Are you a bioinformatician with interest in Plant Breeding? Do you want to join us and work with us on national and internation projects? Then we might have an interesting opportunity for you in Plant Breeding, Wageningen University & Research!

Exploring natural genetic variation is key in Plant Breeding. Genomics is playing an important role in the identification and exploration of this variation. This can be either via targeted re-sequencing of selected regions, whole genome re-sequencing, and/or genome assembly. Since traits are encoded for by specific genes and the optimal phenotypic level of these traits is achieved by different allelic configurations, haplotype configuration and phasing of haplotypes are an area of great interest and importance. As many crops are polyploid, Plant Breeding has a special interest and experience in phasing genomes with different ploidy levels.

You will work in close cooperation with colleagues in the department, PhD and MSc students, and researchers in national and international projects, including EU, Topsector and other projects.

We are looking for a scientist in Bioinformatics, Plant Science, Plant Breeding or a related field. The successful candidate is highly motivated to develop a scientific career and can perform independent research, but values collaboration with PhD students and other researchers. The candidate is fluent in English and has good communication, scientific writing, and presentation skills.

The candidate should have several of the following qualifications:

• Interest in translating biological challenges into bioinformatics solutions and vice versa.
• Experience with genome assembly and annotation, haplotyping and/or Pangenomes
• Good applied statistics skills, such as distributions, statistical testing, regression, Principal component analysis, etc.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional flexible hours by working more, up to 40 hours per week;
• sabbatical leave, study leave, and paid parental leave;
• 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 3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

For this position, we offer you, depending on your experience, a competitive salary from a minimum of €2790,- to a maximum of €5183,- (Scale 10/11) for a full working week of 36 hours in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Wageningen Research. A contract for 32 hours per week is also possible. The duration of the contract is initially for two years, with the prospect of a permanent position.

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

Plant Breeding, Wageningen University & Research (https://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Research-Institutes/plant-research/Plant-Breeding.htm) is a merged unit of Wageningen Research and Wageningen University with around 200 people including MSc and PhD students and guest workers. It is a highly international group with more than 30 nationalities organised in ten research groups. We conduct fundamental, strategic and applied research and provide teaching at all educational (BSc, MSc and PhD) levels. Our research focusses on the dissemination of the genetic basis of traits which are relevant in order to achieve a sustainable agri- and horticulture. We conduct this research often together or in partnership with breeding companies, local, regional and state governments.

Watch this video (in Dutch) for an example of the bioinformatics research in Plant Breeding.



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.

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