Postdoc AI-Enabled Decision Support and Data Integration

As a Postdoctoral Researcher in AI-Enabled Decision Support in Wageningen, you will develop methods and architectures that integrate heterogeneous data and predictive models into adaptive decision-support systems for sustainable crop protection.

You will contribute to the Horizon Europe project STRONG-BIO (Strategic Tool for PhytoPathogen Resistance Oversight in Next-Generation BIOcontrol). Within the Information Technology Group, you will focus on the computational and systems aspects of the project: integrating heterogeneous data and models, developing AI-enabled predictive services, and contributing to an interoperable decision-support system. The three-year postdoctoral trajectory is intended to start around 1 March 2027, shortly after the project launch, so that the first project months can be used for consortium alignment, requirements, data and model inventories, and interface agreements.

Your research will follow a coherent line from architecture and integration foundations, through AI and hybrid model integration, to system validation and generalisation. The aim is not only to implement project functionality, but also to develop reusable scientific methods and architectural principles for trustworthy, adaptive decision-support systems.

You will work closely with STRONG-BIO partners that provide resistance monitoring, eDNA, climate, sensing, epidemiological, evolutionary, and field-validation data and models. You will help turn these heterogeneous inputs into a traceable flow from data and evidence to prediction, recommendation, action, and feedback.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Design the reference architecture and interoperability approach for integrating heterogeneous biological, environmental, molecular, sensor, and operational data and models.
• Develop AI and data-analytics methods, including hybrid approaches that combine data-driven models with epidemiological and evolutionary models.
• Develop and integrate an adaptive intelligent decision-support system, addressing uncertainty, provenance, explainability, traceability, and reliability.
• Design, implement, and evaluate research prototypes with consortium partners using Living Lab and Core Innovation Farm scenarios.
• Publish scientific results, contribute to project deliverables and workshops, and supervise MSc thesis projects related to the research.

Your team
You will work in the Information Technology Group (INF), an international team conducting research and education in artificial intelligence, data science, software engineering, and systems engineering. You will collaborate with INF researchers and MSc students, WUR domain experts, and the international STRONG-BIO consortium.

You will work here
The Information Technology Group develops intelligent, data-intensive, and software-intensive systems for complex challenges in agriculture, food, health, and the environment. In STRONG-BIO, INF contributes expertise in AI, data integration, software and systems architecture, and intelligent decision support. The project provides a strong interdisciplinary environment for developing generalisable methods while validating them in a real European crop-protection setting.

Postdoc AI-Driven Allergen Early Warning Systems for Novel Foods

We are seeking a talented post-doctoral researcher for a one-year position to work on a cutting-edge research project exploring the role of AI in developing an Allergen Early Warning System (EWS) for novel foods. The successful candidate will contribute to the design and implementation of AI-driven models that enhance food safety by predicting and identifying potential allergens in novel food products.

The position focuses on understanding how AI can support the development of an Allergen Early Warning System (EWS) for novel foods, ensuring high-quality and safe food products. The research will investigate how AI models can predict allergenic risks by analyzing diverse data sources related to food composition, processing, and consumer responses. The AI system developed will utilize advanced techniques such as machine learning, large language models (LLMs), and predictive modeling to detect potential allergens and provide early warnings, enhancing food safety and decision-making in novel food production.

Key Responsibilities:

• Engage stakeholders to identify drivers, indicators, and user requirements through co-creation events and expert consultation.
• Collect and analyze data from public sources and literature to monitor allergen risks in novel foods.
• Develop and implement AI algorithms and LLMs for identifying emerging allergens using natural language processing and predictive analytics.
• Design, develop, and implement the Allergen Early Warning System (EWS), integrating AI algorithms for real-time monitoring and alerting.

You will work here
This position is based at the Information Technology Group, Social Science Department, Wageningen University.

Management Office Assistant

Are you a connecting force who would like to support our team? Do you get energy from organizing, coordinating, and thinking ahead? Are you proactive and excited about working on the world’s most sustainable campus? Then we are looking for you!

ISRIC is seeking an energetic, helpful, and proactive Management Office Assistant (0.4 FTE). In this role, you will work together with a Management Support Officer to ensure the smooth operation of the office and secretariat.

Your Responsibilities
As a Management Office Assistant, you will play an active role in:

• Administrative and organizational tasks, such as calendar management, coordinating meetings, and maintaining procurement and invoicing systems.
• Booking business travel.
• Supporting HR-related activities, such as processing sick leave notifications and providing administrative support for the onboarding of international employees.
• Assisting project leaders with project-related tasks, including scheduling project meetings and preparing contracts.

