Science Communication & Public Engagement Specialist

• To design and deliver external messaging on our research and proposed solutions.
• Think creatively about new formats and channels to translate scientific findings into accessible stories and concrete messages to reach all audiences such as the public, stakeholders and policy makers.
• Proactively spot and act on visibility opportunities and work together with the researchers on visibility opportunities such as a publication worth amplifying: e.g. a board or stakeholder meeting in a living lab, a policy moment, a partnership milestone, a public debate where our voice belongs;
• Support media outreach: help colleagues prepare for interviews, draft press releases, and build relationships with journalists covering health, environment and science;
• Together with our project managers you work on the science-communication efforts across our projects (e.g. OBO-2, EXPANSE, EXPOSOME-NL, ESCALATION, EXPACT, LEXCES). For example you will design participant materials for our studies and living lab, develop and design welcome packages for new residents joining cohort studies, participate in recruitment campaigns, follow-up communications, etc.
• Act as contact point for the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine’s Marketing, Communication & Multimedia (MCM) department, Utrecht Life Sciences, central Utrecht University communications, partner institutes and freelance support;
• Develop and maintain our web presence and channels and help shape a recognisable identity for the OHC group.

PhD: Characterization of subsurface heterogeneity in backward erosion (piping)

The Netherlands relies on a network of about 2,000 km of river dikes to contain flooding in its floodplains. These dikes undergo continuous assessment, maintenance, and reinforcement to uphold the highest safety standards. A major risk to dike stability is Backward Erosion Piping (BEP): groundwater flow underneath a dike entrains sand particles, eroding the base of the dike. Current BEP risk assessments weigh uncertainties conservatively and simplify the interactions between subsurface heterogeneity, 3D groundwater flow and BEP. To make risk assessments of BEP more realistic it is therefore necessary to get a better grip on these interactions, but also to make sure that uncertainties are propagated in a sound and robust way. The envisaged PhD candidate shall investigate optimal ways to schematize and parameterize the subsurface at local to regional scales to assess dike safety using geological and geohydrological data and models, for characteristic fluvial landscapes in the Netherlands.

UU is offering this PhD position within the Digital Dikes project, funded by NWO-TTW. The Digital Dikes project is a consortium project between Twente University, Delft University, Utrecht University, Deltares Research Institute, industrial and governmental national and international partners. The project aligns their various research lines into BEP and risk assessment for dikes.

For this PhD research, we seek a highly motivated PhD candidate who is eager to face the challenge of subsurface characterization and contribute to improved dike safety. You will develop advanced digital models of the subsurface architecture (i.e. hydrogeological schematizations) that encompass the 3D variability in geohydrological properties. These models are to be validated using real-world monitoring data (e.g. on sand boils), and used in 3D groundwater flow simulations to predict BEP potential occurrence spatially. For this you can draw on the Dept. of Physical Geography’s unique expertise on geomorphology, geology and geohydrology of the Dutch river delta, embanked floodplains and flood-protected polders.

In detail, your tasks will comprise the following:

1. develop digital hydrogeological schematizations of dike substrate and use these in simulations of groundwater flow and particle mobilization underneath dikes;
2. validate schematizations and simulations using in-situ measurements and observations, using existing datasets as well as new field observations;
3. develop a PhD thesis using the above, where some thesis chapters are peer-reviewed journal papers.

As PhD candidate, you will work together with PhD candidates and postdoc researchers from other universities, and external parties such as Deltares Research Institute and Rijkswaterstaat. Your work will contribute to the effective representation of the subsurface architecture and its natural variability to quantify the risk of BEP underneath dikes and, eventually, contribute to the projects overall aim of using the obtained knowledge to develop innovative approaches for assessing dike safety and efficient dike reinforcement strategies. To maximize impact, you will work with Deltares Research Institute and Rijkswaterstaat to implement your results in national risk assessment tools

To support academic and personal development, PhD candidates follow courses and assist in teaching Earth Sciences at Bachelor's and Master's level. Together these activities amount to twenty percent of the contracted time.

This project will be carried out in close collaboration with Deltares Research Institute.

Afdelingshoofd Universitair Diagnostisch Laboratorium / Hoofdanalist

Naast het personele en organisatorische leiderschap vervul je een belangrijke rol in het bedrijfsmatig en financieel beheer van het laboratorium. Je levert daarnaast een actieve bijdrage aan de (door)ontwikkeling van de visie van het UVDL en weet deze te vertalen naar een duidelijke positionering van het laboratorium in de markt, waarbij je actief oog hebt voor marktontwikkelingen en commerciële kansen, en deze ook effectief weet te verzilveren.

Je combineert vakinhoudelijke expertise met leiderschap en werkt nauw samen met de klinisch chemicus, dierenartsen en collega teammanagers van de pathologie en medische microbiologie.

