PhD "Climate, Cooperation and Community in Asia"

Climate change poses a serious challenge to social cohesion in the coming decades. Extreme weather events, disruptions to food or water supplies, and the pressure to adopt new agricultural practices are already becoming increasingly visible, straining relations between people and decreasing trust in the institutions that guide collective responses. Communities are divided along existing fault lines such as those of neighbourhood, class, gender, and caste, or along new dimensions. Understanding how communities sustain or lose their ability to cooperate under climate induced pressures is an urgent question with implications for future adaptation policies around the world. In the post WWII period, rural societies in Asian countries underwent a dramatic transformation. The introduction of new agricultural technologies increased crop productivity and rural incomes. At the same time, these changes reshaped economic, political, and social power in rural communities. They also exposed farmers to new forms of climate risk. Focusing on local processes during this period allows us to trace when and why cooperation breaks down or endures, and to assess the consequences for sustainable development.

The project asks the following interlinked questions. How did climate change affect social cohesion at intra- and inter-group levels in rural Asian communities? And what can this tell us about how communities respond to climate-based disruption more generally?

These overarching questions open onto several potential research avenues, that can be pursued depending on the candidate’s interests and expertise as well as data availability. This could include research focused within or across countries, as well as across different levels and dimensions of cooperation. We expect such a project to require engagement with quantitative and qualitative sources, with the possibility of fieldwork. Through a comparative and long run study of rural Asia, the project will investigate interactions between climate, institutions and cooperative behaviour to understand the drivers of cooperation through historical analysis, with additional insight from the field of social psychology. By clarifying when cooperation succeeds or fails in historically climate-vulnerable agricultural contexts, the project offers lessons for climate adaptation in other countries around the world.

Postdoc Position in Computational Antigen Discovery

As a Postdoctoral Researcher in the group of dr Marino, you will play a central role in advancing the group's research through the development and application of state-of-the-art bioinformatics workflows for antigen identification, quantification, and validation.

You will support the whole team in data analysis and visualization for different proteogenomics projects. You will organize and merge multi-omics data (in collaboration with our partners at Princess Maxima Center) using AI/ML techniques, implement antigen data analysis and discovery processes, and contribute to the maintenance of data infrastructure in collaboration with internal team members and other multidisciplinary teams.

In this role, you will also take the lead in developing new ideas and initiatives that advance the group’s research. This position will significantly impact the team by developing innovative bioinformatics pipelines, and by pinpointing and measuring the most immunogenic antigens for integration into vaccine-based therapies aimed at improving outcomes for patients with cancer.

Finally, you will be involved in many different multicentered and multidisciplinary collaborations, with both industry as well as academia and medical institutes. This will increase your exposure and expand your own professional network, supporting your future scientific career.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain scalable pipelines for mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics and immunopeptidomics data analysis.
• Design integrative frameworks combining genomics, transcriptomics, ribosomal profiling and proteomics datasets.
• Develop and maintain high-quality pipelines for processing and visualizing large-scale proteogenomics, MS-based immunopeptidomics/proteomics data.
• Ensure reproducibility and scalability of workflows using modern workflow tools (es. Nextflow, Snakemake, CWL etc.).
• Contribute to scientific publications, grant writing, and presentations.
• Collaborate with internal/external groups to develop new analysis pipelines tailored to immunopeptidomics experiments.
• Stay at the forefront of scientific advances in mass spectrometry-based immunopeptidomics/proteomics including software and new methodologies.

Assistant Admissions Officer

Als Assistant Admissions Officer ben je verantwoordelijk voor het coördineren en uitvoeren van administratieve processen binnen de aanmeldprocedure voor studenten met een buitenlandse vooropleiding. Hiervoor heb je regelmatig contact met collega's van faculteiten en andere afdelingen binnen de universiteit.

