Are you interested in how animals react to environmental changes? Do you want to study this by scaling up from individuals to populations? Are you keen to obtain the skills to analyse animal tracking data, and to model how these translate in population distribution? Then this PhD position might be of interest to you.

This PhD position is with Prof. Bart Nolet, special chair of Waterfowl Movement Ecology in the Department of Theoretical and Computational Ecology within the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) and senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO). This project builds on more than 10 years of tagging and tracking Bewick’s swans.

What are you going to do?

Within this project you are expected:

• to analyse existing and newly gathered movement data of GPS-tagged Bewick’s swans;
• to formulate an individual-based model on the basis of these movement data;
• to construct swan distributions based on ring-resighting data, corrected for observer bias;
• to compare simulated and observed swan distributions to analyse the ecological and behavioural mechanisms and physiological constraints operating;
• to take part in the teaching effort of the group, including supervision of bachelor and master students;
• to actively participate in group discussions and scientific meetings;
• to complete a dissertation (PhD thesis) based on a collection of scientific papers.

• MSc degree or equivalent in quantitative ecology or a related field;
• expertise in numerical methods, like statistics and computer simulation techniques;
• preferably proven ability to publish research findings;
• effective communication skills;
• fluency in English, both written and spoken.

Our offer

A temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (initial appointment will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years) that should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings.

The salary, depending on relevant experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be €2,395 (1st year) to €3,061 (4th year) gross per month, based on full-time employment of 38 hours a week. These amounts are exclusive 8 % holiday allowance and 8.3 % end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Then find out more about working at the Faculty of Science.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Faculty of Science – Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 6,500, as well as 1,600 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) is one of eight research institutes of the Faculty of Science. The research at IBED aims to unravel how ecosystems function in all their complexity, and how they change due to natural processes and human activities. At its core lies an integrated systems approach to study biodiversity, ecosystems and the environment. IBED adopts this systems approach to ecosystems, addressing abiotic (soil and water quality) and biotic factors (ecology and evolution of plants, animals, and microorganisms), and the interplay between those. The IBED vision includes research encompassing experimental and theoretical approaches at a wide variety of temporal and spatial scales, i.e. from molecules and microorganisms to patterns and processes occurring at the global scale.