Digitization of Financial Services in Rural India (Pre-doc to PhD)

Impact of digitization of financial services on credit provision in rural areas
Digitization of financial services in rural areas of India offers both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, digitization facilitates tailored and customized financial products that respond to the diverse needs of agricultural households, women’s groups, and cooperatives. On the other, it allows scalable and affordable outreach, making credit accessible to previously excluded communities. The research investigates how such tailored digital credit products compare to standard one-size-fits-all microfinance models, what their impacts are on livelihood resilience, and what implications they hold for sustainability and financial inclusion.

Description and objectives of the Pre-doc (3 moths) and PhD project (if continued)
The objectives of the pre-doc phase are to (i) Map the digital services of a project partner organization in India; (ii) Conduct qualitative impact assessments through focus groups, and (iii) Assess the structure, quality, and scale of data to inform feasibility and design of future impact assessment. This phase is designed to generate proposals for stand-alone academic contributions that will form the foundation for the later PhD research.

The objectives of the PhD Project (if continued) are to: (i) Assess perceptions of existing business models among borrowers and project partners; (ii) Analyse impacts of financial services on producers and enterprises; (iii) Compare outcomes with other financial providers (including cross-continental learning opportunities in Africa); and (iv) Identify enabling and constraining factors for scaling digital financial services in rural contexts.

You will work here
Hosting arrangements
At Wageningen university, the PhD is integrated in the Business Economics group and the Development Economics group. In India, this is with CIAT. The pre-doc position entails 3 months. The PhD-position (if continued) embraces an additional 48 months.

PhD: Food System Resilience in Indonesia: learn from Lighthouse Farm Communities

PhD position - Resilience of food systems; learning from Lighthouse Farm Communities in Indonesia and four other countries
Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals is challenged by a myriad of disruptions, including climate chaos, price volatility, supply chain disruptions, and pests & diseases. How can we support farmers and other actors in the food system to build resilience to future shocks into the core of their operations? A new approach has emerged that focuses on fostering resilience attributes, also referred to as the intrinsic resilience of food systems, categorized as “ABCD” – representing agency, buffers, connectivity, and diversity. How do these attributes operate, and at which level? How do they relate to sustainability and efficiency? Which resilience metrics can be used to scale the attributes to other communities and value chains?

We expect to learn about these questions from and with farming communities that have many years of experience anticipating and responding to disruptions. These communities have been identified through the Global Network of Lighthouse Farms (LHFs). This PhD position focuses on the LHF community in Indonesia.

The position is part of a cohort of in total five PhD positions, which are all part of INTRINSIC (Investigations, Narratives and Teachings on Resilience: Initiating Novel Scaling in an International Context). This is an interdisciplinary program involving five groups of Wageningen University, five LHF communities (Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Kurdistan Region of Iraq) and five development organisations (Gates Foundation, World Bank, GIZ, Rabo Partnerships and the Rwanga Foundation). INTRINSIC is a Wageningen Global Sustainability Program.

At the Wageningen University, this PhD position is embedded in the Business Economics group and the Soil Physics and Land Management group. This collaboration illustrates the interdisciplinary nature of the program as the resilience attributes cannot be understood from a single domain perspective. As such, there will also be close collaboration with the other INTRINSIC PhDs – and their related groups: Food Quality Design, Soil Biology, and Farming Systems Ecology. In Indonesia, the PhD position is embedded in Brawijaya University. The local project partner is the Integrated Organic Farming System Research Centre. While the in-depth analyses focus on the LHF in Indonesia, joint work on data collected by the other PhDs also enables to analyse resilience questions in the four other LHF communities.

Description and objectives of the PhD project
Before development organisations worldwide can mainstream resilience attributes, more evidence is needed into how these attributes operate when shocks occur, how they relate to sustainability and efficiency, and which pathways exist for awareness raising. This PhD project aims to assess resilience attributes in agri and food systems in Lighthouse Farm (LHF) communities in Indonesia, and in four other countries. More specifically, the aim of the PhD project is to:

Investigate context-specific resilience attributes for a diversity of shocks, as well as the levels at which they operate, such as the farm, household, or community level
Outcomes provide insight into the operationalisation and performance of resilience attributes in the LHF community in Indonesia. Findings also show how these attributes relate to efficiency and sustainability.

Cross-cutting analyses across five LHF communities: Interactions between ABCD resilience attributes, sustainability and efficiency
Through collaboration with the other PhDs in INTRINSIC, cross-cutting analyses are undertaken. Each PhD addresses a specific cross-cutting question. For this PhD project the cross-cutting question focuses on the interactions between ABCD attributes, sustainability, and economic efficiency.

