Join our team!
We are inviting prospective researchers to apply for two PhD positions led by Dr. Mahsa Shabani:
Project 1: Socio-Ethical and Legal Requirements for Multi-Agent Generative AI in Healthcare (within a Horizon Europe funded project “GenAI4care”)
Project 2:Fairness in Data-Driven Medical Technologies (within NWO-Vidi project)
Project 1: Generative AI is rapidly transforming healthcare, particularly through the emergence of multi-agent systems that support clinical decision-making, patient interaction, and care delivery. While these technologies offer major opportunities, they also raise critical socio-ethical, legal, and regulatory challenges.
This PhD position is embedded in a European research project aimed at developing responsible, trustworthy, and compliant multi-agent generative AI systems for healthcare. The successful candidate will contribute to defining ethics-by-design and compliance-by-design frameworks that guide the development and deployment of such systems.
Project 2: Artificial intelligence and genomic technologies are transforming healthcare, offering powerful tools for diagnosis and treatment. Yet, these innovations often fail to serve diverse populations fairly, which can reinforce existing inequalities.
This PhD project would focus on building a multidimensional conception of fairness in medical AI, informed by input gathered from relevant stakeholders, through focus group studies and Delphi studies. The PhD project is within the NWO-VIDI project Fairness in Data-Driven Medical Technologies: Solidifying Regulatory Oversight Based on a Multidimensional Conception of Fairness.
What are you going tot do
- Design the scope of the individual PhD research project, and fine-tune the research questions and methodology together with the whole project team;
- Engage autonomously in - as well as collaborate on - the collection, coding and analysis of data, through doctrinal/literature research, focus groups and Delphi study;
- Present intermediate research results in internal discussions and at workshops and conferences;
- Contribute to project activities, such as organizing stakeholder meetings, academic events and outreach; and communication of research results to relevant communities of academics, practitioners and policy makers; and
- Optionally, and in mutual agreement with the project leader and in line with the teaching needs of the Health Law group, have teaching responsibilities.
What do you have to offer
You have:
- (or are about to obtain) a master’s degree in law or bioethics, with a focus on health law/or technology law; or in an adjacent field, where there is a clear relevance for the subject of this research project, which should be convincingly demonstrated in the motivation letter
- interest (and ideally experience) in conducting multi-method empirical and legal research;
- experience with conducting academic research and academic writing in English;
- demonstrable team working skills;
- excellent command of English, both orally and written;
- interdisciplinary mindset (bridging technical, ethical, and legal domains);
- familiarity with EU regulations (AI Act, MDR, GDPR & EHDS) is an asset;
- experience with stakeholder engagement (e.g. interviews, focus groups, Delphi studies) is an asset.
What do we offer you
We offer you the opportunity to work in an intellectually stimulating and teamwork-oriented environment. We aim to provide tailor-made and careful supervision with the main goal of helping you grow and flourish academically and professionally.You have the opportunity and obligation to participate in the Amsterdam Law School’s PhD training program.
We offer two 1.0 FTE positions (38 hours/week) as a PhD student. The initial appointment for each is for 1 year with a trial period of 2 months. After a positive evaluation, your appointment will be extended for another 3 years. The start date will be determined by mutual agreement; it is currently scheduled around 1 September 2026.
Your salary ranges from €3,059 (in year 1) to €3,881 (in year 4) based on a 38-hour working week. This amount excludes 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The CAO Nederlandse Universiteiten (CAO NU) applies.
This is where you are going to work
You will become a team member of the Law Center for Health and Life based at the University of Amsterdam’s Law Faculty. Within the Law Centre for Health and Life, you will join the digital health law research projects and be part of a new cohort of PhD candidates starting at the Centre. You will be invited and expected to actively contribute to the academic life of the Centre, Faculty and University.
Are you passionate about the intersection of AI, healthcare, and regulation? We are excited to announce two fully funded PhD positions at the University of Amsterdam. Please note: All applicants will be considered for both positions. There is no need to indicate which project you apply to!
Join our team!
We are inviting prospective researchers to apply for two PhD positions led by Dr. Mahsa Shabani:
Project 1: Socio-Ethical and Legal Requirements for Multi-Agent Generative AI in Healthcare (within a Horizon Europe funded project “GenAI4care”)
Project 2:Fairness in Data-Driven Medical Technologies (within NWO-Vidi project)
Project 1: Generative AI is rapidly transforming healthcare, particularly through the emergence of multi-agent systems that support clinical decision-making, patient interaction, and care delivery. While these technologies offer major opportunities, they also raise critical socio-ethical, legal, and regulatory challenges.
