PostDoc Researcher Electrochemistry for Chemical Conversion

Are you an experienced researcher with a PhD on electrochemistry? Are you interested in continuing your pursuit of scientific knowledge in a creative, ambitious, and multi-disciplinary contract research institute? Are you keen to contribute to a sustainable society by applying your knowledge to convert biomass or CO2 into sustainable, fossil free products for the chemical industry? Would you like to develop your own research ideas, establish new collaborations, and pursue new funding opportunities? In short: will you join our team?

We, the Sustainable Chemistry & Technology group of Wageningen Food and Biobased Research (WFBR), have a vacant postdoctoral position. Your role will be to:

• develop concepts for the electrochemical conversion of renewable biobased feedstock into (synthons for) fossil free chemicals and materials;
• write research project proposals for the realization of these concepts, together with industrial parties and/or subsidizing bodies and possibly colleagues of other disciplines. In the process to pursue funding, you collaborate internally with programme managers, business developers, and other experts;
• execute the acquired projects, together with a team of (assistant) researchers;
• intensify collaborations on electrochemisty with academic chair-groups at Wageningen University and Research (WUR).

You will be part of a multidisciplinary team of experienced researchers that jointly cover all major tools for chemical conversion, including organic chemistry, homo- and heterogenous catalysis, biocatalysis, and electrochemistry. Electrochemistry is the latest addition to our toolkit, for which we have high expectations given the rapid electrification of our society, the intrinsic advantages of the technology, and its complementarity with other conversion methods.

We expect you to develop your own research vision and ideas, and translate these into new projects, collaborations and publications. This position offers extensive scientific freedom to pursue your own interests, which comes with the responsibility to actively explore funding opportunities. You will be provided with coaching and mentorship in grant writing.

This postdoc position is exploratory in nature and accordingly the contract at offer is limited to 2 years. Nevertheless, our contract research organisation fundamentally differs from academic chair-groups at universities, which alters the prospects compared to normal postdoc positions. An effective implementation of the job description, as ultimately visible in the realization of major research projects, may well result in a transposition of this postdoc into a permanent research position.