FAIR Data Steward

Job description
Would you like to become a professional FAIR data steward? Do you like to work in an international and interdisciplinary setting? Do you want to be part of ambitious European (EU) Projects to stimulate impact and sustainable change in health care systems? Then, this is a role for you!

To connect and improve patient data from hospitals, registries, European Reference Networks (ERNs) and National Health Systems, we seek a data steward to join our consortium and collaborate on activities for Radboudumc. This role offers a dynamic and supportive work environment, perfect for those looking to make a significant impact in the field of rare diseases.

As data steward, you become an expert in the field of data management and interoperability for scientific research. The ideal candidate for this position has experience with the FAIR principles and metadata schema developing to meet the requirements and standards set for and from the scientific domain as well as by the organization. The successful candidate will work in a stimulating medical environment and will actively participate in a European network of experts who collaborate on best data stewarding practices for rare disease data.
You will be applying your technical and soft skills to an incredibly special field of rare diseases, where the number of patients is small by definition. Therefore, the community recognizes the pressing need for the joint analysis of patient data on natural disease history, genetic makeup, disease modifiers and treatment outcomes. However, as the available data is fragmented across different care providers, registries, and countries, and cannot be used to their full potential because data get lost, are not associated with descriptive metadata, or are not interoperable.

This role offers the chance to contribute to impactful actions at regional, national, and EU levels through the ERDERA project. You will be joining the Data Service Hub (DSH) Work Stream of the European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA), which is a European partnership uniting over 180 public and private organisations across 37 countries around a single goal: turning cutting-edge science into tangible benefits for the thirty million Europeans living with a rare disease. The DSH has 4 Work Packages (WP) that are working towards building FAIR (Findable Accessible Interoperable and Reusable) data by building tools and workflows. On the national level, you will be active in the national mirror group for ERDERA and relevant taskforces from Health-RI.

Role Requirements:

• Strong background in data management, analysis, or bridging IT and healthcare.
• Knowledge of applying FAIR principles.
  Metadata mapping according to Metadata Models.
• Experience with coding standards and ontologies.
• Interest in semantic data modelling, applying ontologies, and federated analysis.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders to meet project objectives.
• Address fragmented data issues in rare diseases by ensuring data is well-documented and complete.
• Contribute to EU-funded projects (ERDERA).

Tasks

General

• Contribute to the development of recommendations and guidelines ensuring the interoperability of data structures on local, regional and national level.
• Ensure FAIR data principles adherence across the ERDERA project Work Packages.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, including consortium partners and governmental agencies if necessary.
• Keep open and effective communication channels with internal and external stakeholders to address concerns and ensure project alignment with expectations.
• Represent the team at events and meetings related to the project, presenting results and raising awareness at local, national and international levels about the importance of FAIR data
• Participate in the FAIR Data Stewards team at the Department of Medical BioSciences (MBS), especially the weekly meetings, sharing updates, doing presentations and brainstorming with the team.

Technical

• Collaborate in projects related to Rare Disease European Reference Networks (ERNs), FAIR data stewardship and European Rare Disease Research Alliance (ERDERA) to harmonise rare disease care and research in Europe.
• Collaborate with rare disease data sharing and analysis.
• Activities in ERDERA data service hub:
• Collaborate with resources to onboarding the Virtual Platform
• Keep track of communication and resource’s needs
• Provide FAIRification services
• Contribute to semantic modelling
• Attend General Assembly and/or Annual Retreat
• Scientific writing: documentation, reports, presentations, articles
• Help with monitoring the relevant tasks of our group at ERDERA project and ensure alignment of project goals at all levels.

What we offer

• Diverse and multicultural work environment very open to international colleagues.
• Flexible / Hybrid work possibilities.
• Opportunities to career development and specialisation / learning.
• Access to great network of experts in FAIR principles.
• Empowerment and independence at your own responsibilities.
• Possibility to research and develop / learn at the job (to tackle low experienced people).

Program leader Contaminants

Do you see yourself as a food safety expert and do you want to make an impact on food safety in the Netherlands and Europe through your strategic insight and helicopter view? Are you skilled at connecting science and policy and are you fluent in Dutch and English? Would you like to help shape our research into contaminants in food products? We, Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR), have a vacancy for a Programme Leader “Contaminants”!

Together with three other programmes, we carry out our Statutory Research Tasks (WOT). Within WFSR, these are referred to as sub-programmes and sub-programme leaders. As Sub-programme Leader Contaminants at WFSR, you will be responsible for a portfolio of approximately 50 projects. You will be the face of the sub-programme. We therefore expect you to be customer-oriented (internally and externally), capable of strategic thinking, and to act as a leading figure within the contaminants field — or to be able to develop into one.

