项目介绍

2025年1月31日

Your function

Drained Dutch peatlands currently emit large quantities of greenhouse gasses because of peat degradation. At the same time, these peatlands also hold the potential to capture and store carbon when developed as natural or production wetlands (paludiculture). You will study the effects of peatland paludiculture on greenhousegas emissions and conservation of the peatsoils. Especially you will focus on the links between emissions, soil processes, and soils changes as a result of paludiculture. During the recent years we have already observed that paludiculture takes up CO₂ , emits methane, and changes the stability and composition of the peatsoil. However, where, when, and how carbon is released, stored and changed within the plant-peat-soil continuum, how peat soils change under influence of paludiculture, and the longevity of the paludiculture system on peat soils are the open research questions that you will explore.

Your duties

• Design and execute your own research plans
• Publish results in scientific journals and present on scientific conferences.
• Contribute to maintaining paliduculture sites, field equipment and data collection
• Participate in education of Earth-science and Alife departments
• Participate in outreach activities

Your profile

• A Msc degree in environmental sciences, soil sciences, biogeochemistry, hydrology or equivalent
• Basic programming/data analyses skills in R or Python.
• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary research team
• Affinity to teach and supervise student projects
• English language proficiency both in speech and writing
• Preferably a Driving license

As a university, we strive for equal opportunities for all, recognising that diversity takes many forms. We believe that diversity in all its complexity is invaluable for the quality of our teaching, research and service. We are always looking for talent with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This also means that we are committed to creating an inclusive community so that we can use diversity as an asset.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

What do we offer?

A challenging PhD position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 2.901,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.707,00 (PhD) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile PhD candidate. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. Afterwards, the intention is to extent the position for another 3-years emveloping the full PhD. 4 years of funding is secured.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• hybrid working enables a good work-life balance