Stress, attachment, and resilience across mice and humans KU Leuven in Belgium

This PhD position at KU Leuven explores how stress, attachment, and resilience are linked across mouse models and human family data. The project sits at the interface of clinical psychology, developmental science, and behavioural neuroscience, offering a rare interdisciplinary training environment across two highly recognized research groups: the Learn2Trust Lab (Research Unit Clinical Psychology) and the Laboratory of Biological Psychology (LBP).

The Learn2Trust Lab focuses on the developmental and learning mechanisms underlying attachment, trust, resilience, and mental health across the lifespan. The LBP is a leading centre for behavioural neuroscience at KU Leuven, with expertise in behavioural phenotyping, genetics, electrophysiology, and translational neuroscience. The PhD candidate will work at the intersection of these groups, benefiting from supervision by Prof. Guy Bosmans and Prof. Rudi D'Hooge.

The project contains two complementary research lines. First, in mice, the candidate will examine the cognitive consequences of chemotherapy treatment and investigate whether attachment-related processes buffer stress-related impairment and support resilience. Second, the candidate will work with an already collected human dataset from families with school-aged children. This dataset includes triadic information from mothers, fathers, and children, gathered during individually and jointly administered stress tasks, and includes measures such as attachment representations, behavioural observations, psychophysiological responses, hormonal markers, epigenetic data, emotional functioning, and cognitive processes.

This is a strong opportunity for a student interested in translational research, because the project connects controlled animal experiments with complex family processes in humans. The research aims to understand how secure attachment promotes resilience, how parents and children influence each other’s stress responses, and how resilience may be transmitted across generations through relational processes. The project also emphasises triadic family dynamics, moving beyond parent-child dyads to examine how family systems collectively shape stress buffering or stress amplification.

The ideal candidate should hold or soon obtain a Master’s degree in Psychology, Educational Sciences (Orthopedagogy), Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience, or a related field. A strong interest in interdisciplinary research is essential, and the applicant should be willing to engage with both animal and human research. Experience with quantitative analysis and statistical software such as R or SPSS is an advantage. Excellent English communication skills are required, and Dutch is an asset because part of the data collection involves Dutch-speaking families.

KU Leuven offers a competitive PhD salary and benefits, access to excellent research facilities, extensive training opportunities, and a vibrant international academic community in Leuven. The appointment is for a four-year PhD project. Applications should be submitted via the KU Leuven job portal before the deadline on 2026-09-11.