The Contaminants sub-programme focuses on substances that are intentionally applied (including plant protection products in agriculture and horticulture), substances that unintentionally enter food products (including environmental contaminants such as PFAS and process contaminants formed during food production), and natural toxins produced by fungi, plants, and algae. The sub-programme deals both with substances that have long been known and for which legal limits have been established, as well as with new substances, mixtures of contaminants, or contaminants not initially expected to occur in food products.

The programme contains a wide variety of projects, including:

• routine and ad hoc analytical projects for which sampling plans and related activities are coordinated with the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA);
• development and validation of analytical-chemical tests, bioassays, and biosensors across the full breadth of the programme;
• applied research into topics such as exposure to and transfer of contaminants, early detection of new chemical hazards before they lead to consumer health issues, and the phase-out of laboratory animal testing for risk assessment purposes;
• crisis networks (environment and drinking water, radiation and nuclear safety, terrorist attacks) and ad hoc projects resulting from food safety incidents.

In this role, you will collaborate with WFSR project leaders and experts in analytical chemistry, bioassays, toxicology, and food supply chains. You will ensure alignment between project leaders and coordinate and programme project activities. You will do this in close cooperation with the WOT programme leaders and our external partners: the NVWA and the Dutch Ministries of LVVN and VWS.

What will you do?

• you will liaise with various clients and stakeholders (primarily the Dutch Ministries of LVVN and VWS, and the NVWA), identify priorities and new research needs, and provide advice to these parties;
• together with the programme leaders, you will develop the strategic direction of your sub-programme and steer towards the defined objectives to maximise the impact of your sub-programme;
• you will shape the projects within your sub-programme in line with the strategy, monitor progress (together with project leaders and team leaders), and be responsible for the quality of the overall programme outcomes;
• you will lead and coach project leaders and, together with them, oversee the scientific and financial results of the projects. Part of this responsibility includes reviewing all project outputs;
• you will be a member of the management team of one of WFSR’s business units.

Program leader Contaminants

Zie jij jezelf als voedselveiligheidsexpert en wil jij met jouw strategisch inzicht en helicopterview impact maken op voedselveiligheid in Nederland en Europa? Ben jij sterk in het verbinden van wetenschap en beleid? Wil jij richting geven aan ons onderzoek naar contaminanten in voedselproducten? Wij, Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR), hebben een vacature voor een programmaleider “Contaminanten”!

Samen met drie andere programma’s wordt uitvoering gegeven aan onze Wettelijke Onderzoekstaken (WOT). Zodoende spreken we binnen WFSR van deelprogramma’s en deelprogrammaleiders. Als deelprogrammaleider Contaminanten bij WFSR ben je verantwoordelijk voor een portfolio van circa 50 projecten. Je bent het gezicht van het deelprogramma. We verwachten daarom dat je klantgericht bent (intern en extern), strategisch kunt denken én in de breedte een boegbeeld bent in het werkveld van contaminanten of je daartoe kunt ontwikkelen.

Het deelprogramma Contaminanten gaat over stoffen die bewust worden toegepast (o.a. gewasbeschermingsmiddelen in de land- en tuinbouw), stoffen die onbedoeld in levensmiddelen komen (o.a. milieucontaminanten zoals PFAS en procescontaminanten die gevormd worden in de fabriek) en over natuurlijke gifstoffen die gevormd worden door schimmels, planten en algen. Het deelprogramma houdt zich bezig met stoffen die al langer bekend zijn en waarvoor wettelijke grenswaarden zijn vastgelegd en daarnaast nieuwe stoffen, mengsels van contaminanten of contaminanten die in eerste instantie niet in levensmiddelen verwacht worden.

Het programma bevat een grote diversiteit aan projecten. Het betreft o.a.:

• routinematige en ad-hoc analyseprojecten waarvoor monsterplannen en alles daaromheen worden afgestemd met de Nederlandse Voedsel en Warenautoriteit (NVWA);
• methodeontwikkeling en validatie van analytisch-chemische testen en bioassays en biosensoren binnen de gehele breedte van het programma;
• toegepast onderzoek naar bijvoorbeeld blootstelling aan en overdracht van contaminanten, vroegtijdige opsporing van nieuwe chemische gevaren voordat dit leidt tot gezondheidsproblemen bij consumenten en t.b.v. uitfasering van proefdieren t.b.v. risicobeoordeling;
• crisisnetwerken (milieu en drinkwater, straling en nucleair, terreuraanslagen) en ad-hoc projecten op basis van een voedselveiligheidsincident.

