Master in Human Movement Sciences (Research) Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

How do toddlers learn to walk? How can augmented reality help patients with Parkinson’s Disease? How do top athletes get maximum performance out of their muscles? What’s the best training to improve stability and prevent falls among elderly people?

This two-year multidisciplinary Research Master's programme integrates fundamental scientific research with relevant questions from clinical and sports practice. You’ll cover topics ranging from molecular biology to systems neuroscience, and from biomechanics to motor behaviour.

Discover your Human Movement Sciences Research Master’s programme

This Research Master's is a selective programme, with up to 30 highly motivated students per year. That means you’ll benefit from interactive lectures and small-scale teaching sessions.

The first year prepares you for scientific research. It also allows you to choose your own combination of courses to tailor your programme. Your second year is devoted to conducting a research project of your choice. Throughout the programme, you’ll gain hands-on experience across the full empirical scientific research cycle.

Physical activity and exercise is often a means to get or stay healthy, but a requirement to participate in sports. How can we help older people to stay mobile and independent? How do top athletes get maximum performance out of their muscles?

As a Research Master’s student, you’ll learn how to answer questions like these that are both urgent and relevant in today’s society. Your research will be aimed at unravelling the secrets of human movement.

Grounded in the five core research themes of the Amsterdam Movement Sciences (AMS) institute, the Research Master includes courses on sports, musculoskeletal health, tissue function and regeneration, ageing and vitality, and rehabilitation and development. Topics covered range from molecular biology to neuroscience and neuro-muscular-skeletal systems, and from biomechanics to motor behaviour.

In addition to becoming well versed in these research areas, you’ll be trained in state-of-the-art research methodologies and advanced statistics. The interactive, small-scale teaching methods used in the programme allow you to have in-depth discussions that meet the level and intensity of a Research Master’s programme. Plus, all the lecturers are renowned experts in their fields of research.

After completing the Research Master’s, you’ll be well prepared to pursue a scientific career, either by starting with a PhD position or by entering an R&D environment. You’ll also be well equipped for other research-related positions.

VU Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences is ranked No.5 in the world on the Shanghai Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments.

About 80% of students acquires a position in an academic context within six months after they finished the Research Master's programme Human Movement Sciences.

After completion of the programme, graduates are qualified to work as well-versed researchers with an independent work attitude, capable of successfully completing a PhD trajectory if aiming for a career in academia, or contributing to R&D in industry or other non-academic institutions. They can tackle timely research questions in the multidisciplinary realm of human movement sciences as well as in fundamental and applied clinical disciplines.

The majority of graduates enters a career in (inter-)national academic research institutions or R&D units in industry, health care or sports.