Would you like to participate in an exciting interdisciplinary research project to discover the hidden chemistry of plants and its evolution? Do you enjoy collaboration and teamwork? We are looking for a technician to help drive the experimental part of a project to discover new chemistry hidden in plant genomes.
Plants represent an untapped resource of natural bioactive compounds that significantly contribute to plant resilience to pathogens, herbivores, and abiotic stresses, and may be applied for medicine or crop protection.
In this project, you will perform greenhouse experiments on a range of related plant species using different molecular treatments to stimulate their defense responses. Subsequently, you will extract RNA and metabolite extracts for omics analyses of these samples. You will work together with the two PhD candidates in this project, and form an interdisciplinary team to set up, perform and analyze the data from these experiments.
We ask
Are you a skilled technician with all or a subset of the following skills:
• completed HLO/HBO Life Sciences degree, or related education
• committed team player with good communication skills
• experience with greenhouse experiments and/or RNA and metabolite extraction from plants
• affinity with plant science and metabolism
• a good level of oral and written English
We offer
Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:
- sabbatical leave, study leave, and partially paid parental leave;
- working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
- the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more, up to 40 hours per week;
- there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
- a fixed December bonus of 8.3%;
- excellent pension scheme.
In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will of course receive a good salary. We offer a competitive gross salary of between € 2.818,- and € 3.764 per month for a full-time working week of 38 hours, depending on experience, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU). Additionally, a contract for 0.6 FTE or 1.0 FTE can be discussed.
The position is in principle for 18 months, 0.8 FTE, but a different distribution of hours can be discussed as well.
Wageningen University & Research encourages internal advancement opportunities and mobility with an internal recruitment policy. There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We are offering a unique position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.
You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the “Best University” in the Netherlands for the 17th consecutive time.
Coming from abroad
Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees. Applicants from abroad moving to the Netherlands may qualify for a special tax relief, known as the 30% ruling. Our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.
Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. Wageningen University & Research’s International Community page contains practical information about what we can do to support international employees and students coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, we can assist you with any additional advice and information about helping your partner to find a job, housing, schooling, and other issues.
More information
For more information about this position, please contact Marnix Medema, Associate Professor Bioinformatics, by email (marnix.medema@wur.nl).
For more information about the procedure, please contact vacaturemeldingen.psg@wur.nl.
Do you want to apply?
You can apply directly using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website, which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval. We are especially curious how you would prefer to contribute to this project and which skills you would like to develop.
This vacancy will be listed up to and including November 18th, 2022. We hope to schedule the first job interviews by early December 2022.
Equal opportunities
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) employs many people with very different backgrounds and qualities, who inspire and motivate each other. We want every talent to feel at home in our organisation and be offered the same career opportunities. We therefore especially welcome applications from people who are underrepresented at WUR. For more information, please go to our inclusivity page. A good example of how WUR deals with inclusiveness can be read on the page working at WUR with a functional impairment.
We are
Wageningen University & Research
The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7,200 employees (6,400 fte) and 13,200 students and over 150.000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.
This project will be carried out at the Bioinformatics Group, in collaboration with the Biosystematics Group, both within Plant Sciences. The Bioinformatics Group is a rapidly expanding research group that focuses on fundamental and applied bioinformatics research in the green life sciences. In particular, they develop and apply novel computational methods for the analysis and integration of –omics data. The group has a strong track record in genome analysis, algorithm development, and tool construction. There are many national and international collaborations with researchers studying plant and microbe metabolism, biotechnology and genomics.
Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch this video to get an idea of our green campus!
We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.