This PhD position is embedded in a European research project aimed at developing responsible, trustworthy, and compliant multi-agent generative AI systems for healthcare. The successful candidate will contribute to defining ethics-by-design and compliance-by-design frameworks that guide the development and deployment of such systems.
Project 2: Artificial intelligence and genomic technologies are transforming healthcare, offering powerful tools for diagnosis and treatment. Yet, these innovations often fail to serve diverse populations fairly, which can reinforce existing inequalities.
This PhD project would focus on building a multidimensional conception of fairness in medical AI, informed by input gathered from relevant stakeholders, through focus group studies and Delphi studies. The PhD project is within the NWO-VIDI project Fairness in Data-Driven Medical Technologies: Solidifying Regulatory Oversight Based on a Multidimensional Conception of Fairness.
What are you going tot do
- Design the scope of the individual PhD research project, and fine-tune the research questions and methodology together with the whole project team;
- Engage autonomously in - as well as collaborate on - the collection, coding and analysis of data, through doctrinal/literature research, focus groups and Delphi study;
- Present intermediate research results in internal discussions and at workshops and conferences;
- Contribute to project activities, such as organizing stakeholder meetings, academic events and outreach; and communication of research results to relevant communities of academics, practitioners and policy makers; and
- Optionally, and in mutual agreement with the project leader and in line with the teaching needs of the Health Law group, have teaching responsibilities.
What do you have to offer
You have:
- (or are about to obtain) a master’s degree in law or bioethics, with a focus on health law/or technology law; or in an adjacent field, where there is a clear relevance for the subject of this research project, which should be convincingly demonstrated in the motivation letter
- interest (and ideally experience) in conducting multi-method empirical and legal research;
- experience with conducting academic research and academic writing in English;
- demonstrable team working skills;
- excellent command of English, both orally and written;
- interdisciplinary mindset (bridging technical, ethical, and legal domains);
- familiarity with EU regulations (AI Act, MDR, GDPR & EHDS) is an asset;
- experience with stakeholder engagement (e.g. interviews, focus groups, Delphi studies) is an asset.
What do we offer you
We offer you the opportunity to work in an intellectually stimulating and teamwork-oriented environment. We aim to provide tailor-made and careful supervision with the main goal of helping you grow and flourish academically and professionally.You have the opportunity and obligation to participate in the Amsterdam Law School’s PhD training program.
We offer two 1.0 FTE positions (38 hours/week) as a PhD student. The initial appointment for each is for 1 year with a trial period of 2 months. After a positive evaluation, your appointment will be extended for another 3 years. The start date will be determined by mutual agreement; it is currently scheduled around 1 September 2026.
Your salary ranges from €3,059 (in year 1) to €3,881 (in year 4) based on a 38-hour working week. This amount excludes 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The CAO Nederlandse Universiteiten (CAO NU) applies.
This is where you are going to work
You will become a team member of the Law Center for Health and Life based at the University of Amsterdam’s Law Faculty. Within the Law Centre for Health and Life, you will join the digital health law research projects and be part of a new cohort of PhD candidates starting at the Centre. You will be invited and expected to actively contribute to the academic life of the Centre, Faculty and University.
If you have any questions about the position, please contact by email: Dr. Mahsa Shabani, m.shabani@uva.nl
If you feel the profile fits you, and you are interested in the job, we look forward to receiving your application consisting of the documents listed below. Please apply online via the apply button. We will accept applications until 18 May 2026. We plan to conduct online interviews with those selected for the 2nd round on 2-4 June and to inform the candidates of the result as soon as possible thereafter. We hope the candidates will start their position per 1 September 2026.
Please note that it is only possible to upload two documents, therefore please combine the required files in two (PDF) documents.
File 1
- Motivation letter;
- A CV of no more than three pages;
- An initial research plan including a research question related to one of the topics, justification on why it warrants investigation, and propose a methodology to answer the question, and a potential reference list (in no more than 800 words, excluding references)
- Writing sample of a recently written, single authored manuscript (e.g., your master’s thesis or other work written during your degree) in English of no more than 30 pages.
- Contact information of two academic referees
File 2
- Copies of the LL.B. and LL.M. degrees or equivalent, providing information about the program's length, content, passed courses and grades.
If you choose to upload your documents differently, you run the risk that the files are rejected for being too big or that we miss part of your application.
