Postdoc on Gut Microbiome and Metagenome

Your job

Are you the enthusiastic scientist with a PhD, who is experienced with metagenomics data and wants to focus on understanding the function of our microbiome? Are you interested in how microbes can improve the health of babies? We at Wageningen University and Research have a vacancy for a postdoc on infant gut microbiome and metagenome. Are you are new colleague?

The Microbes Mucus and Milk research group at the Laboratory of Microbiology seeks to recruit a Postdoc in Infant Microbiome Metagenome analyses.

You will perform:
Within a collaborative project between Wageningen University, a private partner (Danone-Nutricia) and the hospital (UMCU) a cohort of premature and term infant has been established. The is vacancy is for the analyses and interpretation of metagenome an metaproteome of >1000 samples from this cohort. Our research questions aim to relate microbiome measures to nutrition type and brain development.

Your qualities

• you have a PhD degree in either Microbiology, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics or a similar field of expertise;
• you have experience with analyzing metagenomics data;
• preferably you have understanding of microbiome research;
• preferably you have experience in MATLAB, R, Python or similar programming languages;
• be able to communicate with different academic and commercial partners;
• have excellent scientific writing skills proven by your publication record.

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

language level

C2 If you do not yet have this level, we will of course help you and you can go to our language center

Wageningen in'to Language

.

We offer you

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 €3226,- and €5090,- for a full-time working week of 38 hours, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 10). We offer you a two-year contract.

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 19th 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.

Do you want more information?

For more information about this position, please contact dr. Clara Belzer,  Associate Professor, telephone: +31 639267137 or by e-mail: [email protected] .

For more information about the procedure, please contact Rutger Voorrips, corporate recruiter by e-mail: [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 7th of January 2024. We hope to schedule the first job interviews in January 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 .

We are

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.

You will work here:

• the Microbe Mucus and Milk research team investigates the role of microbes for human health. We discover new microbes and characterize special microbial mechanisms that benefit the health of humans. We are especially interested in non-pathogenic microbes that grow on human milk and human mucus;
• within the Laboratory of Microbiology metabolic interactions in anaerobic microbial communities are studied. Anaerobic microorganisms are isolated and characterized, and their metabolic pathways and key enzymes are investigated. Integrated cultivation-dependent and molecular approaches, including state-of-the-art genomic and proteomic technologies, are applied in our research. Further information can be found HERE .

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.