PhD position: Vision-Language Models for Biodiversity & Environmental Monitoring

We are looking for an aspiring PhD to develop vision-language models for applications in biodiversity and environmental monitoring, using Earth observation, drone, and in situ images. You will develop new machine learning methods for learning efficient and interpretable representations from real-world data. Your models will be used by European partners in the GenAI4Earth project (and will start in September 2026) for identifying plant traits for monitoring the phenology, health and resilience to climate change of forests and crops.

This PhD position builds on existing research in our group, particularly the development of an explainable vision-language model for species distribution modelling. During your PhD, you will further develop vision-language models that can describe species traits from images, which in turn can be used to monitor forest and crop health. You will engage with the international research community to push the state-of-the-art of AI/computer vision for ecology, for example, by leveraging LLMs as reasoning models that interact with biodiversity data via vision-language models.

This position aspires to develop fundamental AI methods that will directly be used for pressing challenges in environmental and ecological monitoring. To do so, you will become part of a European consortium of specialists in AI, supercomputing, remote sensing, ecology and environmental sciences, connected to local stakeholders of forests in Europe and Africa. Therefore, collaborating with other scientists from other domains will be an important aspect of this role.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Master the state of the art in representation learning in vision-language models, through engaging with academic literature, conferences and code bases.
• Design, develop and evaluate vision-language models to identify species traits from Earth observation and in situ images.
• Perform large-scale training and fine-tuning of AI models on an HPC server.
• Disseminate the research results by writing papers and presenting your work at international conferences.
• Collaborate with other scientists from our group, university and international consortium to curate AI-ready datasets, translate use cases into machine learning benchmarks, and apply AI methods to open environmental challenges.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair Artificial Intelligence (link internet page Chairgroup), which is led by Prof. Ioannis Athanasiadis. You will be co-supervised by Prof. Ricardo Torres and Dr Thijs van der Plas.

PhD position: Chlorophyll Fluorescence Imaging & Canopy Photosynthesis

As a PhD candidate, you will help shape the future of plant‑centred climate control by developing approaches to monitor and interpret canopy‑level photosynthesis using chlorophyll fluorescence imaging and microclimate data. You will work with chlorophyll fluorescence imagers, leaf‑level validation sensors, and multilayer photosynthesis models to quantify how microclimate gradients affect electron transport rate (ETR), photosynthetic efficiency, and yield.

This project is part of the GreenControl programme which is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and 11 companies. This programme encompasses 7 PhD students appointed at the universities of Wageningen, Delft, Eindhoven and Twente. Within GreenControl, you will work in parallel with another PhD in the same group focusing on water related traits and colleagues across different disciplines, technology companies and growers, ensuring that your research results are directly usable in operational climate‑control strategies.

Your duties and responsibilities:

• Designing and executing greenhouse and vertical‑farm experiments using chlorophyll fluorescence imaging and supporting sensors.
• Use and validate multilayer photosynthesis models that integrate ETR, absorbed light, CO₂, temperature and microclimate gradients.
• Investigating short‑ and long‑term regulatory processes, including acclimation of photosynthetic capacity.
• Collaborating with technology providers, growers and researchers to integrate imaging‑based insights into climate‑control tools.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair Horticulture and Product Physiology, and member of team of Silvere Vialet-Chabrand, which is led by Prof. Leo Marcelis.

The Horticulture and Product Physiology (HPP) group at Wageningen University & Research focuses on understanding and controlling plant growth, development, and product quality, particularly in controlled environments such as greenhouses and vertical farms. By integrating plant physiology, modelling, and data-driven approaches, the group aims to predict plant performance and optimize production systems across the entire supply chain, contributing to sustainable and efficient horticulture.

PhD Position: Bluetongue virus correlates of protection

Are you eager to start your PhD at the intersection of virology, immunology and vector-borne diseases? In this position, you will investigate how immunity against Bluetongue virus develops and how it can be leveraged to stop transmission. Working on a highly relevant topic following the recent emergence of BTV-3, your research will directly contribute to the development of next-generation vaccines and strategies to protect animal health.

In this lab-oriented project you will investigate correlates of protection of the vector-borne Bluetongue virus (BTV). With the emergence of BTV-3 in 2023 the animal‑health landscape in the Netherlands rapidly reshaped, affecting thousands of ruminants and causing major health and economic losses. While recently approved emergency vaccines helped to reduce disease severity, they don’t yet fully prevent infection or halt transmission—and key gaps remain in our understanding of how immunity, viremia, and vector transmission interact.

To drive the next generation of BTV vaccines, we aim to pinpoint the immune responses that truly protect animals and stop spread. Our central idea: if vaccination can push viremia below the threshold needed for Culicoides midges to become infected, we may block transmission even without sterilizing immunity. Identifying this threshold—and the immunological mechanisms behind it—will enable smarter, more targeted vaccination strategies.

Your responsibilities
You will be responsible for:

• Defining the relationship between infectious bluetongue virus and viral genome in biological samples;
• Identifying the minimal level of bluetongue viremia required for vector-borne transmission;
• Determining the correlates of protection against BTV infection and transmission.

