Assistant/Associate Professor in 'Food Structure and Flavour Release' (Tenure Track)

Your Job:
Are you eager to build your own experimental group? Are you ready to develop and deploy tools to understand human flavour release and perception? Are you ready for a career in Academia and to be part of our Tenure Track programme?

We are looking for researcher to set up an experimental group to complement research and teaching in the Sensory Science and Eating Behaviour (SSEB) and Food Quality Design (FQD) Chair groups at Wageningen University & Research (WUR).

What are you going to do:

• you will lead your own experimental group and pursue your own research lines;
• you will collaborate within a team of sensory scientists, flavour chemists, food technologists and nutrition behaviour specialists;
• you will lead the growth and development of food flavour design and flavour perception research expertise at WUR;
• you will contribute to the education activities of the chair groups (SSEB/FQD), including the opportunity to develop courses, supervise thesis students and to lecture in English-taught MSc and BSc level courses including Food Flavour Design, Principals of Sensory Science, and Instrumental Sensory Science.

The importance of food structure and texture in food choice and eating behaviour is increasingly recognized, with taste and flavour perception key to consumer product acceptance. How food texture and the food matrix influence the release and perception of flavours to determine food choice and ultimately human health requires novel instrumental and sensory techniques.  The goal of the position is to generate an understanding of the impact of food texture and matrix properties on flavour release and perception, and the impact this has on food choice and health.

This Tenure Track position comes with a funded PhD position to start your group. You will have access to a fully equipped flavour analytical laboratory, sensory facilities and the human behaviour research unit.  Additional equipment and analytical budget is available to support the growth of this novel capability at WUR.

Your Qualities:

• you are a researcher with a PhD degree and an internationally proven scientific record in flavour / food chemistry, sensory science, food technology;
• you have experience and/or an interest in one or more of the following topics;
  • food structure and texture, oral breakdown and flavour release and perception;
  • in process flavour generation and perception of novel, sustainable foods;
  • flavour based approaches to study food matrix integrity and breakdown;
  • flavour based approaches to study breath based markers of metabolic kinetics;
• you have clear ideas and plans on how to acquire funding for your research;
• you have a University Teaching Qualification or are willing to work towards obtaining such a qualification. Experience in teaching activities and education innovation will be valued;
• you are fluent in English (C1 level).

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 be offered a fixed-term, 5 year contract which, upon positive evaluation based on criteria elaborated in the University's Tenure Track policy, can lead to a permanent employment contract as professor. Depending on your experience, we offer a competitive gross salary of between € 3974,- and € 5439,- (scale 11) to a maximum of € 6181,- (scale 12) for a full-time working week of 38 hours in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

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 18th 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.

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. For instance under the "30% rule", certain categories of international staff can receive tax exemption on approximately 30% of their gross salary.

For more information about this position, please contact Prof.dr. Ciaran Forde, by email: [email protected] .
For more information about the procedure, please contact Rutger Voorrips, recruiter, by email: [email protected] .

Do you want to apply?
If you are up to the challenge, we would like to receive your application which can be submitted using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval.
Your application must include the following information:

The document under 1 should be submitted as a separate file. All documents under 2, 3 and 4 should be submitted as a single PDF file in the above specified order.

This vacancy will be listed up to and including Wednesday June 21st 2023.

Equal opportunities
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) employs a large number of 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. A good example of how WUR deals with inclusiveness can be read on the page working at WUR with a functional impairment .

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.

You will work here:
WUR has existing infra-structure (PTR-MS, GC-O/MS, advanced analytical GC and HPLC facilities) and expertise in flavour chemistry and sensory across several research groups and institutes.  The MSc course “Food Flavour Design” attracts more than 100 students per year with Lecturers from different chairs and industries that collaborate on education and research. The aim of the current position is to unite food flavour research and education in a single role, that will be supported by both the Sensory Science and Eating Behaviour Chair, (Human Nutrition) Food Quality Design (Food Technology) and to consolidate and combine WUR expertise, leverage existing infra-structure and promote a unified vision for the strategic future growth of the food flavour domain.

In this challenging career trajectory:

• you acquire, lead and implement innovative and creative(inter-) national research projects in Sensory Science and Eating Behaviour / Food Quality Design;
• you collaborate with colleagues and supervise PhD students, BSc and MSc theses and you develop and teach courses;
• you are responsible for the growth of your own research group, while contributing to the further development of the two chair groups (SSEB/FQD).

Tenure Track is a career path for scientists who pursue to excel in education and research. We seek to attract scientific talent and to stimulate and support their development.

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.