Do you want to unravel when, why and how people modified the Dutch landscape to deal with challenges and seize opportunities? Are you motivated to link scientific dating methods, archaeology and public outreach? Then we invite you to apply for a post-doc position in our team!
The Soil Geography and Landscape group and Netherlands Centre for Luminescence dating at Wageningen University and Research are looking for a post-doc researcher to develop and improve luminescence dating methods to determine when earthworks in the Netherlands were constructed, extended and/or modified. You will focus on dating dikes and dwelling mounds in the Netherlands, and collaborate with archaeologists, earth and soil scientists to reconstruct the evolution of the Dutch cultural landscape in the context of these monuments. You will work on samples already collected from dikes and mounds, and perform some fieldwork to obtain additional samples. For dating, you will use a combination of established quartz single-aliquot OSL methods and cutting-edge single-grain pIRIR dating of feldspar.

This research project is part of the interdisciplinary EARTHWORK project, funded through the NWO program ‘Future directions in Dutch archaeological research’. EARTHWORK is a collaborative project in which Wageningen University joins forces with archaeological companies, research institutes, NGOs and museums. You form a research team with a PhD candidate who focusses on dating celtic fields, banks and plaggic soils in the Dutch sandy soil regions, and an EngD candidate who focuses on Roman-age earthworks and design of best practices for earthwork dating. You should be motivated to interact and collaborate with different stakeholders throughout the project, and are expected to actively participate in communication professional archaeologists and the general public.

You will be supervised by Roy van Beek, Liz Chamberlain and Jakob Wallinga. This team has combined expertise in landscape archaeology, luminescence dating and landscape dynamics.

You have:

• passion, creativity, and a proactive demeanor;
• ambition to work in a multidisciplinary team and affinity with human landscape interactions in past, present and future;
• a PhD degree in Physical Geography, Archaeometry, Soil Sciences, Physics, or related field, preferably on luminescence dating methods and/or applications;
• desire to perform laboratory work, fieldwork, GIS and statistical analyses of complex datasets;
• excellent communication skills and proficiency in English (both oral and written, similar to CEFR C1 level);
• familiarity with the Dutch language and landscape is regarded as an advantage but is not a prerequisite;
• preparedness to supervise MSc and BSc thesis projects related to your research project.

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

• partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more;
• 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 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will of course receive a good salary. Depending on your experience, we offer a gross salary from a minimum of € 3.226,- to a maximum of € 5.929,- based on a full-time appointment, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 10-11). We offer a temporary contract for two years. Working part-time (0.8 fte for 2.5 years) is also possible.

Wageningen University & Research encourages internal advancement opportunities and mobility with an internal recruitment policy. There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We are offering a unique position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.

You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the “Best University” in the Netherlands for the 18th consecutive time.

Coming from abroad
Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees.
Our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. Wageningen University & Research's International Community page contains practical information about what we can do to support international employees and students coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, we can assist you with any additional advice and information about helping your partner to find a job, housing, schooling. For instance under the "30% rule", certain categories of international staff can receive tax exemption on approximately 30% of their gross salary.

Wageningen University & Research

Wageningen University & Research
The mission of Wageningen University & 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, 7,200 employees (6,400 fte) and 13,200 students and over 150.000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.. 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.