Your dedication to our mission!

Do you want to use your passion to scientifically address challenges in precision agriculture developments and applications? Do you have a flair for interacting and serving multiple stakeholders? Are you interested to contribute to sustainable, data-driven farming systems, well embedded in society, and bring science and technology to farms? Then read on!

We would like to integrate your interest and experience in our precision agriculture/smart farming/digital farming projects. Your skills, ambitions and positive attitude in life will contribute to our research and the position of our business unit Agrosystems Research, and the Plant Sciences Group of WUR.

The new farming management concepts we are working on will be important vehicles to increase the profitability of farming, increase food security and safety, and reduce the impact of agriculture on the environment. New knowledge is required to understand and respond to temporal and/or spatial variability in soils and crops, to sense crops and soils and optimize systems to produce in harmony with nature. To derive benefits this knowledge needs to be operationalised. We develop and implement science-based systems to support farmers' decision making and we help stakeholders with their development of new precision farming systems. These systems necessarily consist of knowledge encoded as decision rules; an ICT infrastructure to collect, manage, and process data; sensing systems and equipment capable of precise application of inputs (this includes automated machines and robotics). The selected candidate will work in this field within a multidisciplinary team of scientists, in strong interactions with stakeholders.

For this vacancy we are looking for a scientist with an appropriate MSc in plant sciences, agrotechnology (biosystems engineering) or a related field. Suitable candidates portray one or more of the following: good knowledge of agronomy, crop production systems, and precision farming, and willing to increase their knowledge of Dutch agriculture and production systems. You have proven skills or an interest to publish in international peer-reviewed journals. Mastery of Dutch will enable you to communicate with farmers and other Dutch stakeholders and is therefore an asset.
You have skills in crop growth modelling, databases and GIS and at least some experience in computer programming. We expect you to contribute to new developments in our teams, e.g. in Apps development and decision support systems for variable rate application of fertilizers and crop protection agents.
You liaise with relevant stakeholders and clients and be up-to-date about the Dutch and European developments in your field. Are you able or are you willing to formulate and acquire research projects and operate as project leader/researcher? Are you result oriented and show quantitative and analytical capacities, the ability to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams and project management competences? Please apply!

You are happy to share your experience and insights with colleagues and are curious to learn from them. You effectively communicate and discuss research results in different formats. You will be part of a dynamic team and business unit, embedded in a unique organization with an outstanding reputation - Wageningen University & Research. We exchange and collaborate amongst each other, based on the values of sound science, trust, transparency, and togetherness. We are curious to get to know you!

We offer you a meaningful job, and depending on your experience, a competitive gross salary between €2790-4549 (scale 10) or between €3336-5183 (scale 11) for a full working week of 36 hours in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Wageningen Research. You also have the opportunity to work part-time (32 hours per week). Evaluation on job performance is every year and a positive outcome will continue in a permanent position after 2-3 years.

In addition, we offer on a full-time basis:

• 8% holiday allowance;
• a structural end-of-year bonus of 3%;
• excellent training opportunities and secondary employment conditions;
• flexible working hours and holidays can possibly be determined in consultation so that an optimal balance between work and private life is possible;
• excellent pension plan through ABP;
• 171 vacation hours, the possibility to purchase extra and good supplementary leave schemes;
• the possibility to work flexible to balance work and life;
• a flexible model to put together part of your employment conditions yourself, such as a bicycle plan;
• a lively workplace where you can easily make contacts and where many activities take place on the Wageningen Campus. A place where education, research and business are represented;
• make use of the sports facilities on campus.

Wageningen University & Research stimulates internal career opportunities and mobility with an internal recruitment policy. There are ample opportunities for own initiative in a learning environment. We offer a versatile job in an international environment with varied activities in a pleasant and open working atmosphere.

Wageningen University & Research

Wageningen University & Research The mission of Wageningen University and 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, 6.500 employees and 12.500 students, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. An integrated approach to problems and the cooperation between various disciplines are at the heart of Wageningen's unique approach. WUR has been named Best Employer in the Education category for 2019-2020.

These are the points our employees list as good reasons to come work at WUR: read the 5 reasons to come work at WUR.

Agrosystems Research
Agrosystems Research is part of the Plant Sciences Group of Wageningen University & Research. We advise the public and the private sector and provide training in areas of our expertise. We are a community of scientists working on safe and sustainable agricultural systems, well embedded in society and contributing to the quality of life. We work in a demand driven contract research organization, where stakeholders' needs are explored and served. Acquiring new research projects is an intrinsic part of our work.

Our core business is understanding and quantifying the soil-crop-environment continuum at both the process level and the ecosystem level, which we assess with mixed methodologies like integrated assessments, the analysis of big data, precision agriculture, sensing, and robotics. We do this by means of experimental design and computer modelling, ICT, on-farm testing and implementation in interaction with stakeholders. Our research and knowledge-intensive advisory systems are based on agronomy and ecology as our main scientific disciplines, which are increasingly complemented by social science research. Our vision of agroecology is to integrate agronomy, technological and social research in interaction with stakeholders. This requires an integrated, inter- and transdisciplinary perspective for the study and development of food systems.

Our objective is to raise the productivity of agriculture in a sustainable and socially acceptable manner and increase the resilience of systems to deliver food security, feed, fuel, fiber and other services under current and future climate and resource availability.

As guiding principles we work synergistically in teams, like to express and base our opinions on sound science and operate self-conscientiously in our networks to have impact, and to attract and serve our clients' needs. We strongly believe in diversity and inclusiveness to strengthen our teams, their modus operandi and their impact.

Equal opportunities
WUR is an equal opportunity employer. We are keen to receive applications from all sufficiently qualified people, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, functional impairment, religion/life philosophy, sexual orientation, or age.

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.