Onderzoeksassistent Regeneratieve Landbouw & Boerenparticipatie

Als onderzoeksassistent ben je verantwoordelijk voor de communicatie en samenwerking met koploper boeren in het meet en monitoring programmaonderdeel van het transitieprogramma ReGeNL voor regeneratieve landbouw. Je werkt intensief samen met collega’s van de vakgroep Rurale Sociologie en Bodembiologie. Dit doe je deels vanuit Wageningen maar je zult ook veel onderweg zijn voor afspraken of workshops met boeren. De andere helft van de tijd ben je verantwoordelijk voor het afnemen en verwerken van telefonische enquêtes onder gangbare boeren in transitie naar regeneratieve landbouw.

Jouw taken en verantwoordelijkheden:

• Communicatie en samenwerking met koploper boeren in ReGeNL en onderzoeksteams in ReGeNL organiseren en faciliteren;
• Organiseren en faciliteren van workshops met boeren rondom integraal meten en monitoren op regeneratieve landbouw, sociaaleconomische welzijn en boeren innovaties;
• Telefonische interviews;
• Sociaal wetenschappelijke data verwerking.

Jouw team
Jij gaat samenwerken met collega’s bij de vakgroepen RSO en SBL

Hier ga je werken
Je gaat volledig werken binnen het nationaal groeifondsprogramma ReGeNL. Samen met regeneratieve boeren in Nederland bouwt ReGeNL aan een duurzame landbouwsector waarin boeren samengaat met bodemgezondheid, natuurherstel en een leefbaar inkomen voor de boer en zijn medewerkers. Tussen nu en 2030 wil ReGeNL de transitie naar regeneratieve landbouw in gang zetten bij 1.000 boeren, om zo regeneratieve landbouw tegen 2040 tot de nieuwe norm te maken. Binnen het onderzoek in dit transitieprogramma willen we leren van pionier bedrijven om de transitie te ondersteunen; dit doen we door hun praktijken en landbouwsystemen nauwgezet te monitoren.

In je rol ondersteun je de communicatie, coördinatie en informatie-uitwisseling tussen ongeveer 100 regeneratieve boeren en het ReGeNL-onderzoek consortium. Je werkt met datasystemen, zoals een CRM, om ervoor te zorgen dat informatie uit het veld goed gedocumenteerd en toegankelijk is. Daarnaast help je bij het organiseren en faciliteren van workshops waarin boeren en onderzoekers gezamenlijk de resultaten van de monitoringsactiviteiten bespreken. In deze verbindende rol waarborg je transformatief leren en onderling begrip tussen diverse partners – van boeren tot wetenschappers – en draag je bij aan het succes van ReGeNL in het verduurzamen en veerkrachtiger maken van de landbouw. Voor het meten en monitoren op sociaaleconomische welzijn onder gangbare boeren in transitie ben je verantwoordelijk voor het telefonisch interviewen van boeren en de dataverwerking.

Research Assistant in Regenerative Agriculture and Well-being

As a research assistant, you are responsible for communication and cooperation with lead farmers in the measurement and monitoring program component of the ReGeNL transition program for regenerative agriculture. You will work closely with colleagues from the Department of Rural Sociology and Soil Biology. You will do this partly from Wageningen, but you will also be on the road a lot for meetings or workshops with farmers. The other half of the time, you are responsible for conducting and processing telephone surveys among conventional farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Organize and facilitate communication and cooperation with lead farmers in ReGeNL and research teams in ReGeNL;
• Organize and facilitate workshops with farmers around integrated measurement and monitoring of regenerative agriculture, socio-economic well-being, and farming innovations;
• Telephone interviews;
• Social science data processing.

Your team
You will collaborate with colleagues at the RSO and SBL departments.

You will work here
You will work entirely within the national growth fund program ReGeNL. Together with regenerative farmers in the Netherlands, ReGeNL is building a sustainable agricultural sector in which farming goes hand in hand with soil health, nature restoration, and a liveable income for the farmer and their employees. Between now and 2030, ReGeNL aims to initiate the transition to regenerative agriculture among 1,000 farmers, with the goal of making regenerative farming the new standard by 2040. Within the research in this transition program, we want to learn from pioneer companies to support the transition; we do this by closely monitoring their practices and agricultural systems.

