We are looking for an enthusiastic, communicative and highly motivated postdoctoral Researcher with experience in abiotic stress signaling and plant stress genomics. You will be part of a consortium of scientists and breeders working on an EU-H2020 funded project investigating multi-stress (heat, drought and waterlogging) tolerance in potato. Your own project will focus on investigating waterlogging resilience in potato. You will be directly supervised by Dr Sasidharan and will work intensively with a Research Assistant, also hired for the project. Your goal will be to identify phenotypic traits and master regulators mediating potato adaptation to waterlogging stress. You will use a variety of techniques and tools developed within the consortium (phenotyping, genomics (RNAseq, ATACseq), metabolite and hormone profiling, sensor profiling (Ca2+, ROS)). You will be entrusted with developing and executing experiments, data analysis and presentation and writing manuscripts.

We are seeking a driven, creative and collaborative candidate with a keen interest to learn and the motivation to work in an ambitious and international research team.

You also meet the following essential requirements:

• a PhD in the area of molecular plant sciences and a record of relevant publications;
• expertise in genetic and molecular techniques;
• strong communication and English language skills;
• the ability to think critically and creatively and you are organized and efficient.

We would like for you to have:

• previous experience working with potato (genetics, genomics);
• experience in the area of abiotic stress signalling;
• bioinformatics experience on microarray and/or genomics datasets.

• an exciting project that will investigate a relatively unexplored but highly relevant research area. An opportunity to work in an EU-wide consortium of academia and industry partners allowing ample opportunity to learn, network and collaborate;
• a full-time position for 2.5 years;
• a full-time gross salary depending on previous qualifications and experience ranging between €2,790 and €4,402 per month (scale 10 of the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (cao));
• benefits including 8% holiday bonus and 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities.

In addition to the employment conditions laid down in the cao for Dutch Universities, Utrecht University has a number of its own arrangements. For example, there are agreements on professional development, leave arrangements and sports. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment yourself via the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we like to encourage you to continue to grow.

More information about working at the Faculty of Science can be found here.

You will be working with Rashmi Sasidharan’s research team, within the Plant Ecophysiology group. We are a very diverse and international research group embedded within the Institute of Environmental Biology. Successful candidates can expect to work in an inclusive, collaborative and motivating environment with a very creative, ambitious and international team of PhD students, Postdocs, tenured staff and Research Assistants. You will have access to world class research facilities and will benefit from our extensive national/international ongoing collaborations (including those with industry), facilitating network building essential to future jobs.

At the Faculty of Science there are 6 departments to make a fundamental connection with: Biology, Chemistry, Information and Computing Sciences, Mathematics, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Physics. Each of these is made up of distinct institutes which work together to focus on answering some of humanity’s most pressing problems. More fundamental still are the individual research groups – the building blocks of our ambitious scientific projects.

Utrecht University is a friendly and ambitious university at the heart of an ancient city. We love to welcome new scientists to our city – a thriving cultural hub that is consistently rated as one of the world’s happiest cities. We are renowned for our innovative interdisciplinary research and our emphasis on inspirational research and excellent education. We are equally well-known for our familiar atmosphere and the can-do mentality of our people. This lively and inspiring academic environment attracts Professors, Researchers and PhD candidates from all over the globe, making both the university and the Faculty of Science a vibrant international community and wonderfully diverse.