PhD: Modelling non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

The Earth Systems and Global Change Group at Wageningen University and Research invites applications for a PhD position (4 years) in “Modelling non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture” starting in September 2026.

This PhD project aims to advance monitoring, reporting, verification (MRV) systems and mitigation strategies for reducing agricultural GHG emissions by systematically evaluating and improving the accuracy, effectiveness, efficiency, and usability of both established and emerging MRV tools, as part of an exciting HORIOZON project entitled MARVELA. The research will focus on key agricultural practices, including animal husbandry, manure management, livestock feeding and grazing, soil tillage, fertilizer application, and liming, across diverse pedo-climatic zones and farming systems. By adopting a holistic, systems-oriented perspective, this project will generate harmonized metrics that enable consistent, transparent, and comparable assessments across regions and practices, while simultaneously providing new scientific insights to inform the development and implementation of robust mitigation measures for the achievement of climate neutrality goals.

Your duties and responsibilities include:
As a PhD researcher, you will expand and improve an existing modelling framework to predict direct and indirect nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agriculture. You contribute to the following activities:

• Performing a SWOT analysis of existing models and model requirements to predict non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions on regional level across Europe, including their ability to assess the impact of mitigation measures across time and space.
• Design, build and implement an integrated regional and farm system MRV meta-model for several pilot regions across Europe
• Model evaluation of mitigation measures to ‘consolidate and improve knowledge on mitigation measures for agricultural non-CO2 GHG emissions.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair Earth Systems and Global Change Group, which is led by Prof. dr. Hannah van Zanten and Prof. dr. Nynke Hofstra. You will be supervised by Dr. Gerard Ros, Dr. Mengru Wang and Prof. dr. Hannah van Zanten from Wageningen University, and Prof Dr. Erik Meers from Ghent University.

Seed systems advisor

Are you an experienced international agricultural development professional ready to become a leading advisor in seed systems?

Do you enjoy working at the intersection of agriculture, innovation, policy, institutions and markets? Would you like to help strengthen seed systems that improve farmers' access to quality seed of improved and locally adapted varieties and contribute to more resilient, equitable and sustainable food systems?

We welcome both established seed-systems experts and senior agricultural-development professionals with complementary expertise in areas such as agricultural innovation, agribusiness, food systems, value chain development, plant breeding, policy or institutional development. You bring either direct seed systems expertise or the ambition and demonstrated potential to develop into a leading seed systems advisor.

We are looking for someone who is open-minded, curious and comfortable working across diverse seed systems and stakeholder groups. You will work primarily in Africa and, where relevant, in Asia and Latin America, building trusted partnerships with farmer organisations, governments, research organisations, NGOs, development partners and a diversity of local, domestic and internationally operating seed companies and entrepreneurs. You will also help connect the strengths of the Dutch seed sector and international development ecosystem to seed sector transformation worldwide.

Key responsibilities:
The role combines programme leadership, technical advisory work, acquisition, relationship management and applied research. The balance will vary across programmes and over time, but programme management, technical advisory work and acquisition will form the core of the role.

• Designing, leading and implementing seed sector transformation programmes at national, regional and international levels. These may range from short-term advisory and applied research assignments to large programmes involving substantial budgets, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams, and international consortia.
• Ensuring high-quality programme delivery and effective risk management in collaboration with WSER's legal, financial, procurement and project management teams.
• Acting as a strategic knowledge partner in programmes, including those led by partner organisations, by co-creating knowledge and contributing expertise in evidence generation, programme learning and capacity strengthening.
• Applying systems thinking to analyse seed systems and translate evidence into practical institutional, market and policy innovations that strengthen them and contribute to food system transformation.
• Building long-term, reciprocal partnerships with public, private, research and civil-society actors across seed sectors.
• Facilitating policy dialogue and institutional change, and designing, piloting, scaling and institutionalising innovations across areas such as seed policy and regulation, quality assurance, variety development, seed business development, finance and public-private partnerships.
• Connecting international programmes with the Dutch Diamond approach by fostering collaboration between government, knowledge institutes, the private sector and civil society, and maintaining strategic relationships with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security, Fisheries and Nature, Plantum, SeedNL, Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and other Dutch partners.
• Leading the acquisition and development of new programmes through concept development, proposal writing, consortium building and donor engagement.
• Strengthening Wageningen Social & Economic Research's international profile through publications and knowledge products, and through participation in conferences and professional networks.

About the team
You will join the Food System Transformation team within Wageningen Social & Economic Research, working alongside around ten seed system professionals with diverse international backgrounds, expertise and experience. As an internationally recognised team in seed sector transformation, we combine scientific rigour with a strong commitment to translating knowledge into practice. Together, we support partners worldwide through programme management, strategic knowledge partnerships, applied research and institutional innovation.

