Postdoc in Modelling for Rift Valley Fever Vaccines Impact and Trial Feasibility

Are you looking for a postdoctoral research position in spatial disease risk modeling of a mosquito-borne disease that affects both human and veterinary health? Do you enjoy your scientific work to be of direct relevance? Do you want to work in an international group of disease modellers and be part of a large consortium? We would like to get in contact with you.

The Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology group (QVE)at Wageningen University is looking for a researcher in infectious disease modeling who is interested in using spatial statistical techniques to predict the spillover risk to humans in a livestock-mosquito-human disease system and use those predictions to assess the feasibility of vaccine efficacy trials and investigate the impact of vaccination programs in both humans and animals. You will be a part of a large consortium Larissa that was recently funded a Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations grant to continue the development of a vaccine for Rift Valley Fever. that was recently funded a Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations grant to continue the development of a vaccine for Rift Valley Fever.

Luckily, you are not doing this alone. You will work and be embedded in the Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology group – a group of disease modellers and statisticians at the Animal Sciences department of Wageningen University with ample experience in modeling and analysing diseases that move between multiple host species, either directly or facilitated by vectors. For this project, your main supervisors will be Quirine ten Bosch and Boris V. Schmid .

[1] Bron, G.M. et al. (2021) ‘Over 100 Years of Rift Valley Fever: A Patchwork of Data on Pathogen Spread and Spillover ’, Pathogens
[2] Lerch, A. et al. (2022) ‘Projecting vaccine demand and impact for emerging zoonotic pathogens ’, BMC medicine
[3] Nikolay, B. et al. (2021) ‘Assessing the feasibility of Nipah vaccine efficacy trials based on previous outbreaks in Bangladesh ’, Vaccine

You are excited to work on this topic and to communicate your research to colleagues and end-users, and you have a clear idea how the skills you will acquire or strengthen in this postdoc will fit in your personal development.
You also possess:

• a PhD or more than 3 years of work experience in a relevant field (epidemiology, ecology, mathematical biology, applied mathematics, computer science, physics);
• experience in statistical and/or mechanical disease modeling;
• sensitivity to the risk of overfitting data;
• good programming and visualization skills in R, Python, or similar.

In our international working environment, there is an increasing amount of communication in English. For this position it is about

.

You can see that there are plenty of challenges ahead of you. These challenges can also be seen as development opportunities. So, if you do not yet have the track-record required in the vacancy, but do have solid work experience, we would also like to invite you to apply.

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,  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. Depending on your experience, we offer a competitive gross salary of between € 3.226,- and € 5.929,- for a full-time working week of 38 hours, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 10 or 11).  Initially, we offer you a one-year contract, which will then be extended to 2.5 years if there is mutual enthusiasm. Of course, we would be happy to discuss this with you if you have any questions.

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 Quirine ten Bosch, by email: [email protected] , by telephone: +31 (0) 317 489 226
For more information about the procedure, please contact Noorien Abbas, Corporate Recruiter, by email: [email protected]

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.
This vacancy will be listed up to and including 8th January 2024. We hope to schedule the first job interviews in the week of January 15th , 2024.

Procedure
As part of our selection process, an assessment may be incorporated within the procedure

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.

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, 7,600 employees (6,700 fte) and 13,100 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.

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.