Design pathways for awareness raising on ABCD resilience attributes.
To scale resilience attributes to other communities, sectors and value chains, there needs to be more awareness on the resilience attributes. Pathways are designed in close collaboration with stakeholders.

You will work here
The first 10 months of the PhD trajectory are in Wageningen. At Wageningen University, this PhD position is embedded in the Business Economics group and the Soil Physics and Land Management group. You will be primarily affiliated with the Business Economics group, where you will be supervised by prof. Miranda Meuwissen and principal researcher dr Hilde van den Hoorn. The supervisory team is completed with researcher and lecturer dr Karrar Mahdi from the Soil Physics and Land Management group, and dr Uma Khumairoh from Brawijaya University. After the initial 10 months, you will go to Brawijaya University for field work. During this period, the Wageningen supervisors stay closely connected. In the final phase of the PhD trajectory, there is another period of 10 months in Wageningen. Collaboration with the other PhDs occurs through joint meetings throughout the field work phase, especially a one-month joint research stay in Wageningen at the end of the 2nd year.

Hosting arrangements (including the secondment plans)

At Wageningen university, the PhD is primarily integrated in the Business Economics group. In Indonesia, this is with Brawijaya University. The PhD position entails in total 48 months.

PhD: Food System Resilience in Colombia: learn from Lighthouse Farm Communities

PhD-position: Resilience of food systems; learning from Lighthouse Farm Communities in Colombia and four other countries
Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals is challenged by a myriad of threats and disruptions, including climate chaos, soil and land degradation, price volatility, supply chain disruptions, and pests & diseases. How can we support farmers and other actors in the food system to build resilience to future shocks into the core of their operations? A new approach has emerged that focuses on fostering resilience attributes, also referred to as the intrinsic resilience of food systems, categorized as “ABCD” – representing agency, buffers, connectivity, and diversity. How do these attributes operate, and at which level? How do they relate to sustainability and efficiency? Which resilience metrics can be used to scale the attributes to other communities and value chains?

We expect to learn about these questions from and with farming communities that have many years of experience anticipating and responding to disruptions. These communities have been identified through the Global Network of Lighthouse Farms (LHFs). This PhD position focuses on the LHF community in Colombia , with some flexibility to switch to (an)other community(ies) with similar characteristics.

The position is part of a cohort of in total five PhD positions, which are all part of INTRINSIC (Investigations, Narratives and Teachings on Resilience: Initiating Novel Scaling in an International Context). This is an interdisciplinary program involving five groups of the Wageningen University, five LHF communities (Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Indonesia) and five development organisations (Gates Foundation, World Bank, GIZ, Rabo Partnerships and the Rwanga Foundation). INTRINSIC is a Wageningen Global Sustainability Program.

At the Wageningen University, this PhD position is embedded in the Business Economics group and the Soil Biology group. This collaboration illustrates the interdisciplinary nature of the program, as resilience attributes cannot be understood from a single domain perspective. As such, there will also be close collaboration with the other INTRINSIC PhDs – and their related groups: Food Quality Design, Soil Physics and Land Management, and Farming Systems Ecology. In Colombia, the PhD position is embedded in the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Cali. The local project partner is Ecohabitat (https://fundacionecohabitats.org/). While the in-depth analyses focus on the LHF (or similar type of communities) in Colombia, joint work on data collected by the other PhDs also enables to analyse resilience questions in the four other LHF communities.

Description and objectives of the PhD project
Before development organisations worldwide can mainstream resilience attributes, more evidence is needed into how these attributes operate when shocks occur, how they relate to sustainability and efficiency, and which metrics can be used to measure their performance. This PhD project aims to assess resilience attributes in agri and food systems in Lighthouse Farm (LHF) communities in Colombia, and in four other countries. More specifically, the aim of the PhD project is to:

Investigate context-specific resilience attributes for a diversity of threats and shocks, as well as the levels at which they operate, such as the farm, household, or community level
Outcomes provide insight into the operationalisation and performance of resilience attributes in the LHF community in Colombia. Findings also show how these attributes relate to efficiency and sustainability.

Cross-cutting analyses across five LHF communities: Influence of shocks on ABCD resilience attributes
Through collaboration with the other PhDs in INTRINSIC, cross-cutting analyses are undertaken. Each PhD addresses a specific cross-cutting question. For this PhD project the cross-cutting question focuses on the influence of different types of threats and shocks on ABCD attributes.

