Research Associate in the field of Daily Mobility and Health (Post-doc, f/m) - Ref: 25-15

The Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)

is recruiting a

Research Associate in the field of Daily mobility and Health (Post-doc, f/m)

• Ref: 25-15
• 36 months fixed-term contract, part-time (26h/week)
• Department : Urban Development and Mobility (UDM)
• Work location: Belval (Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg)
• Expected start date : between September 1st, 2025 and November 1st, 2025
• Deadline: 27th April 2025 at midnight CET

This exciting position is part of a joint Switzerland Luxembourg WEAVE project coordinated by LISER, and called « Mapping mobility and healthy aging: longitudinal cohorts in Luxembourg and Switzerland - MAMBHA » and will be under the leadership of Dr. Philippe Gerber and Dr. Camille Perchoux. The successful candidate will play a key role in developing high quality, scientific and policy-relevant work within the Urban Development and Mobility department (UDM) and in close collaboration with UZH (Switzerland).

About the MAMBHA project

Project MAMBHA’s objective is to examine the associations and impacts of diverse dimensions of daily mobility on healthy ageing (i.e., physical health, subjective well-being, social participation and cognition), taking into account motility and associated environmental (contrasting urban forms and structures, city design, immediate neighbourhood characteristics) as well as motivational factors (values and goals), characterising complex person-environment interactions. The research question is how the various dimensions of mobility support ageing well. The proposed research is guided by the conceptual view of healthy ageing as functional ability, including mobility, that results from person characteristics interacting with environmental affordances and constraints. Applying this approach provides an interdisciplinary focus encompassing epidemiology, geography, urban planning, and environmental and gerontopsychology. The consortium established between Switzerland (UZH) and Luxembourg (LISER) brings together these competences.

The main objective of the successful candidate will be dedicated to coordinate, under the supervision of the PI in Luxembourg and in relation with the consortium, different tasks coming from the main Work Packages of the project:

• Harmonizing GIS, mobility and health indicators between the two cohorts (LU-CH) ;
• Disentangling mobility indicators (movement, motility and motivation) allowing to capture the multidimensional nature of mobility in a holistic way ;
• Monitoring data collection in Luxembourg (handover, data cleaning) ;
• Contributing to cross-sectional analysis of mobility-healthy ageing associations ;
• Analyzing from a longitudinal perspective mobility-healthy ageing associations.

Quantitative data that will be collected during the MAMBHA project will feed these tasks, knowing that two datasets (one in Luxembourg, coming from the CURHA project, and one in Switzerland, coming from the MOASIS project) are already available.

Your profile

The successful candidate will be asked to:

• Developing methodological, empirical and geographic comparable datasets between Switzerland and Luxembourg for the benefit of the future analyses (cross-sectional or longitudinal) ;
• Analyzing the CURHA and MOASIS (first wave) surveys data ;
• Analyze the MAMBHA (second wave) surveys data ;
• More specifically, developing cross-sectional and longitudinal quantitative models with the data ;
• Present the results (related e.g. to the main spatial effects and the environmental impacts of mobility in healthy aging) in national/international conferences, and write academic papers in a co-constructive way with the consortium.

Your profile

• Ph.D. degree in health or epidemiology / quantitative geography or psychology or sociology / transport engineering / data science / or other relevant quantitative field ;
• Excellent knowledge and experience in regression analyses (SEM, multi-level, discrete choice behavior modeling…) based on statistical software (R, STATA or SAS) ;
• Excellent skills in GIS and Python are an asset ;
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills ;
• Fluency in English (speaking and writing), any other language such as French, German, or Luxembourgish is considered as an asset.

What we offer

• A dynamic and international research environment with attractive working conditions and a stimulating work environment ;
• Flexibility in the organisation of the working hours and the possibility of teleworking ;
• Competitive remuneration according to the Collective Labour Agreement in force (half of a 13th month salary, meal vouchers, etc.) ;
• Investment in career support and development (trainings, seminars, participation to international meetings and conferences) ;
• 32.5 days of annual leave for a full-time contract.

How to apply

Please submit your complete application in English via https://jobs.liser.lu/ by including the following documents before April 27th, 2025 at midnight CET :

• CV;
• motivation letter, in which you present your relevant skill with respect to the project (2 pages max);
• PhD thesis / report;
• 1 or 2 representative research papers, or already published articles ;
• two reference letters (uploaded with the application or sent separately to recruitment@liser.lu).

For any work-related question on the position, please contact Dr. Philippe Gerber (philippe.gerber@liser.lu) and Dr. Camille Perchoux (camille.perchoux@liser.lu).

For administrative matters, please contact Mrs Vanya Kirova at recruitment@liser.lu.

Why LISER?

LISER is a publicly funded research institute located in Luxembourg and dedicated to applied empirical research in economic, social and spatial sciences. The Institute attracts top researchers from all over the world and high-level student training is a vibrant part of the Institute’s activities. LISER staff consists of approx. 200 employees, about 60% of the staff being researchers; mainly from the fields of economics, geography and sociology. The vision of the institute is to be a socio-economic research institute internationally recognised, focused on scientific excellence and societal impact, able to contribute through multi-disciplinary and intersectoral research, in an active and inclusive way to a sustainable and inclusive society at national and international level.

The institute is located on the new Belval campus in the south of Luxembourg (Cité des Sciences, Luxembourg), which hosts the University of Luxembourg and a substantial part of the country’s publicly funded research facilities, i.e. LISER, the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) cross-national data centre, the Luxembourg institutes of Health (LIH) and of Science and Technology (LIST). Information on research in Luxembourg is accessible via the national EURAXESS platform.

LISER is strongly committed to gender parity, diversity and inclusion and is proud to be an equal opportunities Employer. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates of any background.