Hierin werk je samen met WFSR-projectleiders en -experts op het gebied van analytische chemie, bioassays, toxicologie en voedselketens. Jij zorgt voor de verbinding tussen de projectleiders en de afstemming en programmering van de projectactiviteiten. Dit laatste doe je in nauwe afstemming met de WOT-programmaleiders en onze externe partners: de NVWA en de ministeries van LVVN en VWS.

Wat ga je doen?

• je hebt contact met verschillende opdrachtgevers (met name de ministeries van LVVN en VWS, NVWA,) en inventariseert prioriteiten en nieuwe onderzoekswensen of je geeft advies aan deze partijen;
• je ontwikkelt samen met de programmaleiders de strategische richting van jouw deelprogramma en stuurt op de geformuleerde doelen om de impact van jouw deelprogramma te optimaliseren;
• je geeft de projecten in je deelprogramma vorm, passend bij de strategie, bewaakt ze (samen met de projectleiders en teamleiders) en bent verantwoordelijk voor de kwaliteit van de outcome van het deelprogramma als geheel;
• je stuurt en coacht de projectleiders en samen met hen stuur je op de inhoudelijke en financiële resultaten van de projecten. Onderdeel van deze activiteit is het reviewen van alle projectoutput;
• je bent lid van het managementteam van één van de business units van WFSR.

Postdoctoral researcher in Plant-virus interactions

Join Us!
At the University of Amsterdam, we study how RNA viruses interact with host proteins to deploy the host machinery to their own advantage. Identification of interacting host proteins could inform new strategies for introduction of viral resistance in crops. Using recently developed methodology you will identify and characterize plant proteins that differentially interact with (viral)RNA in response to a viral infection and upon induction of plant immunity. This proteomics project will be executed in close collaboration with another Postdoc and with industry. You will be embedded in an interdisciplinary team that aims to provide breeding solutions for devastating plant diseases by studying the underpinning virulence mechanisms at the molecular level using state-of-the-art technologies.

This is what you will do

• work with plants and viruses and to perform disease assays;
• employ an optimized proteomics method that uses cross-linking and affinity purification to determine the RNA-binding proteome dynamics upon infection of plant RNA viruses;
• analyze RNAseq and proteomics data, and apply and implement advanced biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology methods;
• to use molecular tools to manipulate genes and gene expression in planta to functionally characterize the role of the identified proteins in susceptibility and/or resistance to viruses;
• to report and present your work progress on a regular basis to our industrial partners;
• to actively participate in scientific discussions in our research field and our university;
• to contribute as a (pro-)active team player to the organization of our laboratory.

What we ask of you
You are an ambitious person, a team player with an open character. You are enthusiastic and willing to become multidisciplinary with a keen eye on Plant virology and/or Plant-microbe interactions.

Next to this you have/are:

• A recent PhD degree in Plant biology with 1 or more publications as first author in a peer-reviewed scientific journal;
• preferentially, skilled in proteomics, plant biochemistry and big data (statistical) analyses including bioinformatics and scripting in Phyton, R studio, MaxQuant, Persues or related;
• hands-on experience in and affinity with molecular biology (Gibson assembly, Goldengate, Gateway cloning strategies, CRISPR-Cas strategies, synthetic biology, plant transformations);
• An appreciation to contribute to valorization efforts and to foster collaborations with academic and industry partners;
• An understanding and acceptance of the sensitivity of confidentiality in public-private collaborations;
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken, with proven in experience in writing scientific papers / grants.

Our selection will be based on your scientific track record, your vision on this research project, but most importantly your ambition, skills, and drive to foster your own (scientific) career.

This is what we offer you
A temporary contract for 30.4-38 hours a week (0.8-1.0 FTE), preferably starting on 1-9-2026 for the duration of 12 months. An extension for 2 years subsequently follows if we assess your performance positive.

The salary, depending on relevant experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be €3.546 to €5.538 gross per month, based on a fulltime contract (38 hours a week). This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look here.

You will work in this team
The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) is located at the vibrant Amsterdam Science Park. SILS is one of eight institutes of the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Science (FNWI). With around 240 employees, SILS carries out internationally high-quality life science research and provides education within various university programs. Research is also carried out in close cooperation with the medical, biotech, chemical, flavor, food & agricultural, and high-tech industries, and revolves around 4 main themes, Cell & Systems biology, Neurosciences, Microbiology and Green Life Sciences.