In your role, you support communication, coordination, and information exchange between approximately 100 regenerative farmers and the ReGeNL research consortium. You work with data systems, such as a CRM, to ensure that information from the field is well documented and accessible. In addition, you help organize and facilitate workshops in which farmers and researchers jointly discuss the results of the monitoring activities. In this connecting role, you ensure transformative learning and mutual understanding among various partners – from farmers to scientists – and contribute to the success of ReGeNL in making agriculture more sustainable and resilient. For measuring and monitoring socioeconomic well-being among conventional farmers in transition, you are responsible for conducting telephone interviews with farmers and processing the data.

Flexpool – sr. HR Business Partner

Are you an experienced and flexible HR Business Partner who wants to be available on short notice across WUR’s various organizational units? This is a great opportunity to get an inside look at different departments and gain new experiences.

For HR, this is the first time we’re working with a flexible pool in this way. The reason for this is the ongoing demand for (temporary) HRBP capacity due to illness, peak workloads, bridging vacancies, or projects. We expect this to bring many benefits, such as better availability of interim HRBP capacity, rapid deployment (due to familiarity with the WUR organization), and knowledge-building within the organization. In addition, we will more quickly achieve uniformity across the various units, and this will contribute to knowledge sharing and collaboration within the HR function. Are you that pioneer, and would you like to help make this initiative a success as a Senior HR Business Partner?

As a Senior HR Business Partner within the Flexpool, your role is equivalent to that of a “regular” HR Business Partner.

• You serve as a sparring partner and advisor to managers in the business unit on tactical and strategic HR and organizational issues, and you provide support and guidance on (complex) individual and team cases.
• You can initiate, design, and oversee complex organizational change processes or projects.
• You will temporarily be part of an HR team, and together you will be responsible for providing appropriate and high-quality HR services.

Your team
You will be assigned from the HRBP team within the Corporate Staff to work for one or more business units, each time for a period of two to six months (with the option to extend twice for three months each). During your assignment, you will be a full member of the local HR team, and they will be your colleagues. A request for the deployment of the “flying keeper” is always discussed and approved by the HR Management Team; naturally, we also take your own wishes regarding your development and interests into account.

Postdoc on Synthetic Microbial Communities for Plant-Based Cheese

Do you want to design microbial communities for novel foods? Are you intrigued by the possibilities of using communities and spatial structure to control flavour and nutrition in plant-based cheese? Then this postdoctoral research position could be what you’re looking for!

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will explore over the next 3 years how we can control the flavour and nutritional value of plant-based Camembert through spatiotemporal organization of synthetic microbial communities (SynComs). Fermentation of protein-rich plant-based substrates could yield cheeses that are both healthy and sustainable. However, optimizing the nutritional value and flavour of such cheese products remains an open challenge.

This project tests the fundamental hypothesis that bottom-up designed SynComs could provide better nutrition and flavour than pure starter cultures, while offering more reproducible products compared to complex starter cultures. Specific attention will be paid to the role of spatial organization of key community members and the role of physicochemical gradients during fermentation.

Your duties and responsibilities:

• use solid-state food fermentation techniques with diverse (i.e., pure, SynCom, and complex) starter cultures and evaluate flavour and nutrition composition;
• evaluate the spatiotemporal patterns of microbial community assembly and composition using metagenomic sequencing and microscopic techniques;
• develop mathematical models of spatiotemporal organization of SynCom-fermented plant-based cheeses to enable further control;
• work with highly interdisciplinary colleagues in a collaborative environment;
• develop and lead novel research questions, design experiments, analyze and synthesize results, and communicate outcomes at (inter)national conferences as well as publish these outcomes in peer-reviewed journals.

