Postdoc in soil biodiversity analysis across Europe

Soils host most of the world’s biodiversity and deliver important ecosystem services, however, many soils are currently considered unhealthy. The European Soil Monitoring Directive aims at improving soil health by careful EU-wide monitoring. The scientific challenge is to provide information about soil biodiversity across the European Union that makes soil monitoring effective in assessing changes in the status of soil health. This requires further insights into patterns of soil biodiversity in time and space. In the EU-SOB4ES project samples have been collected and analysed during consecutive years for soil biodiversity and physicochemical parameters across a range of land use types and pedo-climatic conditions in Europe.

With your expertise in soil ecology and statistical analyses, you will analyse soil biodiversity patterns of both microorganisms and fauna across time and space using the databases built in the SOB4ES project. You will analyse these data, write scientific publications and present your research at conferences, scientific meetings and make them accessible for a wider audience. Opportunities to mentor students and possibly also early career stage researchers exist.

PhD position: Indicators of demographic risk and resilience in wild birds

We are seeking a talented, enthusiastic, and collaborative PhD candidate to investigate how seasonal environmental change influences population vulnerability and to develop new indicators of demographic risk and resilience in wild bird populations.

When does a population decline begin?

Can impending declines be detected before they become severe?

At first glance, the answer appears obvious: populations start to decline when the number of individuals decreases. But populations often respond slowly to environmental change, and by the time a decline becomes apparent, the processes driving them may have been operating unnoticed for years. Reproductive success may have dropped, survival may have declined during migration, or environmental conditions may have deteriorated during the non-breeding season. Understanding when populations become vulnerable is one of the central challenges in ecology and conservation.

In this PhD project, you will develop and test new indicators of demographic risk and resilience using long-term data from wild bird populations. By combining ecological theory, demographic modelling, and time-series analysis, you will investigate whether seasonal demographic signals and statistical early warning indicators reveal population vulnerability before severe declines occur. Drawing on decades of bird monitoring data from around the world—including intensive long-term studies maintained by the Institute, harmonised data from the SPI-Birds Network & Database, and other major biodiversity monitoring and data standardisation schemes—you will assess the generality of indicators across populations, species, and ecological contexts. The project offers opportunities to collaborate with researchers at several institutions in Europe and North America and to contribute to efforts in biodiversity monitoring, ecological forecasting, and conservation planning.

This project is highly quantitative. During the PhD, you will develop skills in population ecology, demographic modelling, ecological forecasting, time-series analysis, Bayesian statistics, and statistical programming (primarily in R and Stan). You will gain experience working with large, long-term, multidimensional ecological datasets, developing reproducible analytical workflows, and applying open science principles. You will also develop skills in scientific writing and publishing, conference presentations, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the communication of complex scientific ideas to diverse audiences.

Afdelingshoofd Financiën & Control KNAW Humanities Cluster - Amsterdam

Wat ga je doen?

• Verantwoordelijk voor de volledige planning & control-cyclus (begroting, forecasts, maandrapportages, jaarrekening).
• Op coachende wijze leiding geven aan het Financien en Control team (8 medewerkers)
• Opstellen van meerjarenbegrotingen
• Adviseren van het management en projectleiders over financiële aspecten van onderzoeksprojecten (NWO, EU Horizon, etc.).
• Ontwikkelen en bewaken van interne beheersing (risicomanagement, compliance, subsidieregimes).
• Optimaliseren van financiële processen en systemen (bijv. vereenvoudigen van interne doorbelastingen).

Postdoc ERC Synergy TASTADE - IISH

This two-years postdoctoral position is geared towards participating in and overseeing the first phase of data collection and data organization. The postdoctoral candidate will steer a team of 4-6 junior researchers based in the Netherlands gathering data on investors in the Dutch slave trade and Dutch investors in the slave trade of other nations. The postdoctoral candidate will function in an international team with two other postdoctoral candidates leading similar teams of junior researchers in France and Brazil. Because the postdoctoral candidate is based in Amsterdam where the development of the digital infrastructure of this project takes place, the candidate is also expected, with the four principal investigators, to act as the conduit between the three data gathering teams and the digital designers working on the further development of the database.

The daily tasks of the postdoctoral candidate consist of:

• Adding names and background information of slave trade investors to the database;
• Selecting primary and secondary sources for the junior researchers to gather names and background information about slave trade investors;
• Testing, overseeing and correcting data gathering, data entry and data cleaning;
• Signaling challenges and opportunities for advancing data gathering and reporting on them in joint meetings with the postdoctoral candidates in France and Brazil, as well as the four principal investigators;
• Being the vital link between data gatherers and the digital design team at the KNAW HUC Digital Infrastructure department.

Stagiair Dialoogprogramma Digitale Toekomst Rathenau Instituut

Mogelijke taken zijn onder andere:

• Onderzoek: bijdragen aan onderzoek naar maatschappelijke en technologische ontwikkelingen die van belang zijn voor de burgerdialogen over het thema digitalisering en leefomgeving.
• Ontwerp: bijdragen aan het opzetten van een interactieve expositie over digitalisering en leefomgeving. Bijdragen aan het ontwerp van lokale dialoogsessies waarin we deelnemers laten reageren op speculatieve techvoorbeelden.
• Gespreksfacilitatie: het faciliteren van gesprekken tussen mensen om ervoor te zorgen dat iedereen gehoord wordt en de discussie constructief verloopt.
• Logistieke ondersteuning: assisteren bij de praktische organisatie van de dialogen zoals het regelen van een locatie, vervoer en catering.
• Communicatie: helpen bij de communicatie van de uitkomsten van de dialogen naar het bredere publiek via verschillende kanalen.