PhD: Unravelling the anaerobic electroactive physiology and ecology of yeast

We are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to join a cutting-edge research project starting in April 2026 to investigate the anaerobic electroactive physiology, and related ecological interactions, in yeast. This project is part of a Dutch research council (NWO) funded M1 project, and will be conducted at the Laboratory of Microbiology at Wageningen University.

Extracellular electron transfer is a trait well-established in anaerobic metal-reducing bacteria, enabling them to respire anoxically with metals, grow in bio-electrochemical systems, and playing a role in microbial community interactions. Several microbial eukaryotes have shown electroactive traits as well, but their physiological function and underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Insight in anaerobic eukaryotic electroactive metabolism can fundamentally transform our understanding of their physiological capabilities, their ecological role, and unveil their potential applications.

Aim and approach
The core aim of this project is to gain mechanistic insight into the electroactive metabolism of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae under anaerobic conditions. By combining bio-electrochemical experiments, with omics and genetic engineering approaches, you will unravel the mechanisms that underly extracellular electron transfer in yeast, and assess its physiological impact. Subsequently, you will establish yeast in synthetic co-cultures with anaerobic bacteria, assessing the role of electroactive metabolism in cross feeding, and gaining insight in currently poorly explored anaerobic eukaryote-prokaryote interactions. You will work at the exciting interface of Microbial Physiology, Systems Biology, and Biotechnology, pushing the boundaries of our understanding of how fundamental biological processes shape natural ecosystems, and enable novel biotechnological applications.

Key responsibilities:

• Perform bio-electrochemical cultivations with yeast (S. cerevisiae) to study its electroactive physiology in various conditions.
• Design and conduct syntheticco-culture experiments with yeast and anaerobic prokaryotes, and study their (cross feeding) interactions.
• Apply omics-based and genetic engineering approaches to investigate mechanisms underlying bio electrochemical growth, and explore interactions in the established co-cultures.
• Disseminate research findings through publications, conference presentations, and research meetings.
• Contribute to teaching and supervision of students.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair Microbiology, where you will join the Microbial Physiology team under supervision of Assistant professor, Dr. Martijn Diender and co-supervision of Prof. Dr. Diana. Z. Sousa.

Management Office Assistant Communication & Marketing and HR

Do you have secretarial training and/or experience, and are you able to keep a cool head in sometimes dynamic circumstances? Are you organizationally sensitive, enterprising, a true team player, and a proactive administrative all-rounder? Are you service-oriented, able to work independently, and capable of managing your attention effectively? And would you like to start the new year working for a growing organization with global impact, located on a beautiful green campus? Then we are looking for you!

We are seeking a colleague to support the two staff departments Communication & Marketing and HR within the Environmental Sciences Group. As a Management Assistant, you will have a varied range of tasks within a complex organization where a certain level of hustle and bustle is part of daily work. You will work closely with communication and marketing advisors as well as HR professionals. The role involves many peak periods, and you are the one who maintains oversight, with an eye for detail and sensitivity to issues that may arise, for example in the media, with clients, or within the HR domain.

In your role, you will maintain good working relationships with fellow team assistants from other staff departments such as Finance & Control and Legal Affairs/Risk & Compliance. You will support and cover for one another when necessary, for example during periods of high workload or holiday leave. In the coming years, you will increasingly align your activities with one another, and you will also proactively contribute improvement suggestions yourself.

You ensure that you stay up to date with the latest developments in administrative processes within the organization—not only for the Communication & Marketing and HR departments, but also more broadly within ESG and WUR. You know how to make effective use of tools such as AI in your work, you are not afraid of the organizational tasks surrounding events, and as a true team player you are happy to roll up your sleeves when needed. You create and maintain overview in complex information flows. You enjoy dotting the i’s, and customer focus and proactiveness come naturally to you! You are flexible and do not mind occasionally adjusting your working hours, for example in connection with an event.