Your team
You will work as a joint post-doc between the Systems & Synthetic Biology (SSB) chair group, led by Prof. Maria Suarez-Diez, and Food Microbiology (FHM), led by Prof. Marcel Zwietering. Your primary supervisors will be dr. Pieter Candry (SSB) & dr. Oscar van Mastrigt (FHM), both assistant professors at WUR.

You will work here
This position is funded by the VLAG Graduate School, focused on generating collaborative projects between chair groups part of VLAG. This position is part of the Academic Career Framework (ACF) at Wageningen University & Research.

Postdoc: Developing a Planetary Health Impact Assessment in policy practice

How can knowledge about the health of people and the planet be translated into effective policy? If this question interests you, this position may be a strong fit. As a driving force within the CINPHIA consortium, you will integrate methods for knowledge development, policymaking, and public participation into a Planetary Health Impact Assessment compass, with the aim of strengthening the impact of policy.

Earth provides us with air, water, food, and space for rest and recovery. At the same time, heat, pollution, and declining biodiversity—on land, in oceans, and in the atmosphere—are contributing to increased illness and mortality in the Netherlands and worldwide. Existing knowledge, targeted policies, and citizen initiatives have so far proven insufficient to adequately protect and restore the health of people and planet. Planetary health is a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of destabilized natural systems on human health and all life on Earth (The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, 2015).

About CINPHIA
Supported by funding from the Dutch National Science Agenda (NWO/ZonMw) CINPHIA is a consortium of academic, policy, and societal partners that will work on ‘the Co-creation and Integration of Planetary Health Impact Assessment in policy practice.’ The Planetary Health Impact Assessment compass will serve as a tool to assess the health impacts of policy plans and to support decision-making by policymakers at national government level as well as municipal, provincial and water authority levels. In this way CINPHIA contributes to decision-making ‘for policies that protect and restore the health of both people and the planet. CINPHIA includes researchers from WUR, the University of Amsterdam (UvA), RIVM, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Erasmus MC (EMC), Inholland University of Applied Sciences, KWR Water Research Institute, and Waag Futurelab, as well as policymakers from local, provincial, and national governments, citizen initiatives, and societal stakeholders.

Tasks and Responsibilities
You will be responsible for:

• Designing and facilitating workshops with citizens and stakeholders, in collaboration with Waag Futurelab, for the development of a Community Compass (a toolbox for participatory design and action on local planetary health, based on existing methods, indicators, and knowledge);
• Coordinating the development of a prototype Planetary Health Impact Assessment across all work packages, integrating initial versions of the Knowledge Compass, Policy Compass, and Community Compass into a roadmap for user evaluations by policymakers;
• Testing underlying assumptions regarding data, collaboration, and political support for integrated policymaking on planetary health through periodic reflexive evaluations;
• Publishing findings in scientific journals and through public communication channels;
• Actively participating in and contributing to the CINPHIA Planetary Health Talent Programme, including training, coaching, and peer-to-peer learning with CINPHIA PhD candidates, in support of your personal and academic development.

You will work here

Health & Society (HSO) Group

The Health and Society group is embedded in widening circles of engagement with the major challenges facing human and planetary health today. HSO studies the domain of people, places, policies, or the planet more broadly, engaging with these domains with the aim to improve health and society. The chair group HSO focuses on the sociological study of public health, health promotion and health protection, in both resource poor and research rich contexts, with emphasis on (1) the social, natural and built environment, and (2) the role of actors and social institutions in advancing health and wellbeing.

You will be appointed to the Chair Group Health and Society (Dr. Marleen Bekker, project leader CINPHIA), working also with Prof. Robbert Biesbroek (Public Administration and Policy group). In addition, you will collaborate with researchers from Waag FutureLab. You will also work with PhD candidates and researchers from other knowledge institutions in CINPHIA to integrate their contributions into the Planetary Health Impact Assessment. Finally, you will be part of the CINPHIA Consortium and collaborate with societal and policy partners on implementation and impact. You will have access to a vibrant interdisciplinary research community and opportunities for professional development through workshops, conferences, and collaborations.