Postdoc in Governance and Sustainability Transitions in Farming Systems

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on the governance of transitions towards more sustainable and regenerative farming systems. Governance instruments — including certification schemes, private standards, and policy incentives — play an important role in shaping the future of livestock farming systems. Are you curious about how standards, incentives, and sustainability indicators influence farming systems and farmers’ livelihoods? Are you excited to contribute to interdisciplinary research that supports transitions towards more sustainable farming systems? Then we would love to hear from you.

We are looking for a candidate with experience in the governance of farming systems, who is highly motivated to contribute to more sustainable food systems through inter- and transdisciplinary research. You are a systems thinker with an interest in public-private governance of livestock farming systems, agricultural policy and/or sustainable finance. You are familiar with current policy debates on the future of European and Dutch agriculture and enjoy working at the interface of science, policy and practice.

You will strengthen the team working on farming systems governance by contributing to research on public and private governance instruments, sustainability indicators, and perceptions of those affected by transitions. Your work will include contributing to ongoing research on regenerative agriculture (including ReGeNL), facilitating stakeholder engagement, supporting project management, developing research proposals, and contributing to education. You are encouraged to describe relevant experience with these tasks in your CV and motivation letter.

You will work here
This postdoc will be situated at the Animal Production Systems group of Wageningen University & Research. Here we analyze and explore the roles of livestock in food systems with the aim of making these food systems more sustainable. The group focuses on unravelling the complexity of livestock systems, and exploring trade-offs and synergies of innovations regarding environmental impact, animal welfare, and economic viability, to design a more sustainable future.

You will join the team led by Dr. Evelien de Olde and contribute to research on governance issues in farming systems within a polycentric food systems context, including sustainability certification and standards, the role of metrics and KPIs, and the impact of sustainability transitions on livestock farming systems.

Marien Ecoloog

Als Marien Ecoloog met affiniteit voor Deltagebieden bij Wageningen Marine Research (WMR) in Yerseke draag je actief bij aan het herstel en verbetering van de unieke natuur in de Deltawateren. Met innovatieve, duurzame oplossingen vanuit het gedachtegoed van ‘bouwen met de natuur’ vertaal je wetenschap naar praktische toepassingen met zichtbare impact.

De Zuidwestelijke Delta staat voor grote ecologische uitdagingen én kansen. Van de zandhonger in de Oosterschelde tot natuurontwikkeling in de Westerschelde en het verbeteren van de waterkwaliteit zoals in het Grevelingenmeer en Veerse Meer: jij levert een belangrijke bijdrage aan oplossingen die het verschil maken voor natuur en samenleving.

Samen met andere experts op het gebied van mariene ecologie werk je aan uiteenlopende deltavraagstukken. Je onderzoekt waar natuurontwikkeling en “nature-based solutions” voor onder andere hoogwaterbescherming en waterkwaliteit kunnen worden toegepast en weet opdrachtgevers overtuigend mee te nemen in de meerwaarde van deze duurzame aanpak. Daarnaast draag je bij aan de wetenschappelijke onderbouwing van het Natuurherstelplan en de beheerplannen voor Natura 2000-gebieden in de Zuidwestelijke Delta. Contact met opdrachtgevers en stakeholders is een integraal onderdeel van je werk.

Jouw taken en verantwoordelijkheden als Marien Ecoloog zijn:

• bijdragen aan een breed scala aan literatuuronderzoeken, gegevensanalyses, veld- en labexperimenten op het gebied van natuurontwikkeling en bodemdieronderzoek;
• assisteren met de verwerving van nieuwe projecten en het schrijven van onderzoeksvoorstellen
• communiceren met collega-onderzoekers en opdrachtgevers;
• het rapporteren en presenteren van onderzoeksresultaten aan opdrachtgevers, het bijwonen van conferenties en het deelnemen aan workshops;
• publiceren en presenteren van eigen onderzoek in wetenschappelijke tijdschriften en op conferenties.

