Your role is to help organisations in BISCI's Logistics and Agrifood ecosystems to innovate, by reaping the benefits of digital transformation and guide them in their sustainability journey or prepare them for a new role in a circular economy. You manage projects, in which you connect students and researchers from the BISCI knowledge partners to the organisation challenges of today and tomorrow. We encourage you to take an active role in these projects, think of supervising students, interviews, workshop organisation, data analysis, model or tool development, business case analysis, or pilot demonstrations.

You help to build, maintain and expand our innovation ecosystem and you initiate and pursue new initiatives and ideas that address the key organisational challenges and boost innovation towards sustainable, competitive, agile, resilient and circular supply chains. You are the right-hand wing player of the logistics ecosystem director. 

BISCI and your working environment

BISCI is a unique, young and fast growing knowledge institute, situated at the Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo. BISCI is a collaboration between Maastricht University, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, and TNO, thus covering practical, applied and more fundamental research.

Our goal is to make supply chains sustainable, agile, resilient and competitive, and to support the transition towards a circular economy with innovative supply chain concepts and business models.  We do this by combining knowledge and know-how of supply chain management, logistics, digital technologies, data science and collaboration.

BISCI is organised around business ecosystems with a focused innovation approach that contributes to typical sustainable development goals. Not surprisingly, these business ecosystems start from supply chain and logistics knowledge and have a strong economic embedment in the Province of Limburg: Logistics, Agrifood, Chemicals and Healthcare. In our programmes, the BISCI knowledge partners (UM, Fontys, TNO) synergize fundamental, applied and practical research and innovation and deploy a learning community approach through alignment and integration with our education programmes. As such, this BISCI collaboration is unique in the world.

In the logistics and agrifood ecosystems, BISCI closely collaborates with business communities such as Supply Chain Valley, ELC Limburg and Greenport Venlo, with public-private partnership initiatives such as Programme Topcorridors, with applied R&D communities such as Topsector Logistics, Topsector Agri & Food and Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe (ETP-ALICE), and of course with individual organisations.

BISCI falls under the Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics, department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, therefore your contract is with Maastricht University. Your workplace is flexible and will be a hybrid mixture of Venlo (Brightlands Campus, Supply Chain Valley), Maastricht University, customer and partner locations, and your home office location. Your BISCI colleagues comprise of a dedicated core team of around 10 experts from the three knowledge partner organisations and a flexible and dynamic group of project-specific experts and students.

What we expect from you

You sparkle with energy, have a passion for people and supply chain management, affinity with digitization and energy transition, eagerness to explore new paths, and you want to make the world a better place. You are skilled in project management and consulting skills and can use them to achieve your goals. You have the political and organisational sensitivity to bring together and manage multiple stakeholder interests. You are not scared to deal with complex, wicked problems and challenges. You can work independently in an entrepreneurial environment on the activities to achieve your goals. You have the ambition to personally develop and grow. And you find it important to have fun in your work.

In addition to fitting to the profile above, your qualifications:

• Master's degree in business, engineering, economy, ICT or related field experience;
• 2+ years of experience in innovation, preferably in logistics, supply chain management or agrifood;
• Affinity with digitization projects and/or sustainability initiatives;
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, preferably both Dutch and English;
• Analytical skills.

Fixed-term contract: 1 year, with contract extensions available.

What we offer to you

You work with us, not for us. We want to help you achieve your goals, while you help us achieve ours. We support you in your personal development and growth, with lots of freedom and opportunity for growth and upward mobility. We treat you as you want to be treated, with respect and valuing your ideas and opinions.

We offer a fixed-term contract of 1 year, with contract extensions available, following positive performance reviews.

We offer you a competitive salary according to the cao-NU, maximum gross monthly salary is € 4,670 (scale 10), with a flexible ‘menu of secondary working conditions’.

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > About UM > Working at UM.

Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 22,000 students and 5,000 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.
For more information, visit www.maastrichtuniversity.nl.

School of Business and Economics (SBE)
SBE is an international School of Business and Economics with a broad scope. Our areas of expertise reside in economics, international business, management, public policy, governance and sustainability. We offer high-quality research and research-based education for adult and lifelong learners. Our approach is challenge-driven, innovative, collaborative, inclusive and based on European values.

As an open and connected community, we are an outward-looking member of the international knowledge society. We believe in collaboration and co-creation for a sustainable future. We inspire and are inspired by engaged professionals who appreciate transdisciplinary collaboration. We contribute to society by welcoming different perspectives. We regard integrative problem solving as an indelible element of an integral approach to societal relevant research and learning. Our graduates contribute to society by applying problem-solving skills and state of the art knowledge.

Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management (MSCM)

The Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management (MSCM) is a vibrant international group of junior and senior scholars dedicated to high-quality research and education with a strong drive for societal relevance.

Junior and senior faculty members are inspired by new societally-relevant thematic areas and innovative methodological approaches, contributing to emerging—often interdisciplinary—research themes like supply chain innovation, service management, value co-creation, food consumption, innovation ecosystems, digital marketing and data analytics.

To promote engagement among faculty, industry leaders, and students, the MSCM department is closely linked with high impact organizations, such as Brightlands Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (BISCI), the Service Science Factory (SSF), the SBE Digital Experience Lab (DEXLab), the Brightlands Institute for Smart Society (BISS), and the Maastricht Center for Robots (MCR).

Brightlands Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (BISCI)
The Brightlands Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (BISCI) develops smart and sustainable innovations in supply chain management. Set up by Maastricht University with support of the Province of Limburg in early 2019, in partnership with Fontys University of Applied Sciences and TNO, BISCI seeks to apply the latest results of logistics research to address the challenges of service providers in the region and beyond. In addition, the institute trains the next generation of professionals who can contribute to supply chain innovation in the industry. BISCI derives its strength from closely collaborating with partners in the public, private and community sectors.