Design resilience metrics for multiple purposes across food systems.
To scale resilience attributes to other communities, sectors and value chains, robust and harmonised resilience metrics are needed. Resilience metrics will be designed in close collaboration with stakeholders.

You will work here
The first 10 months of the PhD trajectory are in Wageningen. At Wageningen University, this PhD position is embedded in the Soil Biology group and the Business Economics group. You will be primarily affiliated with the Soil Biology group, where you will be supervised by senior scientist dr Mirjam Pulleman. She is also your main supervisor in Colombia as she is also a senior scientist at CIAT. The supervisory team is complemented by Prof. Miranda Meuwissen, professor in risk management and resilience, and principal researcher dr Hilde van den Hoorn, both from the Business Economics group. After the initial 10 months, you will go to Colombia for field work. In the final phase of the PhD trajectory, there is another period of 10 months in Wageningen. Collaboration with the other PhDs occurs through joint meetings throughout the field work phase, especially a one-month joint research stay in Wageningen at the end of the 2nd year.

Hosting arrangements (including the secondment plans)
At Wageningen university, the PhD is integrated in the Soil Biology group, and the Business Economics group. In Colombia, the PhD will be hosted as visiting researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in Cali. The PhD position entails in total 48 months.

Studentpsychologist

Students can contact the studentpsychologists if they experience minor psychological problems e.g. study related problems, social or family problems, insecurity, tension, procrastination and anxiety or gloominess. Your work as a studentpsychologist consists mainly of short screenings (triage), intakes, advising about support options within and outside WUR, offering short-term treatment (to a maximum of five meetings) and group trainings for students. The aim is on improving students well-being and reducing or preventing obstacles in their study progress; with a focus on students' self-direction, self-reliance and resilience. In addition to working with students, you are available for consultation for colleagues such as student counselors, study advisers and teachers. You also contribute to the teams working processes, and to WUR policy-making regarding student wellbeing.

As a studentpsychologist you mostly work individually, but there is a good teamspirit with support and consultation for each other as team members.

We are looking for a skilled, pro-active, enthusiastic colleague who is a natural connector, to join our team in the meaningful job of supporting WUR students.

About the team

The team exists of 7 studentpsychologists. They are part of Student Service Centre and help students with study-related health problems or personal problems that can lead to study delay. The studentpsychologists offer advice, short-term counselling and treatment and group trainings for minor psychological problems. The team works on student wellbeing together with students and colleagues at WUR, such as Student counsellors and team Student Life, Wellbeing & Inclusion. As part of the support chain within WUR, studentpsychologists aim to facilitate and empower students to take an active role in their personal wellbeing and study.

Research Analyst in Data & Artificial Intelligence

As a Research Analyst in Data & Artificial Intelligence, you’ll play an important role in turning data into practical solutions that support diagnostics, research, and innovation in animal health and scientific progress at WBVR.

You will apply existing AI/ML techniques, manage data pipelines, and perform routine to advanced computational analyses that contribute directly to diagnostics and research projects.

You will collaborate with experts who value curiosity and teamwork, and together you’ll turn complex data into insights that push innovation forward.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

AI & Data Analysis

• Develop and execute reproducible machine-learning and data-analysis workflows as support to researchers and bioinformaticians.
• Carry out feature engineering, dataset preparation, and model evaluation following established protocols.
• Run, test, and document ML pipelines used for diagnostics, surveillance, and research.
• Maintain reproducible computational environments (e.g., Conda, Docker, Git).

Data Management & Workflow Support

• Prepare datasets for modelling, including quality control and harmonization across sources.
• Support ongoing monitoring and automation of AI-based tools used in diagnostics or research contexts.

Technical Implementation & Infrastructure

• Support deployment and maintenance of computational workflows in collaboration with IT, Bioinformaticians, Epidemiologists.
• Assist in integrating AI workflows with existing systems (e.g., LIMS, HPC, sensor data pipelines).
• Report and solve routine technical issues (e.g., broken pipelines and data inconsistencies).

Collaboration & Communication

• Collaborate with researchers and project leaders to translate their needs into structured computational tasks.
• Provide clear documentation of workflows, parameters, and results.
• Participate in team discussions on workflow improvements, automation, and data quality.

Your team
You'll join a multi-disciplinary team composed of experienced researchers in bioinformatics, epidemiology, and data science. In this role, your core focus will be contributing to impactful projects and helping to build efficient, reproducible workflows. While securing external funding is not a requirement now, your experience may lead to future opportunities to shape project scope and grant applications.