Plant roots house one of the most diverse, yet vastly neglected, microbial communities on Earth. The aim of the Gravitation program, MICROP, is to harness the genomic potential of root microbes as a new platform for improved stress resilience of future crops and sustainable food production.

The research program of MICROP will be carried out at the UVA, WUR, VU, UU and NIOO and will have a large data analysis component in addition to the biological wet work. A team of data scientists – consisting of dr B.E. Dutilh (UU), dr M. Medema (WUR), prof. F. van Eeuwijk (WUR) and prof. A.K. Smilde (UvA) and two postdoctoral researchers - will be responsible for the data analysis component in close collaboration with the biologists. They will assist PhDs and postdocs at the localities and will also perform their own research. One of the dedicated postdocs will be a joined position at the UU (dr Bas Dutilh) and at the WUR (dr Marnix Medema). The advertised position is for a joint postdoc of the UvA in the group of prof. Age Smilde and at the WUR in the group of prof. Fred van Eeuwijk. The postdoctoral researcher will work on both locations using a practical time-schedule.

What are you going to do?

You will:

• advice local PhD’s on statistical and modeling issues;
• perform research on methods for integrating plant-microbiome omics data;
• develop methods for statistical modeling of microbiome and related omics data to discover new mechanisms of plant-microbiome interactions;
• perform genome-wide association studies;
• collaborate in the Data Analysis team of MiCROP.

What do we require?

• A PhD in a quantitative science and experience with stochastic modelling (mathematics, statistics, bioinformatics, chemometrics, machine learning, data science);
• a good knowledge of modern data analysis methods like linear mixed models, multivariate data analysis, Bayesian analysis, high-dimensional data analysis, statistical learning, graphical models;
• a good understanding of biological systems and genetics;
• good communication skills, both verbally as well as written;
• the willingness to collaborate with a variety of researchers with a diverse background.

Our offer

A temporary contract for 38 hours per week, preferably starting at 1 January 2021 for the duration of 12 months. An extension for 3 years subsequently follows if we assess your performance positive.

The salary, depending on relevant work experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be €2,790 to €4,402 (scale 10) gross per month, based on a full-time contract of 38 hours a week. This is exclusive 8 % holiday allowance and 8,3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look here.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Faculty of Science - Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 7,000, as well as 1,600 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) is one of the largest institutes of the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The institute comprises biological disciplines including molecular and cell biology, microbiology, plant science, physiology and neurobiology, supported by modern enabling technologies for the life sciences. We have four underpinning technologies that focus on mass spectrometry, genomics and transcriptomics, advanced data analysis and advanced microscopy. Knowledge from adjacent fields of science, in particular biochemistry, biophysics, medicine, bioinformatics, statistics and information technology make SILS a multidisciplinary research institute with a systems biology approach to the life sciences.