Your workplace will be located on the vibrant campus of Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the most sustainable and innovative campus in the Netherlands. It is an inspiring environment where world-class education and research come together with dozens of companies, ranging from startups to established organizations such as Unilever and FrieslandCampina. Need a break during a busy day? You can relax in our unique indoor gardens.

Can you already picture yourself here? Apply now!

Backup & restore Engineer

We are looking for a versatile Backup & Restore Engineer to manage our data centers and develop and maintain a stable and secure backup & restore infrastructure that will allow us to secure and restore all our business data. Together with your colleagues, you make a good plan for the selection of new hardware to be used that meets our requirements so that written-off hardware can be replaced in a timely manner.

As a backup & restore specialist, you are primarily responsible for securing, restoring and optimizing all business data within our enterprise environment. You manage a fully redundant backup platform based on VEEAM, spread over two of your own data centers. You ensure that our data is always available, protected and compliant — even in the most critical situations. You have a strong sense of security, because our data must be protected to the maximum and must be safe and recoverable even in the most extreme situations (hacking attacks, natural disasters, data center down).

Your tasks and responsibilities as a Backup & Restore Engineer are:

• managing and maintaining our backup & restore environment;
• ensuring a correct backup of our data within WUR;
• monitoring the performance and capacity of the backup environment;
• devising and maintaining our disaster recovery scenarios;
• establishing a roadmap for timely replacement and expansion to stay ahead of increasing demand. You can look far ahead to properly incorporate developments in technology into our data center design;
• regular management such as incident handling, troubleshooting, monitoring and maintenance;
• lifecycle management and patching, upgrading and migrating hardware and software, both on Linux and Windows;
• automating tasks and activities;
• providing consultancy and advice;
• documenting technical architecture, management procedures and runbooks.

Your team
We are the Multidisciplinary Team Datacenter Management & Storage Services, part of DIAS (Digitalisation, Information & Archiving Services). With 10 employees, we are responsible for setting up and managing our data centers, installing and managing rackmount servers, storage environments and managing the backup infrastructure.

You will work closely with users, Security and IT teams to ensure the continuity of our business processes. With your experience, you know how to identify risks at an early stage and implement improvements in processes, tooling and architecture.

You create IT infrastructure designs that allow the team to offer Infrastructure-as-a-Service to its users. You think about ways to automate services and management where possible and you analyze existing vulnerabilities to solve them as quickly as possible where necessary. Together with our suppliers, you will look at which hardware we use, and which firmware versions are needed to ensure mutual compatibility, stability and security. You are also adept at creating cases with our suppliers, you can quickly find and deliver the necessary information, and you know how to put pressure where necessary. You give directions to our suppliers with your vision on the use of our infrastructure. The work is very diverse: both management and development and both tactical and operational.

You will work here

You will work in a professional IT organization with more than 200 IT specialists where you can learn a lot and develop yourself well. We have two of our own data centers on our beautiful, green and spacious campus and we are committed to digital sovereignty, the use of open-source solutions and a sustainable use of our environment. You work with state-of-the-art technology and get a lot of room to innovate. The work will mainly take place during office hours, but you will also be asked to participate in maintenance outside office hours (evenings or weekends) where necessary. In addition, you and your colleagues will be on standby 7x24 for security incidents according to an agreed schedule (maximum one week per month). In consultation, you can work from home part of the time.

Functional/technical Manager Servicedesk IT

As a combined Functional and Technical Application Manager in the Servicedesk IT team, you work closely together with users, suppliers and IT-colleagues. You’re responsible for management, continuity and ongoing development of applications such as Jira, Confluence and eLabJournal.

You translate functional user demands into solutions that fit the technical/operational scope of application stability, safety and availability. As such, you combine the functional and technical management of the applications you’re responsible for.

What we expect:

• you apply regular upgrades, patches and changes;
• you test new functionality and provide active support for this to key-users and users alike;
• you manage existing application integrations and provide support for new integrations;
• you provide technical support to users so that they can make the most of the application;
• you use scripting to automate repeating tasks;
• you’re no stranger to working according to Agile/scrum methodology to provide a flexible, continuously improving service.

First, your focus will be on managing Jira, Confluence and eLabJournal. At a later stage, you can further develop your skills to become a specialist for different applications and technical platforms.

You will work here
Our IT department was named the best ICT employer in the non-ICT sector in 2024 and, with 200 employees, provides a modern ICT environment for education and research. This means plenty of development and career opportunities for specialists at various levels.