What is the potential of machine learning for plant genomics? And for animal breeding? How can we further develop artificial intelligence for analyzing remote sensing data? Or for data on food safety management? What are the implications of such applications on our economy and society? How do we prepare our students for these and future questions? How do we involve interested partners in promising developments?

Wageningen University & Research is actively pursuing data science and its applications. We believe in a tight relation with domain expertise and our aim is to integrate new and powerful methods into current research programs. The advent of big data, with ever more pervasive sensoring and increasing possibilities offered by computer science, will offer many new research possibilities. We aim to find and exploit these new opportunities. Especially at WUR, where the entire chain from farm to fork, or from grass to glass is investigated, there are many interesting multidisciplinary challenges in applied data science.

WUR has recently strengthened its efforts for data science by organizing the Wageningen Data Competence Center. The WDCC is a small team that unites competences on data science research, education, infrastructure and data management. WDCC is working closely together both internally and externally towards its mission to explore the potential of data to improve the quality of life. Questions like above are our daily concern. We are a team in a central position of the organization, supporting and developing the potential of multidisciplinary research involving the different Science Groups of WUR.

We are looking for a practical, open minded, organizational talent with a good background in data science to initiate research programs at WUR. We expect research experience in this area, and we appreciate affinity with the research domain of WUR.
In this role, you can

• contact external partners such as research institutes, universities, and companies, to investigate applications areas of data science, and find out how WUR can help;
• explore new possibilities, in close cooperation with the data science domain experts and business developers in the Science Groups of WUR;
• find out how current research should be supported, by for instance infrastructure and data management, together with your colleagues in the WDCC team responsible for these subjects;
• discover how current research projects and education activities can contribute to partnerships of WUR with research institutes, universities and companies.

• Scientist with strong communication skills, having research experience related to data science, preferably demonstrated by a PhD;
• Affinity and preferably experience with developing new research opportunities aimed at establishing funded research projects or programmes;
• Preferably at least 5 years of experience in organizing research projects or programmes;
• Practical experience in cooperation with institutes and companies as external partners in research projects or programmes;
• Excellent spoken and written English (a mininum of CEFR C1 level). For more information about this proficiency level, please visit our special language page.

We offer you a meaningful job with a competitive salary and an employment contract of 0.8 - 1.0 fte.

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.

Wageningen University & Research

The mission of Wageningen University & Research is "To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life". Within Wageningen University & Research, nine specialised 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, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations 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.

For further information about working at Wageningen University & Research, take a look at thespecial career site.

You will be working as a coordinator value creation in the WDCC team, where your direct colleagues work on education, infrastructure, data management for data science. The team works closely together with the Science Groups at WUR, as well as with the Library and IT Department. We offer a unique combination of scientific and organizational challenges with a lot of opportunity for your ideas and initiatives.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons.