Your job

Are you an enthusiastic scholar in the field of economics and/or inter-disciplinary environmental and natural resource studies with a focus on economics? Do you have an interest in social and governance aspects of forests, land use and conservation? Then this could be the ideal position for you!

The Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group at Wageningen University and Research is looking for an economist or interdisciplinary scholar with a research profile ideally focusing on the economics of (forested) landscapes, natural resources and their ecosystem services, and/or (forest) landscape related markets and value chains, with a demonstrated ability to work in cross-disciplinary teams using other scientific methods (e.g. other social, political, and natural sciences).As assistant/associate professor, you will coordinate and teach courses, and supervise thesis students, primarily in the Bsc and MSc Forest and Nature Conservation programs. You will be expected to develop your own strong research and education profile contributing to the broadly defined research themes of the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group (FNP) outlined below. You will also contribute to the scientific mission of the group and the department, through research projects and supervision of PhD candidates and will have the opportunity to join and/or develop PhD level courses. You will dedicate approximately 40-50% of your time to teaching, 40-50% to research, and about 10% to management.

The position is embedded within the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group in the Department of Environmental Sciences of Wageningen University, which provides fundamental research and academic education on our living environment. The chair group focuses on the political, socio-cultural and economic dimensions of forests and nature. The FNP research program includes three interrelated themes: 1 Forest and nature policy and governance, 2 Value chains and markets for ecosystem services, 3 Nature-society interactions. FNP is a member of the Wageningen School of Social Sciences and of the Wageningen Centre for Sustainability Governance.

Your qualities

The ideal candidate must have the following qualities:

Hold a PhD in economics, or another relevant social science/ natural resource management field;
Have a profile in line with the description above, connected to a demonstrated interest and research experience in at least one of the three themes of the FNP research program, including an interest in multi-/ interdisciplinary research;
Have a good scientific/ publication track record
Have experience in teaching at BSc and MSc levels in the social sciences and/or for interdisciplinary audiences connected to natural resource management studies;
Have experience and/or interest in acquiring research funding and managing research projects;
Have good communicative and writing skills;
Are a good team-player, and willing to contribute to general tasks and activities of the Chair group;
Have the ambition to obtain a tenured personal professorship in the future.

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

We offer you

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, 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 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 € 6.181 for a full-time working week of 38 hours in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale11 or 12 ).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 the Netherlands, 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.

Do you want more information?

For more information about this position, please contact Prof. Dr. Georg Winkel, Chairholder of the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, by email: Georg.winkel@wur.nl.For more information about the procedure, please contact Noorien Abbas, Corporate Recruiter, by email: noorien.abbas@wur.nl

Do you want to apply?

You can apply directly using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval.

This vacancy will be listed up to and including 19th June 2023. We hope to schedule the first job interviews in the last week of June 2023.

Equal opportunities

Wageningen University & Research (WUR) employs a large number of people with very different backgrounds and qualities, who inspire and motivate each other. We want every talent to feel at home in our organisation and be offered the same career opportunities. We therefore especially welcome applications from people who are underrepresented at WUR. For more information please go to our inclusivity page. A good example of how WUR deals with inclusiveness can be read on the page working at WUR with a functional impairment.

We are

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.Wageningen University and Research is constantly ranked high in international rankings, inter alia it is globally ranked as the number 1 university in the field of agriculture and forestry and between number 1 and 3 in the field of environmental science and/or ecology in several international rankings.Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch this video 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.