PhD: Behavioural & Economic Modelling for Pest Risk Management

We invite applications for a fully funded PhD position titled “Behavioural and Economic Modelling To Support Systems-Based Pest Risk Management”
Plant production in Europe is increasingly threatened by the emergence and spread of diverse plant pests, driven by factors such as global trade, climate change, and changing agricultural practices. These evolving challenges pose significant risks to agricultural sustainability and food security, highlighting the need for effective and innovative pest risk management strategies that adopt a systems-level perspective.

This PhD research project aims to advance the understanding of the behavioural, economic, and policy dimensions that shape pest risk management within European agricultural systems.

Research context
Effective pest risk management across the agri-value chain requires not only a biological and ecological understanding of pest spread, but also in-depth insight into how human behaviour, economic incentives, and policy instruments shape decision-making by key chain actors involved.

Positioned at the intersection of behavioural science, agricultural economics, and agricultural systems modelling, this PhD project will contribute to the development of modelling tools that integrate behavioural insights into bio-economic models to support the design of cost-effective and sustainable pest risk management strategies.

The PhD research will be conducted within the framework of the newly launched, multidisciplinary EU Horizon Europe project PhytoPRISM: A Platform for supporting a systems approach in Pest RISk Management, bringing together 15 leading research partners from 7 EU countries. This international consortium offers an unique opportunity for international collaboration, interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, and impactful scientific research at the forefront of European plant health policy and practice.

Research objectives
The PhD research addresses the following objectives:

• Behavioural analysis: Identify and analyse behavioural drivers influencing stakeholder decisions in pest risk management.
• Economic evaluation: Assess economic trade-offs between alternative phytosanitary measures, including prevention, eradication, and containment strategies.
• Incentives and policy analysis: Examine how economic incentives, institutional constraints, and policy instruments influence stakeholder behaviour and system efficiency.
• Model integration: Integrate behavioural responses into pest risk and bio-economic models to enhance decision support and strategy development for pest risk management..

You will work here
The PhD project will take place within the Business Economics (BEC) group) of the Wageningen University, which is led by Prof. Alfons Oude Lansink (www.wur.eu/bec). BEC holds a strong position in interdisciplinary research with key areas, such as food supply chain economics, bio-economic modelling, and economics of food safety, plant & animal health.

Postdoc Food Chemistry

You are a Postdoc at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry, in context of a collaborative project of our group with Revividal, Starodub, TU/e, and Hanze University of Applied Sciences. The overall research project aims to advance a biodegradable gastric device from renewable, food-grade biomolecular polymers, demonstrate its circularity, ensure product safety, and assess regulatory implications in preparation for future clinical studies. To conquer obesity, such a biodegradable, non-fossil based device is seen as better alternative compared to their non-degradable, fossil-based, gastric balloon, and single-use drugs.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• gain a deeper understanding of the biomolecular polymer structures, batch-to-batch variations, and changes during modifications;
• set-up and validate methodology for quantification and identification of said biopolymers, including during in vitro transit tests;
• excellent communication with other project partners.

You will work here
The project is embedded within the chair of Food Chemistry , which is led by Prof.dr.ir. Jean-Paul Vincken, and is part of the Carbohydrates, Biomass & Enzymes theme of dr.ir. Mirjam Kabel.

Data scientist (assistant professor) in Nutrition & Health Research

Are you an ambitious data scientist eager to build a career in academia? Are you passionate about advancing human nutrition and health through innovative data-driven research? We are looking for an Assistant Professor to strengthen our team at the exciting intersection of data science, nutrition, and health. Could you be our new colleague?

What are you going to do?
In this role, you will contribute to cutting-edge research and education at the forefront of nutrition and health. The Division of Human Nutrition and Health offers access to a unique collection of large-scale, deeply phenotyped and genotyped human dietary intervention and cohort studies. You will work with a rich variety of data sources, including dietary and lifestyle information, multi-omics data, functional measurements, sensor data, and clinical data. By integrating these complex datasets, you will investigate their relationships with both short- and long-term health outcomes. Using advanced data science approaches, including state-of-the-art AI methods, such as machine learning and knowledge-based methods, you will tackle high-dimensional biological data to uncover new insights into the connections between nutrition and health.

In addition to your research activities, you will play an active role in teaching and supervision in the areas of data science, nutrition, and health, inspiring and supporting students at Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD level.

You will collaborate with nutritionists, epidemiologists, and (molecular) biologists as well as other data-scientists in a WUR-wide network, and will thus work in an interdisciplinary setting.

