Are you an enthusiastic quantitative scientist and are you interested in using data science and artificial intelligence to address challenges related to diet quality in Rwanda? Would you like to work within an interdisciplinary team of colleagues working on related topics across Sub-Saharan Africa? We are looking for a PhD student to focus on how to use high-frequency monitoring data to predict and increase diet quality.

Unhealthy diets are key to persistent problems in many low- and middle-income countries and are influenced by several external factors related to climatic, political and market conditions. Healthy foods are often less affordable, accessible and available. With the right data and analytics, it may be possible to understand and predict changes in diets over time, but current data is limited.

Recently, a system for high-frequency monitoring of diet quality data was established in Rwanda, offering a unique opportunity to apply data science methods on a national scale, and develop an approach to enrich this data with data from other sources. The aim of this PhD research will be to use high-frequency self-reported data on diet quality in combination with other food system, climatic, agricultural and market related information, to identify the main determinants of a healthy diet and to achieve reliable predictions of the effects of nutrition interventions among rural and urban populations in Rwanda.

The project forms part of an interdisciplinary programme on food security intelligence, in which a group of PhD researchers collaborate across different case studies that focus on the use of data to address food security challenges. The work will have a strong methodological focus and will target improvements in data collection processes, analytics, intervention design and impact evaluation.

You will work here
You will join Plant Production Systems, a well renowned and welcoming research group within Wageningen University that specializes in the analysis of farming systems and their relation to the environment using a wide variety of methods. The research will take place in close collaboration with the chair group Global Nutrition in the Division of Human Nutrition and Health within Wageningen University. You will collaborate closely with the University of Rwanda, as well as scientists at the CGIAR, international agricultural research consortia.

As an ideal candidate, you are a curious, creative scientist and a problem solver who is interested in exploring and expanding the potential of modern data science and crowdsourcing methods to solve relevant societal problems.

Specifically, you have:

• a completed 2 years MSc degree in a natural, biological or behavioural science field;
• strong skills in data science, statistics and machine learning techniques with clear experience programming in R, Phyton or equivalent languages;
• affinity with working with big data from multiple structured and unstructured sources and familiarity with data visualization tools;
• clear interest in global nutrition and health from a low-and middle-income perspective;
• ability to communicate complex technical information to non-technical stakeholders;
• excellent communication skills and ability and willingness to work within an interdisciplinary and multi-cultural team;
• experience working or living in low-or middle- income countries, particularly in Rwanda or similar countries is considered a plus;

For this position your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognised Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here.

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

• 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, up to 40 hours per week;
• 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 receive a fully funded PhD position and you will be offered a course program tailored to your needs and the research team.
The gross salary for the first year is € 2.872 - per month rising to € 3.670,- in the fourth year in according to the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale P). This is based on a full-time working week of 38 hours. We offer a temporary contract for 18 months which will be extended for the duration of the project if you perform well.

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 19th 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.

Because we expect you to work and live in the Netherlands 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 coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, our Welcome Center can assist you with any additional advice and information about for example housing, opening a bank account or schooling. Finally, certain categories of international staff may be eligible for a tax exemption on a part of their salary during the first five years in the Netherlands.

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, 7,600 employees (6,700 fte) and 13,100 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 the video below to get an idea of our green campus!

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