Are you the promising applied researcher who wants to enable (societal valuable) innovations that improve the Agro and food system? And do you want to create business value from different innovative trends like digitalisation, personalisation and sustainability in different sectors? This is your chance!

We are looking for a talented colleague with a market- and customer-oriented attitude and a great affinity with applied research. Experience in conducting research projects involving business innovation in networks and providing business model support is a must. We are looking for someone with the ambition to develop and lead projects in that field.

The job we offer involves:

• Conducting research activities, including qualitative projects, on innovations in business networks in the Agro food domain, with emphasis on creating value for various stakeholders and stimulating innovation adoption. Examples of research activities include: setting up innovation experiments and learning communities with multiple (private) partners, evaluating user experiences, value propositions and business opportunities through focus groups, interviews and questionnaires.
• Writing reports and articles.
• Facilitating workshops, conferences, meetings between stakeholders.
• Working in project teams that vary in size and complexity. These may vary from a few colleagues at Wageningen Economic Research to larger teams consisting of researchers from different organisations.
• Maintaining regular contact with your clients, whereby you proactively and sufficiently adapt to their wishes and needs. Clients include public private consortia, large multinationals , Dutch SMEs, government institutions like the Dutch ministry of LNV and the European Commission and non-governmental organisations.
• Contributing to the acquisition of new research projects, including from your active network in the Agro food domain.
• Contributing to knowledge development and method/product innovation which can be presented at conferences and published in scientific articles.

We have seven expertise groups at Wageningen Economic Research. You will be working in the expertise group Innovation management, Risk management and Information Governance. The expertise group is focused on business innovation, social innovation, responsible research and innovation and ethics, risk management and information governance.

Place of employment is Wageningen.

• a talented colleague with a market- and customer-oriented attitude and a strong affinity for applied scientific research;
• MSc or PhD degree in for example innovation studies, transition management, business studies, economics, science and technology studies, responsible research and innovation or (business) ethics;
• minimum three years of research experience;
• affinity with contract research;
• the ability and experience to work as a team-player in multidisciplinary teams in complex project environments;
• a client-driven interest in applying economic research in private and public domains;
• knowledge of and experience with multi-stakeholder innovation processes in a business setting, as well as business models and business model innovation;
• insight into the Agro food domain and the entrepreneurial capacity to transform innovative ideas and theoretic insights into concrete projects and products;
• the capacity to communicate and collaborate engagingly, as well as spoken and written communication skills in Dutch and English;
• experience in sharing project results in a professional community through presentations, reports and articles.

We offer you a meaningful job for 32 to 36 hours per week with, depending on your experience, a competitive salary to a maximum of € 4934,- for a full working week of 36 hours in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for the Wageningen Research (scale 10 to 11).
In addition, we offer:

• 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 a maximum of 40 hours per week and in this way build up a maximum of 204 compensation hours per year;
• 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

The mission of our University is to explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life. Within Wageningen University & Research, nine specialized research institutes from the Wageningen Research Foundation and Wageningen University have joined forces to help answer the most important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With approximately 30 locations, 5,000 employees, and 10,000 students, it is one of the leading organizations in its domain worldwide. An integrated approach to problems and the cooperation between various disciplines are at the heart of the unique approach of Wageningen.

Equal opportunities employer
We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.