This position is part of the Academic Career Framework (ACF) at Wageningen University & Research. One of the 3 career paths is the Professor Career Path. The aim of this ACF is to achieve a new balance in recognising and valuing academics where both team collaboration and the unique talent of individual scientists are seen, by creating more differentiation in career paths, putting the emphasis on the quality of work and less on quantitative results, doing justice to the individual qualities and ambitions of academics as much as to team performance, promoting all aspects of open science and encouraging high-quality leadership in the academy.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair group Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics, which is led by Prof. dr. Lydia Afman, as well as within the chair group Nutrition and Disease, which is led by Prof. dr. Ellen Kampman. You will be co-supervised by Dr. Fränzel van Duijnhoven.

In this challenging career trajectory:

• you will establish and lead a novel research line in data science within the field of nutrition and health;
• you acquire, lead and implement innovative and creative(inter-) national research projects in the Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics group as well as the Nutrition and Disease group;
• you collaborate with colleagues and supervise PhD students, BSc and MSc theses;
• you develop and teach innovative courses in the field;
• you contribute to the further development of the Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics group as well as the Nutrition and Disease group.

Policy officer Education

As Policy Officer Education, you will work on issues that directly influence the future of education at Wageningen University. You will play an active role in developing and implementing educational policies, with a particular focus on education for professionals. Key topics include micro-credentials, MOOCs, and translating national lifelong learning initiatives into the Wageningen University context.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• bringing together colleagues from different parts of the organization to develop forward-looking and broadly supported policies. You will also support decision-making processes and contribute to policy implementation;
• serving a central role as secretary of working groups and committees, ensuring oversight and a smooth progression of processes;
• working on various policy dossiers. In addition to professional education, you will contribute to a range of topics related to accredited education, such as renewal of our education portfolio, the allocation of financial resources, and student well-being.

Your team
You will work closely with colleagues in the Policy Support team. This team consists of 12 (senior) education policy officers and support staff. You will regularly coordinate with the Coordinator Policy Support regarding your projects and progress. At the same time, you will collaborate closely with colleagues from Wageningen Academy and the Head of Continuing Education, who focus on the development and organization of education for professionals. Your workplace will be Wageningen.

You will work here
You will be part of Education & Student Affairs (ESA), the central education department of Wageningen University. ESA plays a key role in connecting educational demand and supply and is responsible for quality assurance, policy development, and implementation.

Within ESA, work is carried out in both accredited degree programmes and professional education. In addition, the department supports students, lecturers, and the delivery of education. ESA is led by the Dean of Education.

Beleidsmedewerker Onderwijs

Als Beleidsmedewerker Onderwijs werk je aan vraagstukken die direct invloed hebben op de toekomst van het onderwijs van Wageningen University. Je speelt een actieve rol in het ontwikkelen en implementeren van onderwijsbeleid, met een focus op het onderwijs voor professionals. Denk aan thema’s als microcredentials, MOOCs en de vertaling van landelijke afspraken rondom een Leven Lang Ontwikkelen naar WU.

Jouw taken en verantwoordelijkheden als Beleidsmedewerker Onderwijs zijn:

• je brengt collega’s uit verschillende onderdelen van de organisatie samen om tot toekomstgericht, gedragen beleid te komen. Daarnaast ondersteun je besluitvormingsprocessen en draag je bij aan de implementatie;
• je vervult een centrale rol als secretaris van werkgroepen en commissies, waarbij je overzicht houdt en processen soepel laat verlopen;
• je werkt aan verschillende beleidsdossiers. Naast onderwijs voor professionals draag je bij aan diverse thema’s op het gebied van geaccrediteerd onderwijs, zoals de vernieuwing van het opleidingsaanbod, de verdeling van financiële middelen en studentenwelzijn.

Jouw team
Je gaat samenwerken met de collega’s van het team Policy Support. Dit team bestaat uit 12 (senior) beleidsmedewerkers onderwijs en ondersteuners. Je hebt regelmatig afstemming met de coördinator Policy Support over jouw dossiers en voortgang. Tegelijkertijd werk je nauw samen met de collega’s van Wageningen Academy en het hoofd Continuing Education. Zij richten zich op het ontwikkelen en organiseren van onderwijs voor professionals. Je standplaats is Wageningen.

Hier ga je werken
Je komt te werken binnen ‘Education & Student Affairs’ (ESA), de centrale onderwijsafdeling van Wageningen University. ESA speelt een sleutelrol in het verbinden van vraag en aanbod in onderwijs en is verantwoordelijk voor de kwaliteitsborging, beleidsontwikkeling en implementatie.
Binnen ESA wordt gewerkt aan zowel geaccrediteerde opleidingen als onderwijs voor professionals. Daarnaast ondersteunt de afdeling studenten, docenten van WU en de uitvoering van het onderwijs. ESA staat onder leiding van de Dean of Education.