Postdoc Development of a Microbial Volatile Database

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to develop and curate a comprehensive microbial volatile database within the framework of an interdisciplinary project at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW). The project is part of the KNAW Strategic Project “Ecology for Life Strategy in Open Science NIOO-KNAW”.

This postdoc project focuses on microbial volatile organic compounds and their chemical structures and activities.

The postdoc will lead the compilation, annotation, and integration of microbial volatile data, linking metabolomic profiles to microbial genomes, traits and ecological functions. The position combines microbial ecology, metabolomics, data integration, and bioinformatics, and offers close collaboration with experimental researchers working on microbe-microbe and plant–microbe interactions.

Key responsibilities include:

Developing and maintaining a structured microbial volatile database.

Integrating metabolomic, genomic, functional, and taxonomic data.

Supporting experimental projects through data analysis and interpretation.

Full Stack Research Software Engineer - HuC Humanities Cluster

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PhD position on family formation among sexual minorities within the QPATHS project at NIDI-KNAW

The project

Despite growing social acceptance and legal recognition of same-sex unions, many individuals in same-sex relationships still face major obstacles when trying to become parents. Funded by the European Research Council, QPATHS (Queer Pathways to Parenthood) studies the pathways and challenges sexual minorities face in achieving their family goals. The project focuses on LGB couples’ family formation, covering the full process from initial desires for parenthood to becoming parents. It examines the barriers that these couples face, such as complex legal and institutional procedures, experiences of discrimination and stigma, and high financial and practical costs.

The project’s central aim is to provide insights into how sexual minorities form their families and what factors aid or hinder their ability to do so. The PhD candidate will contribute to this agenda by combining large-scale demographic patterns with personal family formation pathways. They will work with two main data sources:
(1) longitudinal population register data from the Netherlands documenting parenthood trajectories over time.
(2) a newly collected national probability-based longitudinal survey of individuals in same- and different-sex relationships in the Netherlands, drawn from population registers and linked to administrative data. Together with the PI and a postdoctoral researcher, the PhD candidate will be actively involved in the design and data collection of this survey.

Examples of research questions include:

• How do parenthood trajectories (entering parenthood and having additional children) differ between and within male same-sex, female same-sex, and different-sex couples, and which (socio)demographic factors shape these differences?
• How do parenthood desires and intentions translate into parenthood outcomes? What routes to parenthood do male and female same-sex couples follow?
• What role do emotional and practical costs (such as stigma, financial burdens, career disruptions, legal constraints) play at different stages of family formation?
• How do direct social networks (partner, family, friends) and wider environments (e.g., neighborhood context, LGBTQ+ organizations) support or hinder family formation?

QPATHS has clear societal and policy relevance in addition to its academic contributions. The findings will inform debates on equal access to parenthood and will be shared with the general public, policymakers, and LGBTQ+ stakeholders through presentations, reports, and popular science outlets.

What you will be doing
In this four-year project, you will:

• Carry out cutting-edge academic research within an international team of engaged researchers.
• Publish national and international journal articles, resulting in a PhD thesis.
• Participate in, and present at (inter-)national scientific meetings.
• Contribute to the project, including dissemination and communication activities aimed at policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public.
• Collect new survey data on family formation pathways among sexual minorities.

PhD: Rethinking Social Cohesion in Ethnically Diverse Schools: Linking Horizontal and Vertical Ties

PhD position: “Rethinking Social Cohesion in Ethnically Diverse Schools: Linking Horizontal and Vertical Ties” at NIDI-KNAW

Ethnic diversity in schools is growing across Europe, yet our understanding of social cohesion in this context remains fragmented. This PhD project investigates how social cohesion develops among adolescents who attend ethnically diverse secondary schools. It traces how different cohesion dimensions, such as interethnic friendships, school attachment, trust in institutions and national identity, co-evolve. The project seeks to develop and test a multidimensional framework of social cohesion in the context of increasing ethnic diversity. In particular, the project seeks to uncover how dimensions along horizontal lines of cohesion (i.e., relationships between individuals and groups, such as friendships, intergroup attitudes and social rejection) connect to vertical lines of cohesion (i.e., ties between individuals and institutions, such as trust in the government, feelings of national belonging and school attachment) among youth. To this end, the project will analyse diverse school contexts and identify how school- and regional-level conditions strengthen or weaken these horizontal and vertical cohesion dimensions as well as the association between these two dimensions. It further aims to design and test an intervention that fosters positive spillovers between both dimensions and project how cohesion may evolve under changing demographic scenarios. Ultimately, the project aims to generate new theory, robust empirical insights and practical tools that help educators and policymakers strengthen cohesion among youth in a sustainable way.