HR Services Officer

Hoe zorg je ervoor dat medewerkers en leidinggevenden snel hun weg vinden in de wereld van HR?

Als HR Services Officer ben jij een belangrijke schakel in de dagelijkse HR-dienstverlening. Je helpt medewerkers en leidinggevenden verder, zorgt dat HR-processen soepel verlopen en ziet waar het beter kan.

Van een nieuwe medewerker die bij WUR start tot een collega die doorgroeit of uit dienst gaat: jij zorgt dat de administratieve en organisatorische kant goed geregeld is. Daarbij heb je oog voor de persoon achter het proces. Een internationale medewerker heeft bijvoorbeeld andere procedures nodig dan een Nederlandse collega. Jij weet wat er nodig is en vindt snel de juiste weg.

Je werkt nauw samen met HR-collega’s en bent een betrouwbare wegwijzer voor leidinggevenden bij uiteenlopende HR-vragen. Tegelijkertijd kijk je verder dan de vraag van vandaag. Je signaleert knelpunten, denkt mee over oplossingen en draagt bij aan HR-processen die steeds slimmer, duidelijker en eenduidiger worden.

Jouw taken en verantwoordelijkheden als HR Services Officer:

• verzorgen van eerstelijns ondersteuning om vragen van leidinggevenden/medewerkers/HR professionals te beantwoorden;
• verantwoordelijk voor het operationele proces rondom in- door- en uitstroom binnen de SLA en proces KPI's;
• aannemen en afhandelen van administratieve verzoeken op het gebied van autorisaties en berekeningen vanuit de organisatie volgens werkinstructie en processtandaarden;
• waarborgen van de kwaliteit van personeelsdossiers;
• pakt regie en neemt deel aan projecten op het gebied van optimalisatie HR-processen;
• je zoekt oplossingen voor specifieke in- door- uitstroom (complexe) casussen waarbij advies wordt ingewonnen bij verschillende stafafdelingen;
• je bent verantwoordelijk voor het opstellen en actualiseren van de kennisbank in het HR Services-team.

HR Services Officer

How do you ensure that employees and managers quickly find their way in the world of HR?

As an HR Services Officer, you are an important link in the daily HR services. You help employees and managers move forward, ensure that HR processes run smoothly and see where things can be improved.

From a new employee who starts at WUR to a colleague who grows or leaves the company: you ensure that the administrative and organisational side is well organised. In doing so, you have an eye for the person behind the process. For example, an international employee needs different procedures than a Dutch colleague. You know what is needed and quickly find the right way.

You work closely with HR colleagues and are a reliable guide for managers with a variety of HR questions. At the same time, you look beyond today's question. You identify bottlenecks, think along about solutions and contribute to HR processes that are becoming smarter, clearer and more unambiguous.

Your tasks and responsibilities as HR Services Officer:

• providing first-line support to answer questions from managers/employees/HR professionals;
• responsible for the operational process around inflow, throughflow, and outflow within the SLA and process KPIs;
• accepting and handling administrative requests in the field of authorizations and calculations from the organization according to work instructions and process standards;
• ensuring the quality of personnel files;
• takes control and participates in projects in the field of optimization of HR processes;
• you will look for solutions for specific inflow, throughflow and outflow, (complex) cases in which advice is sought from different staff departments.
• you will be responsible for setting up and updating the knowledge base in the HR Services team.

Postdoc: understanding plant immune responses against insect egg deposition

The goal of this research project is to unravel the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms involved in plant defence traits that kill insect eggs, preventing insect larvae from hatching or impeding their development, thereby reducing damage to the plant. Little is known about plant immune receptor genes involved in egg-killing, how insect-derived ligands are perceived, and which immune pathways are activated.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will contribute to the characterisation of plant immune receptor genes, identify their intra- and interspecific diversity, and investigate downstream immune pathways.

This project is part of an NWP OTP project and executed in close collaboration with vegetable breeding and seed companies. Within the insect team at Biosystematics, you will lead both dry lab (Bioinformatics) as well as wet lab (plant transformation and receptor characterization) activities and co-supervise two PhD students.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• NGS techniques;
• RNAseq;
• Plant transformation;
• Bioinformatic analysis;
• Crispr-cas9.

Your team
You will work with Dr. Fatouros and her team, including a postdoc, two PhD students, two technicians, close collaborators at Biosystematics Group, Dr. Klaas Bouwmeester and Dr. Robin van Velzen as well as collaborators of Plant Breeding, incl. Dr. Lotte Caarls.

You will work here
You will join the insect team led by Dr. Fatouros within the Biosystematics group at Wageningen University. Our research explores the evolutionary ecology of plant-insect interactions in close collaboration with plant physiologists, molecular biologists and plant pathologists. Research in the Biosystematics group focuses on plant and insect biodiversity and its evolutionary origins, both within and above the species level. The Biosystematics group is part of the Plant Sciences Group at Wageningen University.