Je werkzaamheden:

• Aansturen, begeleiden en coachen van het team van analisten en frontoffice medewerkers
• Opstellen van een afdelingsplan en vertalen van strategische doelstellingen naar concrete acties
• Actief bijdragen aan de positionering van het laboratorium in de markt en het signaleren en verzilveren van commerciële kansen
• Coördineren van de dagelijkse werkzaamheden binnen het laboratorium
• Bewaken en optimaliseren van werkprocessen
• Signaleren van knelpunten en initiëren van verbetertrajecten
• Zorgdragen voor correcte uitvoering van analyses binnen klinische chemie, hematologie en (immuno)chemie
• Beheer van apparatuur, inclusief het plannen en borgen van tijdig onderhoud
• Laten opstellen en beheren van onderhoudscontracten voor laboratoriumapparatuur
• Initiëren en implementeren van nieuwe analysemethoden in samenwerking met de Klinisch Chemicus
• Leveren van input voor en bijdragen aan business cases voor de aanschaf van nieuwe apparatuur
• Projectleiderschap bij implementatie van een nieuw apparaat op het laboratorium
• Zorgdragen dat SOP’s en protocollen worden opgesteld en geactualiseerd
• Procesmatige aansturing van de uitvoering van studies
• Zorgdragen voor facturatie van testen/studies die niet automatisch gegenereerd worden

PhD Media and the Contestation of Democracy from Below in Western Europe

The Project
Across Western Europe, democracy underwent profound changes during the final decades of the twentieth century. The postwar model of democracy, characterized by institutional trust, social cohesion, and political consensus, came under pressure, giving way to a more fragmented, polarized and contested democratic order.

The postwar democratic order was closely linked to a particular model of media governance, with the public service broadcasting monopoly at its core. But in subsequent decades, debates about the role, organization, and regulation of media became a key arena in which democratic ideals and institutions were contested and (re-)formed. The NWO-funded VIDI project Democracy and the (de-)regulation of the media examines democracy’s contestation and transformation in the final quarter of the twentieth century through the lens of media governance.

Through a comparative Western European perspective, the project investigates how social movements, interest organisations, regulators and policy makers and their conceptions and practices of democracy shaped media governance reform from the 1970s to the 2000s. This enables us to understand the foundations of the liberalized and pluralized media model of the final quarter of the twentieth century and of the regulation of digital media which stand at the heart of concerns about democracy’s crisis today.

Your Role
As a PhD-researcher, you will study the first and crucial phase of the challenge to the postwar model of democracy. You will investigate how social movements, alternative media initiatives, intellectuals and cultural pioneers challenged the institutional and normative foundations of public service broadcasting. These actors offered a stark critique of government control over media based on cultural cohesion, sociopolitical consensus and popular education; and articulated new democratic ideals centring on participation, pluralism, autonomy, and freedom of expression. This contributed to broader transformations in democratic culture and governance – and to subsequent debates on media reform in political and policy circles.

Focusing on the long 1970s, a period marked by contestation of established democratic norms and hierarchies, your research project will analyse how alternative visions on the relationship between media and democracy emerged from below and challenged the public media monopoly. You will trace how and why dominant conceptions and practices of media regulation came under pressure and assess how ideas and practices from below reshaped and influenced public and political debates on media policy.

Through a comparative study of Western Europe, you will therefore investigate interactions between social movements, ideas, and political change. Your research will involve the analysis of archival sources from social movements, alternative media organizations, and intellectuals to understand how democratic concepts and forms of media governance evolved and will be interested in the circulation of ideas, actors, and practices across national borders.

As PhD-researcher, you will be part of the project team with a Postdoc and the Project Leader. The daily supervisor of the PhD-project is Pepijn Corduwener, the Project Leader; co-promotors are Professor Liesbeth van de Grift (International History) and Professor José van Dijck (Media Studies). You will be a member of the section of Political History, at the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University.

Keurmeester elektrische arbeidsmiddelen

Je taken:

• Je keurt arbeidsmiddelen aan de hand van vastgestelde technische protocollen;
• Je houdt registraties bij en rapporteert over de voortgang van de keuringen;
• Je voert kleine reparaties uit of schakelt de juiste partij in wanneer dat nodig is;
• Je signaleert en maakt melding van onveilige situaties;
• Je test de functionaliteit van apparatuur en instrumenten;
• Je adviseert de arbo-milieucoördinatoren over vervanging van elektrische arbeidsmiddelen .

Voordat je zelfstandig aan de slag gaat, volg je een korte interne opleiding.

Je maakt deel uit van het team Technische Keuringen. Samen met gebruikers en collega's stem je de werkzaamheden goed af, zodat keuringen efficiënt en volgens planning worden uitgevoerd.

Omdat je werkzaamheden op verschillende locaties binnen de universiteit plaatsvinden, ben je regelmatig onderweg tussen de gebouwen en afdelingen. Op de fiets bereik je eenvoudig de diverse werkplekken waar je de inspecties uitvoert.