The mission – and passion – of Molecular Plant Pathology is to unravel the molecular processes underlying plant immunity as well as plant susceptibility to infectious diseases. Our ambition is to publish on a regular basis in high impact Scientific journals, while fostering the careers of our co-workers. We are dedicated to raising new generations of scientists, and to providing a meaningful contribution towards sustainable agriculture having less impact on our environment. We study these aspects by using state-of-the-art molecular techniques in high-tech labs and in modern greenhouses. This research enables us to develop and explore novel concepts on plant-microbe interactions and permits implementation and creative use of novel technologies in the fields of -omics, (digital) phenotyping and genetic alteration of plants and pathogens.

Postdoctoral researcher in Plant-thrips-virus interactions

Join Us!
We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on an ambitious project on cross‑kingdom small-RNAs and effector proteins in the Tospovirus–thrips–tomato pathosystem. You will unravel how small RNAs and proteinaceous effectors from thrips reprogram host defenses, and how host plant small RNAs in turn affect virus replication in the insect vector.

Building on rich preliminary datasets of thrips and tomato sRNA and mRNA profiles, you will validate candidate effectors and their plant targets and explore how modifying these targets alters thrips performance and virus transmission. You will work closely with another postdoctoral researcher and our breeding industry partners in an interdisciplinary team that develops molecular tools and breeding concepts for durable resistance to pests and viruses in crops.

This is what you will do

• work with plants, insects (thrips) and plant viruses, including performing bioassays;
• analyze and integrate (s)RNAseq and proteomics data;
• apply and implement advanced biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology; including cloning, transformation and validation of interacting partners using transient assays and other in planta gene-silencing or editing approaches.
• report and present your work progress on a regular basis to our industrial partners and write scientific publications
• actively participate in scientific discussions in our research field and our university;
• contribute as a (pro-)active team player to the organization of our laboratory.

What we ask of you
You are an ambitious person, a team player with an open character. You are enthusiastic and willing to become multidisciplinary with a keen eye on Plant virology and/or Plant-microbe interactions.

Next to this you have/are:

• a PhD degree in Plant biology with 1 or more publications as first author in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
• preferentially, skilled in working with RNA, proteins and plant biochemistry
• affinity with bioinformatics and quantitative analysis of omics datasets (e.g. RNAseq/sRNAseq), and willingness to further develop these skills
• hands-on experience in and affinity with molecular biology (cloning strategies, CRISPR-Cas strategies, synthetic biology, plant transformations);
• enthusiasm for working in a public–private partnership, including regular interaction with breeding company partners and appreciation of confidentiality in such collaborations
• strong communication skills in English, both spoken and written, with a track record in scientific writing
• a collaborative, open attitude and the ability to work independently, manage multiple activities in parallel and drive your research line within a larger interdisciplinary team

Our selection will be based on your scientific track record, your vision on this research project, and your ambition, skills, and drive to foster your own (scientific) career.

This is what we offer you
A temporary contract for 30.4-38 hours a week, preferably starting on 1-9-2026 for the duration of 12 months. Ann extension for 2 years subsequently follows if we assess your performance positive.

The salary, depending on relevant experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be €3.546 – €5.538 (scale 10) gross per month, based on a fulltime contract (38 hours a week). This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable. Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look here.

You will work in this team
The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) is located at the vibrant Amsterdam Science Park. SILS is one of eight institutes of the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Science (FNWI). With around 240 employees, SILS carries out internationally high-quality life science research and provides education within various university programs. Research is also carried out in close cooperation with the medical, biotech, chemical, flavor, food & agricultural, and high-tech industries, and revolves around 4 main themes, Cell & Systems biology, Neurosciences, Microbiology and Green Life Sciences.

The mission – and passion – of Molecular Plant Pathology is to unravel the molecular processes underlying plant immunity as well as plant susceptibility to infectious diseases. Our ambition is to publish on a regular basis in high impact Scientific journals, while fostering the careers of our co-workers. We are dedicated to raising new generations of scientists, and to providing a meaningful contribution towards sustainable agriculture having less impact on our environment. We study these aspects by using state-of-the-art molecular techniques in high-tech labs and in modern greenhouses. This research enables us to develop and explore novel concepts on plant-microbe interactions and permits implementation and creative use of novel technologies in the fields of -omics, (digital) phenotyping and genetic alteration of plants and pathogens.