Master's in Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology (research)

The University of Groningen is a public research university located in the city of Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. The university has 11 faculties, including one in the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden, and has more than 37,000 students from over 120 nationalities. It also boasts over 140,000 alumni and a budget of 1,000 million EUR.

Are you inspired to conduct high-quality innovative research with a strong focus on mental and physical health? And do you aspire to work alongside world-renowned researchers who are absolute leaders in their field? Join our research master! Mental and physical health and the reciprocal relationship between these two form the basis of the programme. The central idea is that psychological, biological and social aspects all play a role in any physical or mental condition. The CPE programme trains students to solve current health issues by applying innovative research designs and statistical techniques while making use of state-of-the-art facilities in a truly multidisciplinary setting. There is a strong focus on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, taking clinical, public health, and psychosocial factors into consideration. Our students work with existing large databases or collect their own data among people with or without a chronic disease, across the whole age range. There are four research departments involved within CPE: epidemiology, public health, health psychology and psychiatry. Top researchers from these four departments teach the courses, giving students the opportunity to fully acquaint themselves with different fields of research. In the second semester, students will get to choose in which department they would like to conduct their research for their master thesis project, becoming part of the department’s research group. Students will learn to design their own PhD project as part of the programme, which makes them well-qualified to attain a PhD position anywhere in the world. The best students will be offered the opportunity to continue with a PhD at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). We pride ourselves on the fact that there is a lot of personal attention for our students. The programme is built in a way that strongly encourages students to focus on their individual development as a researcher, in a unique and multidisciplinary setting. Because CPE is a small-scale selective programme, every student is known by their name and has ample opportunity for interactions and discussions with the teaching staff. The programme also offers a track called Health Systems and Prevention. This track bridges the research focus of CPE with that of health systems, health policy and prevention. HSP Track students follow the basic CPE programme, but with a focus on health systems and prevention. This focus is mainly incorporated in the Master Thesis project, which for HSP students also includes an internship at a non-academic (Health) organization, the elective courses and the research meetings.