Individual PhD Project Information:
Host institution: Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Supervisory team: Prof. Teun Zuiderent-Jerak (PhD supervisor, VU Amsterdam), Prof. Sebastiaan Meijer (PhD supervisor, KTH), Dr Michiel Van Oudheusden (PhD co-supervisor, VU Amsterdam), Prof. Paolo Parini (secondment host, Karolinska University Hospital)
Enrolment in Doctoral School: Enrolled in the Athena Graduate School (VU Amsterdam) and the School of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health program of Technology and Health (KTH).
Project description:
This PhD project focuses on integrating Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles into the development of in silico technologies, with an emphasis on ethical, legal, and societal issues (ELSI). The project aims to evaluate the complex interactions between stakeholders in the in silico health ecosystem and develop strategies to mitigate potential risks while accelerating the adoption of these technologies in real-world healthcare. Using ethnographic methods, while closely collaborating with researchers from other work packages, the candidate will document their work, participate in lab meetings, and conduct semi-structured interviews to analyze how values and social considerations shape research decisions.
Additionally, the PhD candidate will perform a systematic desk review of ELSI-related documents, identify key stakeholders, and gather insights to inform the development of a standardized research protocol. This protocol will map the evolution of in silico technologies for healthy aging and ensure that ethical reflection and public engagement are integrated into the research process. The results will contribute to an improved understanding of societal impacts and strategies for mitigating future risks.
Planned secondments:
- KTH: explore how modelling and simulation methods in socio-technical systems can strengthen ethnographic methods and vice versa.
- Karolinska University hospital (Region Stockholm): opportunity to engage in communication with regulators and payers in the field of in silico technology, providing exposure to a wider range of stakeholders of the in silico ecosystem.