Your tasks will include, among others:

• Managing calendars; handling mail and correspondence; processing telephone and email traffic;
• Supporting various administrative processes within the Communication & Marketing and HR departments, such as placing orders and processing invoices;
• Supporting events, including booking rooms and catering, registering and welcoming participants and speakers, keeping schedules up to date, internal communications, and follow-up with participants and speakers;
• Booking travel, supporting expense claims, ordering office supplies, and organizing “care and concern” moments (e.g. cards or gifts) for team members;
• Supporting the posting of job vacancies and the administrative aspects of recruitment.

Management Office Assistent Communicatie & Marketing en HR

Heb jij secretariële opleiding/ ervaring en houd je het hoofd koel in soms dynamische omstandigheden? Ben je organisatiesensitief, ondernemend, een echte teamspeler en proactieve administratieve duizendpoot? Ben je dienstverlenend ingesteld, kan je zelfstandig werken, en kun je jouw aandacht goed verdelen? En wil je in het nieuwe jaar gaan werken bij een groeiende organisatie met wereldwijde impact en op een prachtige groene campus? Dan zijn we op zoek naar jou!

Wij zoeken een collega die de twee stafafdelingen Communicatie & Marketing en HR bij de Environmental Sciences Group komt ondersteunen. Als managementassistent heb je een gevarieerd takenpakket binnen een complexe organisatie die de nodige hectiek kent. Je werkt nauw samen met communicatie- en marketingadviseurs en met HR-professionals. De werkzaamheden kennen veel piekmomenten en jij bent degene die het overzicht houdt, met oog voor detail en gevoeligheden die kunnen spelen in bijvoorbeeld de media, bij opdrachtgevers en op het gebied van HR.

In je functie onderhoud je een goede werkrelatie met collega teamassistenten van de andere stafafdelingen: Finance & Control, Juridische zaken/Risk&Compliance. Jullie ondersteunen en vervangen elkaar wanneer nodig, bijvoorbeeld bij grote werkdruk of tijdens vakantieperiodes. De komende jaren stemmen jullie je werkzaamheden steeds beter op elkaar af, waarbij jij zelf ook met verbetervoorstellen komt.

Je zorgt dat je op de hoogte blijft van de laatste stand van zaken rond administratieve processen in de organisatie, niet alleen van de afdelingen Communicatie & Marketing en HR maar ook in algemeen van ESG en WUR. Je weet hoe je gebruik kunt maken van bijvoorbeeld AI in je werk, je draait je hand niet om voor het regelwerk rondom evenementen, en als echte teamspeler steek je graag je handen uit de mouwen wanneer dat nodig is. Je creëert en behoudt overzicht in complexe informatiestromen. Je houdt ervan de puntjes op de "i" te zetten en klantgerichtheid en proactief zijn hoort bij jou! Je bent flexibel en vindt het niet erg om een keer te schuiven met werktijden, bijvoorbeeld vanwege een evenement.

Je taken bestaan onder meer uit:

• Agendabeheer; afhandelen van en correspondentie; verwerken van telefoon- en e-mailverkeer;
• Ondersteunen bij diverse administratieve processen bij de afdelingen C&M en de afdeling HR zoals bestellingen plaatsen en verwerken van facturen,
• Ondersteunen bij evenementen zoals het boeken van zalen en catering, registreren en ontvangst van deelnemers en sprekers, actueel houden van draaiboeken, interne berichtgeving, nazorg aan deelnemers en sprekers;
• Boeken van reizen, ondersteunen bij onkostendeclaratie, bestellen van kantoorartikelen en ‘lief en leed’ voor de overige teamleden;
• Ondersteunen bij het openstellen van vacatures en de administratie van de werving van personeel.

Postdoctoral Researcher on Governing the Protein Transition

How can public policy and governance unlock tipping points for transforming European food systems?

We invite applications for a postdoctoral researcher to join TIPRO (Tipping the Protein Transition), a FutureFoodS-funded international research project that examines how coordinated interventions across policy, markets, and food environments can accelerate systemic change in protein production and consumption. Rather than focusing on diets in isolation, TIPRO adopts a whole-system and governance-oriented approach, analysing how institutional arrangements, policy mixes, and political dynamics shape the pace and direction of the protein transition in Europe.

