Professor in Auditory neuro-engineering (13724) – Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

    →   Apply until 01/04/2020 23:59 (Brussels time)
→   Discipline: Auditory neuro-engineering
→   100% Assistant professor tenure track / Associate professor / Full professor / Senior full professor
→   Reference number: 202001/ZAP-21/65-01

ABOUT GHENT UNIVERSITY
Ghent University is one of the most important education and research institutions in the Low Countries. On a daily basis, over 9,000 staff members and 41,000 students implement its motto “Dare to Think”. Ghent University’s mission statement is characterized by qualitative education, internationally renowned research and a pluralistic social responsibility.

ASSIGNMENT
Within her vision on the importance of inter-disciplinary research, Ghent University wishes to stimulate cooperation between different faculties. One of the initiatives that is deployed in this context is the Ghent Auditory Science Platform (GASP; www.gasp.ugent.be). Auditory science and auditory medicine are increasingly engineering driven. Hence, GASP combines expertise from various medical and engineering disciplines with an additional touch of psychology. This inter-faculty collaboration will be supported by a full time (100%) associate or full professor in auditory neuro-engineering. The professor in auditory neuro-engineering will further develop research in auditory science at the interface between technology and neurology. The focus will be on the possibility to couple electronic or opto-electronic components more effectively to the auditory nerve, the auditory brainstem or cortex. By extending the team of professors that conducts research in the area of auditory science, Ghent University wants to strengthen its position as a leading research institute in this area.
This position is part of a unique strategic investment by Ghent University: 21 new professorships are embedded in interdisciplinary consortia, designed to generate a significant societal impact with their research. For more information, see: www.ugent.be/21zap

Academic education
The position is for a research professorship, hence teaching duties will be limited. You will nevertheless be expected to share your expertise and research by contributing to a limited number of course units. You will promote a number of master and PhD students in the medical or engineering faculty on topics related to your research area.

Academic Research
You conduct research in the discipline of auditory neuro-engineering. In particular you study the interaction between human substrate – auditory nerve/brainstem/cortex – and high-tech chips and/or electronic/opto-electronic implants. In this way you contribute to the innovation goals of the GASP team in relation to:
• biological strategies for use in inner ear therapeutics: gene therapy, stem-cell therapy, and molecular therapy;
• auditory nerve fiber stimulation, resynchronizing, brain-computer interfacing;
• stimulating brain plasticity (e.g. post deafness, in tinnitus and/or decreased sound tolerance cases), and individualized interventions;
• cochlear nerve sensing and brainstem processing (auditory processing on implanted chip);
• neuro-acoustic phenotype determination allowing for personalized hearing deficit treatment when needed.

Academic services

You deliver a limited number of internal services (e.g. commissions of trust, educational board, …) and external services to the scientific community (e.g. reviewing, editorial board, …) and to society at large (e.g. scientific advice to policy makers, …)

PROFILE

Experience
• You have already conducted eminent academic research in the given discipline, which is clearly reflected in publications in high-quality academic journals and peer-reviewed books;
• You are capable of and you have experience in initiating, supervising and acquiring the necessary funding for academic research;
• You are didactically skilled to teach university students to develop academic competences;
• Recommended are:
o International mobility, among other things thanks to research stays at institutions external to the one where you acquired your highest academic degree;
o Positively evaluated experience in provided or organized academic lecturing;

Skills / Attitude
• You are quality-oriented;
• You take initiative;
• You have leadership qualities;
• You have good communication skills (English proficiency) and make connections with colleagues and industry.

Admission requirements
• You hold a thesis-based doctorate or a diploma or certificate that is recognised as equivalent (article V.20 Codex Higher Education) in biomedical sciences, biomedical engineering, medical physics, neuro-engineering, or doctorate in medicine with a strong emphasis on technical aspect, or a doctorate in electronics/ICT engineering or engineering physics/mathematics with a strong emphasis on biomedical aspects.
Upon evaluation of a foreign (non-EU) diploma, a certificate of equivalence may still have to be requested at NARIC. If this is the case, we advise you to initiate this recognition procedure as soon as possible. You are required to have the recognition no later than on the date of your appointment.
• You have at least two years of postdoctoral experience on 1 September 2020. This term of two years is determined by the date written on the above-mentioned required diploma.

APPOINTMENT INFORMATION

Depending on the specific profile of the selected candidate, the degree of assistant professor (tenure track), associate professor, full professor or senior full professor is awarded. This will be decided by the University Board as proposed by the Faculty Board.