Key research questions include:

• How are horizontal and vertical dimensions of social cohesion related among adolescents in ethnically diverse schools, and how much does this vary across school contexts?
• Which school- and regional-level conditions, such as ethnic composition and tracking systems, explain variation in the relationship between horizontal and vertical cohesion?
• Can school-based interventions foster positive spillovers between horizontal and vertical cohesion, and what are their unintended consequences?
• How might demographic change and increasing school segregation affect the interdependence of cohesion dimensions in the future?

This PhD project is part of the SOCION consortium. SOCION addresses a pressing challenge of our time: fragmentation in societies. Social cohesion is society's fabric and is key to sustainable societies and citizens' well-being. However, it is increasingly undermined by erosion and polarization between communities, factions, and groups. In this project, psychologists, social historians, demographers, philosophers, and sociologists collaborate with civic organizations to generate and integrate insights into how connections between individuals, groups, and institutions contribute to new pathways to and forms of social cohesion.

This PhD project will be supervised by Christian Czymara (daily supervisor), Frank van Tubergen (promotor), and Georg Lorenz (UU-sociology).

What you will be doing
In this four-year project, you will:

• Carry out cutting-edge academic research within an international team of engaged researchers.
• Publish national and international journal articles, resulting in a PhD thesis.
• Participate in, and present at (inter-)national scientific meetings.
• Participate in the national SOCION project.
• Contribute to project dissemination activities and communications with educators.
• Analyse large-scale survey data on social cohesion among adolescents in ethnically diverse schools, using methods such as multilevel modelling and social network analysis.
• Co-design and pilot a school-based intervention aimed at strengthening both horizontal and vertical dimensions of social cohesion.

PhD position: "The rise in singlehood and the social embeddedness of singles" at NIDI-KNAW

The rise in singlehood is one of the major demographic trends of the last few decades. The question is how to maintain social cohesion in this context of increasing individualization. This PhD project examines whether and under which circumstances singlehood has integrative or isolating effects for singles aged 20 to 50. It explores what it means to be single, as well as singles’ social relations and well-being. It does so by collecting and examining new qualitative and quantitative data among singles and by using large-scale register data on networks. The focus of the project is on diversity within the singles’ population.

Key research questions include:

• What does it mean to be single?
• How do the social networks of singles differ from those of partnered individuals? Does this change over the life-course?
• Under which individual and contextual conditions does singlehood foster integrative versus isolating patterns of social relations and solidarity behavior?
• To what extent do perceived singlehood norms within family, workplace, and neighborhood contexts moderate the relationship between singlehood and well-being, and are these effects gendered?

This PhD project is part of the SOCION consortium. SOCION addresses a pressing challenge of our time: fragmentation in societies. Social cohesion is society’s fabric and is key to sustainable societies and citizens’ well-being. However, it is increasingly undermined by erosion and polarization between communities, factions, and groups. In this project, psychologists, social historians, demographers, philosophers, and sociologists collaborate with civic organizations to generate and integrate insights into how connections between individuals, groups, and institutions contribute to new pathways to and forms of social cohesion.

This PhD-project will be supervised by Lonneke van den Berg (daily supervisor), Matthijs Kalmijn (promotor), and Charlotte Knowles (RUG-philosophy)

Interview dates: April 14 (online) and April 17 (on-site: the Hague).

What you will be doing
In this four-year project, you will:

• Carry out cutting-edge academic research within an international team of engaged researchers.
• Publish national and international journal articles, resulting in a PhD thesis.• Participate in, and present at (inter-)national scientific meetings.
• Participate in the national SOCION project
• Contribute to project dissemination activities and communications with the cultural music sector.
• Collect new survey data on norms about singlehood, and the well-being and experiences of singles