INSIDE:INSIGHT is a Doctoral Network funded by the Horizon Europe programme of the EU. It is composed of 12 partners across Europe, Canada and New-Zealand and includes leading scientists from academia and industry. Within the consortium there is expertise in educational theories and technologies, human anatomy, computer vision and sciences, biomedical engineering, medical imaging and surgery. INSIDE:INSIGHT proposes 10 independent doctoral research projects with the ambition of providing its trainees with a comprehensive understanding of educational technologies in the biomedical field. Through its research and training activities, the INSIDE:INSIGHT project will contribute to scientific advancement and innovation in Europe, ultimately leading to societal and economic benefits.

Graduates of INSIDE:INSIGHT will be well-prepared for a career in as well as outside academia with an innovative and beyond state-of-the-art view on different aspects of educational technologies. Moreover, the students will be trained in transferable skills, such as communication, entrepreneurship, intellectual property rights and ethics. Participating in INSIDE:INSIGHT offers doctoral candidates many unique opportunities, including:

• A project as Marie Skłodowska Curie trainee in one of the participating institutions with the objective of receiving a doctoral degree (PhD). 
• State-of-the art, exciting research in an international consortium with highly integrated projects.
• Expert training in basic and applied research, along with a thorough understanding of entrepreneurship and valorisation.
• A research training period in another consortium member's lab lasting from a few weeks up to three months, performed in a different country. 
• Gross Salary according to EU guidelines for Marie Skłodowska Curie trainees, including mobility payments and family allowances where applicable. 

INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS DETAILS (PDF download) 

DC1: Investigating the educator’s role in virtual learning environments for anatomical and clinical skills training

Hosting Institution: KU Leuven (KUL), Belgium

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. F. Depaepe 

Location: Kortrijk 

Link for applications: applications need to be submitted through the KUL recruiting platform  www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/phd, only for additional information contact: Evie.Vereecke@kuleuven.be or Fien.Depaepe@kuleuven.be
Internal Deadline: 20 January 2025

Subject area:  Medical education; XR technology, technology enhanced education; immersive learning

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in educational sciences, psychology, computer sciences, (bio)medical sciences, or equivalent. Knowledge of educational and behavioral research and a proven track record are required. Additionally, practical experience in the use of technology and ICT in education and training are a plus.  The candidate should be familiar with basic research techniques (e.g., statistical and computer sciences techniques).

DC2: Acceptance of technology-enhanced learning materials in medical and healthcare education

Hosting Institution: KU Leuven (KUL), Belgium

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Evie Vereecke

Location: Kortrijk 

Link for applications: applications need to be submitted through the KUL recruiting platform  www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/phd, only for additional information contact: Evie.Vereecke@kuleuven.be or Fien.Depaepe@kuleuven.be
Internal Deadline: 6 January 2025

Subject area:   Anatomy; medical education; XR technology; immersive learning

Project-specific selection criteria:  Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in educational sciences, psychology, computer sciences, (bio)medical sciences, health sciences or equivalent. Knowledge of human anatomy and affinity and/or experience with the medical field are required. Additionally, practical experience in the use of technology and ICT in education and training are a plus. The candidate should be familiar with basic research techniques (e.g., statistical and data analysis techniques). Creativity and enthusiasm are considered important assets.

DC3: Instructional design and effectiveness evaluation of XR applications in anatomical education

Hosting Institution: Universiteit Gent (UGENT), Belgium

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Wouter Willaert

Location: Gent

Email address for the applications wouter.willaert@ugent.be 

Internal Deadline: 20 January 2025

Subject area:  Health and educational sciences; interdisciplinary doctorate

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in health sciences (medicine, physiotherapy, sports, biomedical sciences, audiology/logopedics). Knowledge of human anatomy and a proven track record are required. Additionally, interest in educational sciences is a plus. Knowledge of Dutch is not required but a plus.

DC4: Authoring tools for medical and healthcare education applications in XR

Hosting Institution: Graz University of Technology (TUG), Austria

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Denis Kalkofen 

Location: Graz

Email address for the applications kalkofen@tugraz.at

Internal Deadline: 31 January 2025

Subject area: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Visual Computing, Human-Computer Interaction 

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in Computer Science or a related area, with knowledge in Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) technologies and with knowledge in visual computing, with a focus on human-computer interaction. Practical experience in software engineering, including experience with AR and VR development tools, such as Unity and C#, is a plus. 

DC5: Gamification of teaching in medical and healthcare education with AI and serious games
Hosting Institution: University of Minho (UMINHO), Portugal
Supervisor: Prof Dr. V. Alves
Location: Braga
Email address for the applications:valves@di.uminho.pt
Internal Deadline: 31 December 2024

Subject area:Biomedical Engineering; Artificial Intelligence

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in Biomedical Engineering and/or Artificial Intelligence. Knowledge of artificial intelligence/machine learning, computer vision, and a proven track record are required. Additionally, practical experience in medical image processing, serious games development is a plus. The candidate should be familiar with basic research techniques (e.g., programming, graphics processing, audio processing). Candidates should be familiar with gamification principles, game design, educational technology, project management, user testing and assessment.