In the case of assistant professor TT:

• We offer you a temporary appointment in a tenure track system for a term of five years. If positively evaluated by the University Board, the term of office will be transferred into a permanent appointment as an associate professor.
• Should you already be a member of the professorial staff or hold an equal post at another university or research institution, you can immediately be appointed as an assistant professor, without prejudice to the possibility of a temporary appointment offered in article V.28 of the Codex of Higher Education.

In the case of associate professor, full professor or senior full professor:

• We offer you a permanent appointment in the starting grade of associate professor, full professor or senior full professor, without prejudice to the possibility of a temporary appointment offered in article V.28 of the Codex of Higher Education.

The recruitment is possible no sooner than 1 september 2020.

OUR OFFER
Ghent University reserves a budget of 210.000€ in its Special Research Fund for each of the newly appointed professors under the strategic “21ZAP” scheme, equaling the value of 1 PhD student for 4 years. This research budget is allocated out of competition but is subject to approval of the applicant’s research proposal by Ghent University’s Research Council.

The career and evaluation policy for Professorial Staff is based on talent development and growth, prioritizing vision development and strategy – at the personal as well as the group level. At UGent we focus on career support and coaching of the Professorial Staff in the different phases of the career. More information can be found on www.ugent.be/en/work/mobility-career/career-aspects/professorial-staff
Ghent University is committed to properly welcoming new professorial staff members and offering them appropriate guidance. The basic teacher training and courses of ‘Dutch’ and ‘English’ for foreign-speaking lecturers are only a few examples of our wide range of training and education opportunities. Furthermore, each Ghent University staff member can count on a number of benefits such as a bike allowance, reimbursement of public transport commuting costs, daycare, a wide range of sports facilities and EcoCheques. A complete overview of all our employee benefits (in Dutch).
Ghent University also invests in welcoming international professorial staff. It offers various housing options, a relocation bonus, the International School for school-aged children (with a discount on the tuition fee), support when registering at the City of Ghent, support with the procedure of family reunification and other administrative matters in connection with moving to Ghent. More information can be found on www.ugent.be/en/living.

GENDER AND DIVERSITY

Ghent University conducts an equal opportunities policy and encourages everyone to apply. Ghent University also strives for a gender balance. Female applications are thus especially welcomed.

SELECTION PROCEDURE

After the final application date, all received applications will be sent to the assessment committee assembled for this vacancy. This committee will first evaluate the application files. Therefore it will match all elements of the file against the required expertise for the position in terms of education, research and scientific service. Based on this deliberation, relevant candidates will be shortlisted to be invited for further selection (interview, possible presentation or test lecture …). Afterwards, the committee will rank the suitable candidates and present this ranking to the Faculty Board. The advice of the Faculty Board will then be presented to the University Board for approval.

Candidates are asked to further discuss their top 5 most important publications or other academic achievements with the highest impact. Next to academic publications, the candidate is thus also able to show merit of knowledge transfer by academic dissemination, social valorisation, public awareness, seminars or conference presentations. These competences are also taken into account when evaluating the candidates.

Candidates are also asked to prepare a research proposal. The research proposal can be taken into account by the selection committee in order to assess the candidate’s potential contribution to the consortium; nevertheless, the evaluation of the proposal itself by the Research Council will not be initiated until after the professorship appointment in order to award the €210,000 research budget.

The evaluation of the required international mobility is broad and partly takes the gender perspective into account, thus not only considering longer stays abroad by also other forms of internationalisation.

Pregnancy leave, prolonged sick leave, parental leave, filial leave or other forms of absence are taken into account when evaluating the available time for the realisation of academic output.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply online through the e-recruitment system before the application deadline (see above). We do not accept late applications or applications that are not sent through the online system.

Your application must include the following documents:

• In the field ‘Cv’: the professorial staff application form (+ all annexes mentioned in the form), merged into one pdf file.
• In the field ‘Cover letter’: your application letter in pdf format
• In the field ‘Diploma’: a transcript of your doctoral degree. If you have a foreign diploma in a language other than our national languages (Dutch, French or German) or English, please add a translation in one of the mentioned languages.
• In the field ‘Certificate of equivalence’: only for diplomas awarded outside the European Union: certificate of equivalence (NARIC) (if already in you possession)

Note that the maximum file size for each field is 10 MB.

MORE INFORMATION

For further information regarding these vacancies, please contact Prof. Ingeborg Dhooge (ingeborg.dhooge@UGent.be, +32 332 23 31) at the Faculty Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Head and Skin or Prof. Dick Botteldooren (dick.botteldooren@UGent.be, +32 9 264 9968) at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Information Technology.