate will analyse clinical, longitudinal, environmental, demographic, socioeconomic, and geospatial data, and contribute to temporal, spatial, and multimodal prediction frameworks. Responsibilities also include disease progression modelling, acute event prediction, hospitalization risk estimation, fairness and uncertainty assessment, validation, scientific publications, technical reports, project deliverables, presentations, and coordination of collaborative research tasks. The position offers opportunities to support the supervision of PhD students, master students, or research engineers and to contribute to future grant proposals.

Applicants should hold a PhD in computer science, AI, biomedical engineering, data science, biostatistics, epidemiology, medical informatics, environmental health, public health, or a related field. Strong machine learning and statistical modelling skills, experience with longitudinal/time-series or real-world health data, and strong programming ability in Python are important. The team particularly welcomes experience with clinical prediction modelling, survival analysis, causal inference, spatio-temporal modelling, Bayesian approaches, explainable AI, geospatial analysis, exposure assessment, or privacy-aware and GDPR-compliant processing of health data. Excellent English communication skills and a publication record appropriate to career stage are expected.

The appointment is a 1 FTE contract for 12 months, extendable subject to positive evaluation, with a planned starting date of 2026-11-01. Salary is linked to government scales. The application deadline is 2026-09-01. Applicants should apply via jobs.vub.be and upload a CV, motivation letter, and diploma (not applicable for VUB alumni).