Postdoctoral Researcher in Global Health Economics – BEACON-HD

Introduction

BEACON-HD is an international, Horizon Europe-funded research project testing two promising strategies — telemedicine with self-monitoring and community-based medication delivery — to strengthen primary health care systems and improve the management of hypertension and type 2 diabetes in rural Rwanda and Uganda. As a postdoctoral researcher, you will play a leading role in the economic and equity analyses within this large-scale field experiment, working closely with an international consortium of health economists, clinicians and implementation scientists. Join us to help generate the evidence needed to make chronic disease care more effective, efficient and fair in low-resource settings.

Job description

Are you interested in leading applied research within a large-scale field experiment aimed at improving the management of chronic disease in low-resource settings? Do you want to help make healthcare delivery more effective, efficient and equitable for people living with hypertension and diabetes in Sub-Saharan Africa? 

We offer a post-Doc opportunity for 36 months (90% research, 10% teaching) within BEACON-HD, a large EU Horizon Europe-funded international consortium project.

BEACON-HD is testing two promising implementation strategies, telemedicine with self-monitoring and community-based medication delivery, through a large-scale field experiment in rural Rwanda and Uganda. The project combines this field experiment with qualitative, behavioral and economic research to understand not only whether these strategies work, but how, for whom, and at what cost.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will take a leading role in the economic and equity work package, working closely with the project's PI and the wider consortium. Your responsibilities will include:

• Contributing to and helping coordinate the BEACON-HD field experiment, from the design of data collection instruments to implementation, analysis and interpretation of results, in close collaboration with consortium partners across Europe, Rwanda and Uganda.

• Leading the collection, quality assurance and analysis of data on costs, resource use and outcomes together with our in-country partners, including field visits to Rwanda and/or Uganda.

• Building and extending a decision-analytic (Markov) model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of telemedicine with self-monitoring and community medication delivery, relative to standard care, from the perspective of the public health systems in both countries.

• Leading a budget-impact analysis assessing the short- and medium-term financial implications of scaling up these strategies.

• Leading an equity-modelling study evaluating how the implementation strategies affect health outcomes across socioeconomic subgroups, and their potential to contribute to universal health coverage.

• Co-authoring peer-reviewed publications and presenting findings at international conferences.

• Contributing to the day-to-day coordination of the work package

  This postdoc position combines field-based data collection and analysis with decision-analytic modelling and applied econometric work. It offers the opportunity to generate new methodological and empirical insights into the evaluation of health-system-strengthening strategies, helping to guide fairer and more efficient healthcare policy in low- and middle-income countries.

Job requirements

We are looking for a highly motivated and talented candidate with the following qualifications:

Must-haves:

• A completed PhD (or a PhD close to completion) in health economics, development economics, economics, econometrics, or a closely related discipline.

• Strong analytical and quantitative skills, with knowledge of economic evaluation methods such as decision-analytic or cost-effectiveness modelling.

• Proficiency in statistical programming (e.g., Stata, R).

• Excellent written and spoken English, with the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly.

• Ability to work independently on a research agenda while collaborating within a large, multidisciplinary, international consortium.

• Willingness to travel to Rwanda and Uganda for fieldwork and consortium meetings.

Nice-to-haves:

• Demonstrated experience conducting research in development economics or health economics.

• Hands-on experience designing and/or implementing fieldwork or field experiments, ideally in low- and middle-income country settings.

• Familiarity with Markov modelling, budget-impact analysis, or equity-weighted economic evaluation.

• Prior research experience in Sub-Saharan Africa or other global health / global development contexts.

• Experience working with trial or field-experiment data.

• Interest in contributing to broader project tasks beyond one's own work package, within a large international consortium.

• A track record of, or clear potential for, publishing in high-impact peer-reviewed journals.

Employment conditions and benefits

We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The start date of this position is 1 January 2027 and you will be based at the department of Applied Economics at Erasmus School of Economics (ESE). This position is for 1,0 fte. The salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 3.706 (scale 10) to a maximum of € 6.682 gross per month (scale 11) on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU. This postdoc position offers a total duration of 3 years. 

Everything else we offer you; you can find below!

• Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre!
• Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR, FAME or QuEUR.
• Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.
• Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.
• Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers fully paid birth leave, partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare (daycare not paid for by EUR).
• Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the Expat-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency), and with our Dual Career Programme we will also help your partner find the right job for them.

Employer

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

Faculty / Institute / Central service

Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) is a leading school in economics in the Netherlands. It has a strong international reputation and aims to do outstanding research. Moreover, it provides excellent education at the BA., MA. and Ph.D. levels. Much research at Erasmus School of Economics is policy relevant, has social impact, and offers a strong research culture, ample research resources, and comparatively low teaching loads.
www.eur.nl/en/ese

Group

The Health Economics research group is part of the Department of Applied Economics, together with research groups in strategy and behavioral economics. The Department offers a vibrant research environment with a focus on societally relevant economic questions (www.eur.nl/en/ese/department-applied-economics). Its researchers are members of the Tinbergen Institute, one of Europe's leading research institutes and graduate schools in economics, econometrics and finance (www.tinbergen.nl).

The group's research interests include behavioral and experimental health economics, global health economics, and health and labor economics. Through EsCHER, one of Europe's largest health economics centers, and a jointly organized seminar series, you will have close ties with health economists at the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM).

Department

The Health Economics group is part of the Department of Applied Economics together with research groups in strategy and behavioral economics. The Department offers a vibrant research environment with a focus on societally relevant economic questions (www.eur.nl/en/ese/department-applied-economics). Its researchers are members of the Tinbergen Institute, one of Europe's leading research institutes and graduate schools in economics, econometrics and finance (www.tinbergen.nl). It is also part of the Erasmus Research Institute in Management (www.erim.eur.nl), where its members cooperate with scholars of the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), one of the leading business schools worldwide.

Additional information

More information

For questions regarding the research project please contact the project supervisor: dr. Carlos Riumalló-Herl  riumalloherl@ese.eur.nl. 

For questions regarding the application procedure please contact Linda Klaver (Operations Manager) at om.ae@ese.eur.nl 

Applying

Please submit your complete application before 9 October 2026. Applications will be reviewed by the recruitment committee during the complete time this vacancy is online. We look forward to receiving your application!  

Persons of all gender identities or expressions, sexual orientations, religions, ethnicities, ages, neurodiversities, functional impairments, citizenships, or any other aspect are welcome to apply and join the EUR community.