Jouw team
Vanuit de WMR-locatie in Yerseke werk je samen binnen diverse projectteams van verschillende samenstellingen. Als projectleider geef je inhoudelijke én organisatorische sturing aan mede onderzoekers, zodat projecten efficiënt, zorgvuldig en succesvol kunnen worden uitgevoerd. In de rol van projectmedewerker lever je een inhoudelijke bijdrage aan specifieke onderdelen van projecten, passend bij jouw expertise en interesses.

Hier ga je werken

Wageningen Marine Research (WMR) is één van de negen instituten die onderdeel uitmaakt van Wageningen Research. WMR is een toonaangevend, onafhankelijk onderzoeksinstituut met locaties in Yerseke, IJmuiden en Den Helder dat zich richt op strategisch en toegepast marien ecologisch onderzoek. Producten en diensten worden projectmatig uitgevoerd en zijn divers van aard: veldonderzoek, experimenten op realistische schaal, verkennende studies op laboratoriumschaal, datamanagement en modellering. Het instituut beschikt over moderne onderzoeksfaciliteiten en is ISO 9001 gecertificeerd.

Jouw werkgebied is met name de zuidwestelijke Delta, maar ook andere delen van Nederland zoals de Noordzee en de Waddenzee evenals internationale projecten behoren tot de mogelijkheden.

Marine Ecologist

As a Marine Ecologist specialized in the Delta ecosystems at Wageningen Marine Research (WMR) in Yerseke, you will play an active role in restoring and enhancing the unique natural environment of the Delta waters. Using innovative, sustainable solutions based on the philosophy of ‘building with nature’, you will translate scientific knowledge into practical applications with a tangible impact.

The South-Western Delta presents major ecological challenges as well as opportunities. From the sand deficiency in the Oosterschelde to nature conservation in the Westerschelde and improving water quality in Delta waters such as Lake Grevelingen and Lake Veere: you will make a significant contribution to solutions that make a difference to nature and society.

Together with other experts in the field of marine ecology, you will work on a wide range of delta-related issues. You will investigate where nature development and nature-based solutions can be applied to areas such as flood protection and water quality improvement and will be able to convincingly demonstrate to clients the added value of this sustainable approach. In addition, you will contribute to the scientific basis of the Nature Restoration Plan and the management plans for Natura 2000 sites in the South-Western Delta. Liaising with clients and stakeholders is an integral part of your work.

Your duties and responsibilities as a Marine Ecologist include:

• contribute to a wide range of literature reviews, data analyses, and field and laboratory experiments in the field of nature conservation and benthic fauna research;
• assist with securing new projects and drafting research proposals;
• communicate with fellow researchers and clients;
• report and present research findings to clients, attend conferences and take part in workshops;
• publish and present results in academic journals and at conferences.

Your team
Based at WMR’s site in Yerseke, you will work alongside various project teams of differing compositions. As a project leader, you will provide substantive and project-related guidance to fellow researchers so that they can carry out their work efficiently and thoroughly. As a project member, you will often focus on a specific area that matches your expertise.

You will work here

Wageningen Marine Research (WMR) is one of the nine institutes that form part of Wageningen Research. WMR is a leading, independent research institute with sites in Yerseke, IJmuiden and Den Helder, which focuses on strategic and applied marine ecological research. Products and services are delivered on a project basis and are diverse in nature: field research, realistic-scale experiments, exploratory laboratory-scale studies, data management and modelling. The institute has modern research facilities and is ISO 9001 certified.

Your area of work will primarily be the south-western Delta, but other parts of the Netherlands, such as the North Sea and the Wadden Sea, as well as international projects, are also possibilities.

PhD Replacing Chemicals with Electricity: Engineering Local pH Environments

Can electricity replace acids, bases, and cleaning chemicals used throughout industry today? How do local pH conditions develop near electrodes and membranes in electrochemical systems, and how can they be controlled? In this PhD project, you will investigate these questions by combining modelling and experimental data to develop electrically driven alternatives for industrial cleaning and separation processes.

