At the Department of Movement Sciences of the Group of Biomedical Sciences at KU Leuven, a full-time academic position is available within the Exercise and Muscle Physiology Research Group.
The Department of Movement Sciences aims to further strengthen this research group through the appointment of a third full-time academic member with complementary expertise in fundamental and mechanistic research, with clear relevance to exercise and muscle physiology.
The Exercise and Muscle Physiology Research Group studies how exercise training, nutrition, physical (in)activity, and environmental stressors affect performance and health, with particular attention to skeletal muscle adaptation and integrative physiology. Its research spans fundamental, translational, clinical, and applied human research lines, across models and populations from cells and animals to clinical populations and athletes.
The research group combines laboratory and translational expertise with infrastructure for exercise testing, training interventions, environmental physiology (heat and simulated altitude), biosampling, biobanking, and biochemical analyses. Through collaborations within the Biomedical Sciences Group and beyond, the group has access to advanced platforms, including omics technologies, and to broad national and international networks.
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Duties
Research
- You develop an innovative and internationally competitive research line in the domain of fundamental and mechanistic physiology, with a clear focus on exercise and/or muscle physiology.
- You contribute complementary expertise that strengthens the Exercise and Muscle Physiology Research Group, in close interaction with the group’s existing mechanistic, translational, and integrative human research lines. A strong fit is expected with one or more of the group’s central themes, including muscle physiology, exercise training and adaptation, environmental physiology, and sports nutrition.
- You bring strong methodological expertise in relevant state-of-the-art approaches, such as cellular and molecular biology, omics, advanced biochemical or histological techniques, translational experimental models, or related methods that deepen the group’s mechanistic capacity and strengthen links to broader physiological questions relevant to performance and health.
- You actively contribute to ongoing and future collaborative research programs of the group and department, including joint national and international research proposals. The group explicitly values high-quality cross-disciplinary output that combines mechanistic depth with translational and applied relevance.
- You supervise PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.
- You generate scientific output that meets the highest international standards.
- You are able to acquire competitive funding from local, national, and international sources.
Teaching
- You take on teaching responsibilities within the educational programs of the Faculty of Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences and ensure high-quality education in the domain of exercise and muscle physiology as well as in the broader domain of movement sciences. In addition, you are expected to contribute to specialized master-level education in exercise testing, wet lab techniques, laboratory workflows, and advanced methodological approaches relevant to fundamental and mechanistic research in exercise and muscle physiology.
- You contribute to the pedagogical mission of the faculty and university through the supervision of bachelor’s and master’s theses and research internships.
- You further develop your teaching in accordance with KU Leuven’s vision on activating and research-based education, and make use of the opportunities for educational professionalization offered by the faculty and the university.
Service
- You contribute to scientific, societal, and internal service activities.
- You take an active role in relevant national and international scientific communities and professional networks in the field of exercise physiology, muscle physiology, and related biomedical disciplines.
- Together with the other principal investigators in the research group, you help oversee and further develop the research group’s exercise physiology services for athletes and external partners. These services include, among others, exercise testing, heat stress testing, and simulated altitude testing, and are typically carried out by doctoral researchers under academic supervision.
- You contribute to the local, national, and international visibility of the research group, department, and faculty.
- You help strengthen the valorization and societal relevance of the research group’s research through knowledge transfer toward stakeholders in health, physical activity, sport, and broader society. The research group’s long-term vision includes both scientific excellence and meaningful transfer to practice, policy, and public engagement.
- Over time, you take on policy and educational responsibilities within the department, faculty or KU Leuven
Profile
- You hold a PhD in a field directly relevant to exercise physiology, muscle physiology, integrative physiology, or a closely related biomedical discipline.
- You have a strong and internationally visible research profile in fundamental and mechanistic research, combined with a clear affinity for exercise and muscle physiology. We particularly welcome candidates with advanced methodological expertise that can strengthen the group’s fundamental research capacity, such as cellular and molecular approaches, omics, advanced biochemical or histological methods, and/or translational experimental models.
- Your expertise complements the research group’s existing research lines and strengthens them through conceptual alignment, methodological depth, and scientific collaboration. A demonstrated willingness and ability to work across disciplinary and translational boundaries is therefore essential.
- We seek a colleague who values both mechanistic and integrative/applied exercise (patho)physiology, and who is motivated to develop joint research projects and competitive collaborative grant proposals within and beyond the research group.
- The quality of your research is demonstrated by publications in leading international peer-reviewed journals, evidence of scientific independence and originality, international research experience, and the potential to acquire competitive funding.
- Experience in building collaborations across methods, models, and disciplines is an important asset.
- Experience in supervising PhD students and/or postdoctoral researchers is expected.
- The candidate has demonstrable skills in academic education. Teaching experience within the research domain of the position is an asset.
- You possess organisational skills and have a cooperative attitude. You also possess leadership capacities within a university context.
- The official administrative language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in administrative meetings. Before teaching courses in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn Dutch, respectively English, to the required standard.
Offer
- We are offering full-time employment in an intellectually challenging environment. KU Leuven is a research-intensive, internationally oriented university that carries out both fundamental and applied scientific research, with a strong interdisciplinary focus and a commitment to international excellence.
- Depending on your track record, qualifications and experience, you will be appointed to or tenured in one of the grades of the senior academic staff: assistant professor, associate professor, professor, or full professor. Junior candidates are normally appointed as assistant professor on a tenure track of five years, followed by permanent appointment after positive evaluation.
- You will work in Leuven, a historic, dynamic and lively city located in the heart of Belgium, within 20 minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.
- KU Leuven is well set to welcome foreign professors and their family and provides practical support with regard to immigration & administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, partner career coaching, etc.
- To facilitate scientific onboarding and accelerate research in the first phase a starting grant of 110.000 euro is offered to new professors appointed for at least 50%.
Interested?
For more information, please contact the head of the Exercise and Muscle Physiology Research Group, Prof. dr. Katrien Koppo, e-mail:
[email protected] or with the Chair of the Department of Movement Sciences, Prof. dr. Jan Seghers, e-mail:
[email protected].
Please include with your application a motivation letter, a research statement describing your added value for the research program of the Department of Movement Sciences and the Biomedical Sciences Group, and a teaching statement outlining your vision of academic education and how it fits with the KU Leuven vision on teaching.
KU Leuven places great importance on research integrity and ethical conduct and will therefore ask you to sign a research integrity statement upon appointment.
KU Leuven strives for an inclusive, respectful and socially safe environment. We embrace diversity among individuals and groups as an asset. Open dialogue and differences in perspective are essential for an ambitious research and educational environment. In our commitment to equal opportunity, we recognize the consequences of historical inequalities. We do not accept any form of discrimination based on, but not limited to, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, ethnic or national background, skin colour, religious and philosophical diversity, neurodivergence, employment disability, health, or socioeconomic status. For questions about accessibility or support offered, we are happy to assist you at this email address.