DC6: Integration and testing of uni- and multimodal XR learning scenarios with real-world medical data  

Hosting Institution: University Hospital Essen (UKE), Germany

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. J. Egger

Location: Essen

Email address for the applications:jan.egger@uni-due.de 

Internal Deadline: 15 December 2024

Subject area: Biomedical Engineering

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree in biomedical engineering or a similar education level. Knowledge of machine and deep learning and computer vision, and a proven track record are required. Additionally, practical experience in medical image processing, object detection and segmentation will be a plus. The candidate should be familiar with basic research techniques (e.g., medical image preprocessing, feature extraction, image segmentation, image registration and data augmentation). Candidates should be familiar with Python and relevant libraries such as TensorFlow, Keras, OpenCV or PyTorch.

DC7: Fostering interprofessional healthcare collaboration: an XR-enhanced pedagogical model for developing Self Regulated Learning /Socially Shared Regulation of Learning skills.   

Hosting Institution: University of Oulu (UOULU), Finland 

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sanna Järvelä and Prof. Dr. Kristina Mikkonen

Location: Oulu

Link for applications: applications need to be submitted through the UOULU recruiting platform https://oulunyliopisto.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:764965/ only for additional information contact sanna.jarvela@oulu.fi and kristina.mikkonen@oulu.fi

Internal Deadline: 31 December 2024

Subject area: Learning sciences, educational psychology, nursing science, educational technology

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in learning sciences or related fields. Knowledge of self-regulated learning theories and technology enhanced learning, and a proven track record are required. Additionally, practical experience in multimodal data analysis and use of XR technology especially in the context of health sciences or nursing sciences will be a plus. The candidate should be familiar with basic techniques (e.g., basics of quantitative and qualitative methods). Candidates should be able to work in multicultural and multidisciplinary teams.

DC8: SurgiLearnX: Revolutionizing surgical training with XR-enhanced MOOC platform

Hosting Institution: University Hospital Essen (UKE) and the company Apoqlar (APQ), Germany

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Jan Egger and Dr. Daniela Salzmann

Location: Hamburg, Germany

Email address for the applications: human.resources@apoqlar.com

Internal Deadline: 31 January 2025

Subject area:  XR-enhanced MOOC Platform development

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in biomedical engineering, technical medicine, computer science or a related discipline, with a strong interest or proven experience in XR technologies (VR, AR, MR) and their application in education or healthcare. They should have programming experience, particularly in C#, Unity, or Unreal Engine, with a background in developing XR applications. Experience in user experience (UX) design, conducting user tests, and refining user interfaces based on feedback is essential, along with a good command of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Familiarity with the infrastructure for hosting MOOC applications—particularly cloud services, databases such as SQL and NoSQL, and user authentication systems—is highly desirable. Additionally, experience with web development frameworks such as React or Node.js, or backend infrastructure like AWS or Azure, would be advantageous. The candidate should also have strong research interests and analytical skills, with the ability to conduct rigorous academic work.

DC9: Revolutionizing healthcare training: innovative performance monitoring to support error-recovery in simulation-based psychomotor skills training
Hosting Institution: University of Twente (UTW), Netherlands 
Supervisor: Dr. M. Groenier
Location: Enschede
Link for applications: applications need to be submitted through the UTW recruiting platform https://utwentecareers.nl/, only for additional information contact m.groenier@utwente.nl 
Internal Deadline: 31 December 2024

Subject area: Educational psychology

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in biomedical engineering, technical medicine, psychology, educational sciences or a related discipline, with knowledge of simulation- and sensor-based performance monitoring and assessment. A proven track record is required. Additionally, practical experience in (AI) programming and/or educational design in healthcare will be a plus. The candidate should be familiar with basic techniques (e.g., statistical analyses, qualitative data analysis). Candidates should be familiar with data collection and analysis using educational technology, simulation and/or sensor technology.

DC10: Mixed Reality with both visual perception and manual interaction to understand and learn complex assembled structures for anatomy learning and clinical tasks training
Hosting Institution: University of Pisa (UPI), Italy
Location: Pisa
Supervisor:   Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Ferrari
Email address for the applications: vincenzo.ferrari@unipi.it
Internal Deadline: 20 January 2025

Subject area:  Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science

Project-specific selection criteria: Candidates should have a Master’s degree or similar education level in Biomedical Engineering or Computer Science Knowledge of Computer Graphics programming, and a proven track record are required. Additionally, practical experience in Augmented/Mixed Reality and/or Haptics applications development using Unity 3D game engine or similar and Computer Vision competencies  will be a plus. The candidate should be familiar with basic techniques about applications design, implementation and testing. In addition, they should be familiar with human-computer interaction modalities both from a technical and ergonomics view point, in particular related to AR/MR and haptics technologies.