Je belangrijkste taken zijn:

• controleren en verwerken van aanmelddocumenten op volledigheid en echtheid;
• communiceren met aankomende studenten over hun aanmelding, voornamelijk via e-mail;
• afhandelen van binnenkomende Colloquium Doctum-aanvragen;
• controleren van de status van aanvragen voor vrijstelling van het aanvraagtarief en zorg ervoor dat de benodigde documenten correct worden ingediend.
• werkprocedures binnen ISA evalueren en verbeteren.

Tijdens drukke periodes ondersteun je ook collega’s van andere subteams, zoals visa, studiebeurzen en diplomawaardering. Dit biedt je de kans om nieuwe vaardigheden te ontwikkelen en breder bij te dragen aan het team, buiten je functie als Assistant Admissions Officer.

Admissions Officer

In deze rol combineer je twee belangrijke verantwoordelijkheden: diplomawaardering en visumprocedures. Enerzijds beoordeel je internationale diploma’s om te bepalen of kandidaten in aanmerking komen voor toelating. Anderzijds focus je tijdens piekperiodes vooral op het visumproces voor inkomende bachelor-, master- en uitwisselingsstudenten. Jij bent dé expert binnen de universiteit op het gebied van visumaanvragen en zorgt ervoor dat alle immigratiewetgeving correct wordt nageleefd.

Het visumproces is dynamisch: het aantal aanvragen van studenten die een visum nodig hebben groeit jaarlijks en de regelgeving verandert regelmatig. Met een aanzienlijke piek in de activiteit tijdens de zomermaanden ben jij van cruciaal belang om een efficiënt, transparant en gestroomlijnd proces voor alle betrokkenen te garanderen. Jouw belangrijkste taken bestaan uit het volgende:

• Je draagt bij aan het jaarlijkse visumproces en bent verantwoordelijk voor het verwerken, controleren en indienen van de visumaanvragen.
• Je zorgt ervoor dat de plichten van de universiteit rondom visa doorlopend worden uitgevoerd, zowel voor nieuwe als zittende studenten.
• Je volgt nauwgezet de ontwikkelingen inzake de immigratie van studenten en vertaalt beleids- en wetswijzigingen naar interne procedures om deze te implementeren.
• Je onderhoudt heldere en actuele communicatie met studenten via kanalen zoals de website, e-mail en het aanmeldportaal.
• Je bent het aanspreekpunt voor zowel de IND als voor de collega’s die betrokken zijn bij de visumprocessen.
• Beoordelen en waarderen van buitenlandse diploma's en cijferlijsten van aspirant-studenten aan de hand van beschikbare documentatie en (inter)nationale informatiebronnen

Met jouw rol zorg je ervoor dat internationale studenten zich ondersteund voelen en soepel aan hun studie kunnen beginnen.

Assistant or Associate Professor in Virology

The research of the Virology group focuses mainly on the molecular, cellular and structural mechanisms underlying infection and transmission of animal and human RNA viruses, including corona-, influenza-, paramyxo- and picornaviruses in the context of the faculty’s One Health research. In addition to fundamental research, the group performs translational research to develop innovative diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutic antibodies and antiviral strategies.

As a principal investigator you will:

• establish and lead an independent research line that complements and strengthens the ongoing research activities within the Virology group;
• acquire research funding and build and maintain contacts with academic and industrial partners;
• supervise PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and technical staff;

We are particularly interested in candidates whose research contributes to areas such as RNA viruses, virus-host interactions, viral pathogenesis, zoonotic infections, antiviral strategies, structural virology or translational virology.

You will also contribute to Virology teaching within the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes of Veterinary Medicine, Biomedical Sciences and Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences. Teaching tasks include lectures, practical courses, supervision of BSc and MSc students, as well as course development. Your teaching duties will average 0.2FTE, with peak periods when the courses are running. While some teaching is conducted in Dutch, candidates who are not yet proficient in Dutch are expected to be willing to learn the language (support for this can be made available if needed).

The Virology section is part of the Division of Infectious Diseases & Immunology, together with the sections of Immunology, Infection Biology and Clinical Infectiology. The division is part of the Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.