You will work here
You will be working in the arbovirus expertise team in the department of One Health Virology at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research in Lelystad. You will be directly supervised by Dr. Barry Rockx (Expertise team lead Vector-borne viruses), and Dr. Melle Holwerda (Head of the national reference laboratory for Bluetongue), and will work in a multidisciplinary team.

This project offers ample opportunities for local and international collaboration, guaranteeing a dynamic working environment. This project is initiated as part of a public-private partnership between WBVR and multiple sector parties.

The research in the vector-borne virus team of WBVR focuses on understanding and controlling vector-borne viral diseases of veterinary and public health concern, such as bluetongue, Rift Valley fever, and tick-borne encephalitis.

The team is specialized in

• diagnostics and surveillance to detect and monitor pathogens;
• studying vector-virus-host interactions to explore how viruses cause disease and spread between vectors (like midges, mosquitoes, and ticks) and vertebrate hosts;
• developing arboviral countermeasures such as vaccines.

Furthermore, experimental data is used in transmission modeling and risk assessments to help predict outbreaks and evaluate the impact of various intervention strategies, aiding in veterinary and public health preparedness and response.

PhD: Evolution of novel female sexual differentiation genes in parasitoid wasps

Are you a curious PhD candidate with a strong motivation for understanding the evolution of sex determination and sexual differentiation in insects? Are you interested in unravelling the function of novel genes using RNA interference and CRISPR/Cas9 to understand the molecular basis of female sexual differentiation and its evolution? Then we have an exciting evolutionary developmental project waiting for you.

Understanding insect sex determination mechanisms is important for explaining how insect diversity has evolved and for developing new control methods for agriculturally and medically relevant insect species. However, most of our knowledge still relies on the well-studied Drosophila melanogaster, which alone does not represent the full diversity of insects. Oddly, in many insects we have no clue what genes are required for the regulation of female specific traits. Therefore, this PhD project aims to identify and characterise novel genes involved in female differentiation, with a focus on parasitoid wasp species (Hymenoptera).

First, you will design and conduct functional analyses (including bioassays) to characterise the function of candidate genes during early embryogenesis, as well as their effects on adult dimorphic phenotypic and behavioural traits, using RNA interference (knockdown) and CRISPR/Cas9 (knockout) approaches. For this, you will use the parasitoid wasp, Nasonia vitripennis and its close relatives Muscidifurax raptorellus and Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae. These 2 mm large wasps lay their eggs in the pupae of flies from which different developmental stages can be collected.

Then, you will perform an in-depth in silico analysis of published genomic and transcriptomic datasets to explore the phylogenetic distribution of these genes across a wide range of insect species, examining the presence of homologs and their sequence and structural conservation. Combined, this project will provide a unique insight in the evolution of sexual differentiation regulators in insects.

This PhD project is part of a larger VICI project, funded by NWO. As such, you will closely collaborate with two other PhD student and Postdoc in the team, working on related questions.

As a PhD candidate you will contribute to fundamental science in the context of insect evolutionary developmental biology. In addition, you will participate in cursory teaching of the chairgroup. You will be embedded in the Laboratory of Entomology, a diverse group of international scientists, and collaborate with (inter)national colleagues from both in- and outside Wageningen University & Research.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Designing and executing experiments with insects, using microinjection, performing dissections, observing morphological and behavioural abberations.
• Analysing complex datasets involving genomics, transcriptomics and phylogenetics.
• Genetically modify wasps using CRISPR/Cas9.
• Teaching in courses and supervise BSc and MSc students.
• Writing and presenting research at/in internationally renowned conferences/journals .

You will work here
The research is embedded within the Laboratory of Entomology (Lab of Entomology - WUR), which is led by Prof. Bregje Wertheim (Bregje Wertheim - Wageningen University & Research). You will be supervised by Dr. Eveline Verhulst (Eveline Verhulst - Wageningen University & Research) and Dr. Julien Rougeot (Julien Rougeot - Wageningen University & Research). In addition, you will also be embedded in the PE&RC graduate school (Home | PE&RC), which will allow you to follow a wide variety of training courses and will provide support during your academic journey.

Proefveldmedewerker gewasonderzoek

Als proeftechnisch medewerker proefvelden werk je met moderne landbouwmachines én met verschillende gewassen. Je staat midden in het veld en ziet direct wat jouw werk oplevert.

Wat ga je doen?
Geen dag is hetzelfde in de rol van proefveldmedewerker gewasonderzoek . Jij:

• Werkt met moderne landbouwmachines (zaaien, bemesten, oogsten)
• Helpt mee op het land met verschillende gewassen
• Denkt mee over hoe proeven worden opgezet en uitgevoerd
• Zorgt dat machines goed onderhouden en geregistreerd zijn
• Bestrijdt onkruid: met machines, met de hand of slim met middelen

Je werkt vooral rond Wageningen, maar soms ook bij boeren op locatie.

Waar kom je terecht?
Je gaat aan de slag bij Unifarm, het onderzoekscentrum voor plant- en gewaskunde van WUR. In het team Volle Grond werk je samen met zo’n 20 collega’s.

Samen testen jullie nieuwe technieken en teelten — van biologisch tot gangbaar — op maar liefst 220 hectare land.