TIPRO is a 36-month transnational project (2026–2028) involving partners from KU Leuven (Belgium), Wageningen University (Netherlands), and Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), alongside civil society and stakeholder organisations. The project adopts a systems-oriented and participatory approach, combining policy analysis, co-design, and stakeholder engagement to identify leverage points for accelerating the protein transition.

The position is embedded in the policy and governance work package and focuses on policy analysis, political economy, and governance dynamics of the protein transition, with empirical research conducted primarily in the Netherlands, and comparative links to Belgium and Denmark.

Your role
The postdoctoral researcher will play a central role in designing and implementing the policy and governance research within TIPRO. Key responsibilities include:

• Analysing existing and emerging policy mixes related to the protein transition at national and EU levels;
• Investigating political and institutional barriers to transformative food system governance, including commercial determinants, institutional inertia, and politicisation;
• Designing and facilitating participatory methods with policymakers and stakeholders;
• Contributing to comparative analysis across countries and integration with consumption and distribution work packages;
• Publishing results in peer-reviewed journals and contributing to policy-oriented outputs;
• Actively participating in project management and stakeholder engagement activities.

The post-doc will work closely with senior researchers at KU Leuven and Copenhagen Business School, and collaborate intensively with consortium partners across countries and disciplines. The preferred starting date lies between 1 April and 1 May 2026.

PhD: Co-created long term visions for prosperous rural-urban interactions

Are you keen to contribute to prosperous rural-urban interactions in Dutch regions that deal with future challenges? Would you like to develop inspirational, integrated long term designs that are thoroughly tested and are co-created with societal partners? Then you could be the ideal PhD candidate to join our team!

We are hiring a PhD candidate for a 4-year PhD trajectory that aims to develop long term regional landscape designs and accompanying spatial strategies for land use change for two Dutch rural-urban regions, using a Research Through Design methodology. This PhD position is part of the ‘Fertile Soils’ project that explores the potential to address multiple spatial challenges in rural and urban areas simultaneously through exchange of ‘landscape services’. To fulfil this potential, a multifunctional spatial organization of the landscape is needed that minimizes trade-offs and maximizes synergies between landscape services. Moreover, spatial planning and design has to take a long-term perspective in exploring fundamentally new, prosperous interactions between urban and rural areas.

In this PhD project you will design inspiring, transformative long-term designs (time horizon: approximately year 2100) for the two rural-urban regions Zwolle and Breda-Tilburg. You will develop and apply a Research Through Design (RTD) methodology to further specify the pathways towards these visions with spatial strategies on the middle-long-term (year 2035-2055). This RTD approach should fit the transdisciplinary, regional design context and allow for the testing of the designs with various experts and stakeholders on potential landscape services exchange. This participatory approach ensures the designs are anchored in historically developed rural-urban relationships, and affiliated biophysical, cultural and socio-economic characteristics of the region. You use the RTD processes and (stakeholder) reflections on the design processes in the two regions to explore the required preconditions for creating synergies between landscape services. You will work in the Fertile Soils project with 9 other PhDs and collaborate with stakeholders in the region as well as designers and experts from practice to ensure that the research is not only theoretically sound, but also relevant and applicable.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Develop a research through design approach that effectively addresses societal problems and potentials in the context of rural-urban regions, with special focus on participatory methods;
• Using this research through design approach, generate a long term vision and accompanying middle-long term spatial strategies for two rural-urban region in the Netherlands;
• Create design principles that support spatial planning and design aimed at initiating transformative change in the exchange of landscape services;
• Setting up and carrying out the above-mentioned research, resulting in, among other things, a PhD dissertation containing at least three international scientific publications;
• Presenting the research and intermediate research results in the Netherlands and at international scientific conferences;
• Actively participating and contributing to the PhD community of Fertile Soils and the Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning cluster.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the Landscape Architecture Chair Group, part of the cluster Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning. You will be supervised by dr. ir. Dirk Oudes, dr. ir. Ilse Voskamp and prof. dr. Sanda Lenzholzer. Depending on the phase of the project you will also be working in the regions and at the office of project partner Arcadis, Amersfoort.