Are you an expert in climate change adaptation and development pathways? Do you have a PhD in environmental sciences, ecology, hydrology, climate sciences or a related field with a demonstrated interest in the climate change adaptation? Then this may be the perfect opportunity for you!

The Water Systems and Global Change Group at Wageningen University and Research is looking for an emerging scholar in the field of climate change adaptation focusing on adaptation and development pathways and keen interest in how we can adapt to future climate change in the land , water and food sectors. The successful candidate will develop new tools and approaches to assess climate change adaptation and develop climate change and development pathways.

In your research, you take a transdisciplinary approach to address climate change adaptation. You combine quantitative and qualitative methods to develop adaptation and development pathways in the field of water, food and land. You assess portfolios of adaptation options and design pathways for the implementation of the different adaptation options. You will actively seek collaboration with scientists from other fields both within our group as well as in other groups within the WUR and other international institutions. Your work will actively develop links with other research themes of our research group on water scarcity, water quality and mitigation.

You will develop, supervise and carry out global-level high-quality research in collaboration with your own international network, as well as with colleagues of the Water Systems and Global Change Group, the Environmental Sciences Group and Wageningen University. You will also be pro-active in acquiring funding from a mix of government, EU and private sources and publish regularly in leading international academic journals. You will be supported to develop an individual research grant application to either the Dutch Innovation Research Incentives Scheme (VENI-VIDI-VICI) and/or the European Research Council.

You will also contribute to the strongly internationally oriented teaching programmes at Wageningen University. In the short term, you will contribute to different courses taught by the Water Systems and Global Change Group in the Masters of Environmental Sciences, Climate Studies and International Land and Water Management. Additionally, you will supervise MSc thesis students.

Tenure Track is a career path for inspirational scientists who pursue to excel in education and research. We seek to attract scientific talent and to stimulate and support their development.

The ideal candidate must have -

• A PhD degree in environmental sciences, ecology, hydrology, climate sciences or related field;
• Experience with research on climate change adaptation related to water and land use;
• Experience or interest in working on climate change adaptation and development pathways;
• Affinity with transdisciplinary approaches in research and teaching;
• Experience in or willingness to learn, acquiring and leading internationally oriented research projects;
• Experience and affinity with delivering high quality education at BSc and/or MSc levels, including supervising BSc and MSc students;
• An emerging publishing record in peer reviewed international academic literature;
• A strong team player willing to contribute to the wider interests of the group and the university;
• Excellent English communication and writing skills (a minimum of CEFR C2 level). For more information about this proficiency level, please visit our special language page;

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

• sabbatical leave, study leave, and 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 be offered a fixed-term, 7-year contract which, upon positive evaluation based on criteria elaborated in the University's Tenure Track policy, can lead to a permanent employment contract as professor. Depending on your experience, we offer a competitive gross salary of between € 3.974 and € 6.702 for a full-time working week of 38 hours in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 11 or 13 ).

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.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch this video to get an idea of our green campus!

About WSG
The Water Systems and Global Change (WSG) group is a solution oriented multidisciplinary research group where staff and students can develop new skills and excel in their science on water systems and global change. In our research, we analyse and assess the impacts of climate change and population growth on water systems and propose and test adaptation strategies.

We use simulation models, earth system observations, scenario analysis and field studies. We actively invite students from different backgrounds, and skills and interests to take part in our courses and research. Our staff comes from a range of different backgrounds. Currently our group has about 15 staff members, 6 post-docs and more than 40 PhD students. The group currently has as an excellent funding base with lots of external grants and projects from a broad range of funding organisations.
Research of the group has a strong international focus, with projects at global scale as well as a strong focus on Africa and South Asia.

Our teaching focusses on contributing to four different Master Programmes: International Land and Water Management, Climate Studies, Environmental Sciences and Urban Environmental Management. Within these programme we offer a range of Master courses related to Global change impacts on water resources and climate change impacts and adaptations. In addition we are setting up a course for the BSc programme Environmental Sciences and teach in a number of BSc minor courses. A growing number of students is interested in the work of our group and last year we had about 65 MSc students doing their Master thesis at our group.

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