What will you do?
Many industries rely on acids, bases, detergents, and other chemicals to clean equipment, recover valuable products, and produce high-quality process water. These chemicals increase environmental impact, complicate water re-use and require downstream treatment. In this project, we take a different approach: rather than adding chemicals, we aim to create the required chemical conditions directly using electricity.

A key challenge in replacing these chemicals with electricity is that electrochemical systems create localized pH environments near electrodes and membranes. These local conditions often differ strongly from bulk solution properties, yet they determine chemical speciation, surface interactions, selectivity, cleaning efficiency, and fouling behavior. The aim of this PhD project is to understand, predict, and engineer these local pH environments in electrochemical systems.

As a PhD candidate, you will investigate how local pH environments develop near electrodes and membranes in complex water matrices. You will integrate theory, modelling, and experiments to determine how local pH conditions develop, how they depend on water composition and material properties, and how they can be engineered for practical applications. The insights obtained in this project can be used to develop electrically driven, chemical-free technologies for industrial cleaning and separations.

You will be part of the Electrically-driven Chemical-free Operations (ECO) consortium, a collaboration between the Institute for Sustainable Process Technology, the University of Twente, TU Delft, the University of Groningen, the University of Copenhagen, Wageningen University & Research, and industrial partners from the food, chemical, paper, and water sectors.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• investigate how electrically induced local pH environments develop in electrochemical systems;
• develop theoretical and computational models to predict local pH conditions in complex water matrices and investigate the impact of water composition, electrode materials, and membrane materials on pH conditions;
• design experiments to quantify local pH environments near electrodes and membranes and integrate experimental observations and modelling results to develop design principles for electrically driven processes;
• use the obtained insights to guide the design of electrochemical cleaning and separation technologies in close collaboration with the industrial partners in the consortium;
• present research results at consortium meetings, international conferences, and scientific workshops and publish findings in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the Environmental Technology group. You will join the Electrified Interfaces group, a research group studying transport, reactions, and selectivity at charged interfaces in environmental technologies, including electrochemical systems, membrane processes, adsorption and ion-exchange materials. You will be supervised by Dr. Jouke Dykstra and Dr. Hanieh Bazyar from TU Delft.

PhD: Effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on plant and insect diversity

Are you a highly motivated and enthusiastic ecologist who wants to uncover how nitrogen deposition affects plant and arthropod biodiversity? Are you excited by the idea of combining large-scale fieldwork across Northwestern Europe with hands-on experiments to answer a question that matters for biodiversity conservation? If so, this PhD-position could be the perfect fit for you!

Human-driven nitrogen (N) deposition is changing ecosystems worldwide. It can cause an oversupply of nitrogen in the soil and soil acidification, and shift the balance of nutrients; not just how many nutrients are available, but also the ratios between them (their ‘stoichiometry’). This changes which plants thrive, and it changes the nutritional quality of the leaves and pollen that herbivorous and pollinating insects consume. However, we still poorly understand how these changes unfold within and among plant species, or how they cascade to affect insect performance and, ultimately, insect community diversity. As a PhD candidate, you will contribute to finding this out. You will combine field studies in Northwestern European forests across a N-deposition gradient spanning the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden with greenhouse and controlled feeding experiments on caterpillars and solitary bees.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Design and conduct field studies across Northwestern Europe to assess how large- and small-scale gradients in N deposition affect soil chemistry, plant stoichiometry, and plant and arthropod diversity
• Perform experiments to find out how nutrient concentrations in plant leaves and pollen affect the performance and food preferences of insect herbivore and pollinator species
• Analyse complex ecological datasets, linking soil, plant and insect variables
• Co-supervise MSc students conducting thesis research within the project
• Publish your results in a PhD thesis, as well as in peer-reviewed papers

You will work here
The research is embedded within the Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation (PEN) group at Wageningen University, which is led by Prof. David Kleijn. Daily supervision will be by Dr. Philippine Vergeer, Dr. Jeroen Scheper, Dr. Fons van der Plas (all PEN) and Dr. Wim Ozinga (Vegetation and Landscape Ecology, Wageningen Environmental Research).