PhD Position: Biodiversity for Nature-Inclusive Dairy Farming

Radboud International; Nijmegen; On-site; EUR 36,000 - 45,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension plan

Flexible leave/working hours

Training and development

Job summary

Radboud University invites applications for a PhD position focused on biodiversity monitoring and data analysis to inform decision-making in the dairy sector. You will develop integrated techniques to quantify biodiversity gains and assess KPI effectiveness, across datasets from birds, bats, insects, and soil life.

The project is collaborative and interdisciplinary, with supervisors from the Department of Ecology and partner organisations.

Qualifications

• MSc degree in Biology, Ecology, Environmental Sciences or related discipline.
• Good communication and writing skills in English and Dutch.
• Experience in designing scientific studies and manuscript preparation is a plus.
• Affinitity for programming, statistical modelling and handling large datasets.
• Interdisciplinary teamwork and field-work understanding are valued.

Responsibilities

• Develop integrated biodiversity monitoring analyses for dairy sector KPI assessment.
• Co-design KPI sets across diverse monitoring systems with stakeholders.
• Guide decision-making and reward schemes using biodiversity data.

Skills

Programming

Statistical modelling

Data analysis

English communication

Dutch communication

Team collaboration

Education

MSc in Biology/Ecology/Environmental Sciences

Tools

R

Python

Job description

In this PhD position, you will develop integrated and innovative biodiversity monitoring and data analysis techniques to aid in the decision-making of businesses within the dairy sector for the benefit of biodiversity. Biodiversity recovery is essential to sustain resilient food systems, robust businesses and healthy societies. A transition to a more nature-inclusive dairy sector in the Netherlands would be pivotal to biodiversity recovery, because of its influence in shaping landscapes through land use and management, and because of its socio-economic relevance. To properly assess the suitability and effectiveness of key performance indicators and the effects of management practices on local biodiversity, it is crucial to monitor, for example, breeding birds, bats, insect communities and soil life (depending on the KPI). By adapting and developing biomonitoring techniques programmes at dairy farms that are in line with long-running or recently developed monitoring schemes, you will utilise the full potential of datasets and methods to quantify biodiversity gains resulting from nature-inclusive farming as well as the potential for further biodiversity recovery. Novel instruments such as DIOPSIS smart insect cameras, LED buckets and bat loggers generate huge amounts of biodiversity data from across the Netherlands and can be used to detect and identify biodiversity automatically. National schemes like the breeding bird monitoring project, the butterfly monitoring scheme and the dragon fly monitoring scheme (standardised and coordinated by NGOs such as Sovon and Dutch Butterfly Conservation, and powered by thousands of citizen scientists) generate standardised long-term trends based on thousands of plots around the country. You will design novel, integrated analyses to quantify the effects on biodiversity from existing and new data while accounting for factors such as observers' bias, weather and surrounding landscape configuration.

In this project you will:

• Bring coherence across the diverse monitoring systems and KPI developed so far and adapt sets of KPI's suited to peat soils.
• Document the relationships between different nature-inclusive measures taken by heterogeneous farm types, and the different aspects of biodiversity and ecosystem services considered. The precise type of monitoring and the number and locations of monitoring points will be decided in collaboration with stakeholders.
• Further develop effective and integrated monitoring to guide decision-making in businesses and develop reward schemes.

Your teaching load may be up to 10% of your working time.

Would you like to learn more about what it's like to pursue a PhD at Radboud University? Visit the page about working as a PhD candidate.

Requirements

• You have an MSc degree in Biology, Ecology, Environmental Sciences or a related discipline with an interest in social sciences.
• You have good communication and writing skills in both English and Dutch.
• You have designed scientific studies, and it would be advantageous if you have experience with writing scientific and non-scientific manuscripts for publication.
• You have an affinity for, and proven experience with, computer programming, statistical modelling and large datasets, and you know how to perform qualitative analyses based on quantitative data.
• You have an understanding of field work in practice, have a passion for biodiversity and are keen to absorb and share knowledge with others.
• You are a team player, eager to work on a truly interdisciplinary project.

Conditions of employment

We will give you a temporary employment contract (0.8 FTE 5- year contract - 1.0 FTE 4- year contract) of 1.5 years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, your contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4-year contract) or 3.5 years (5-year contract). You will receive a starting salary of €3,204 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €4,051 from the fourth year onwards (salary scale P). You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus. You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

Additional employment conditions

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

Employer

Radboud Universiteit Faculty of Science The Faculty of Science (FNWI), part of Radboud University, engages in groundbreaking research and excellent education. In doing so, we push the boundaries of scientific knowledge and pass that knowledge on to the next generation. We seek solutions to major societal challenges, such as cybercrime and climate change and work on major scientific challenges, such as that in the quantum world. At the same time, we prepare our students for careers both within and outside the scientific field. Currently, more than 1,300 colleagues contribute to research and education, some as researchers and lecturers, others as technical and administrative support officers. The faculty has a strong international character with staff from more than 70 countries. Together, we work in an informal, accessible and welcoming environment, with attention and space for personal and professional development for all. Radboud University At Radboud University, we aim to make an impact through our work. We achieve these by conducting groundbreaking research, providing high-quality education, offering excellent support, and fostering collaborations within and outside the university.

Department

The Department of Ecology at Radboud University is a dynamic, collaborative and interdisciplinary team. We are a young and ambitious group of ecologists committed to preserving and promoting biodiversity and ecosystem health. Our department brings together aquatic and terrestrial ecologists who focus on plants, animals and microorganisms and their interactions in a changing world. We are dedicated to conducting timely and innovative research that addresses both scientific and societal challenges. Your research will be integrated into ongoing studies in biodiversity research and applied ecology, with opportunities to collaborate with colleagues across departments. Dr Eelke Jongejans will be one of the two main supervisors for the project. The Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences (RIBES) is committed to equality of opportunity, fairness and inclusivity, striving to be a place where everyone feels respected and valued, and creativity and innovation are fostered and encouraged. We welcome applications from individuals of all genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, abilities and backgrounds, and particularly encourage those from underrepresented groups to apply.

SoortenNL is an umbrella for organisations that collect and interpret biodiversity data from surveys and large monitoring schemes carried out by citizen scientists. It is both a social network and an information landscape. Dr Sander Turnhout of SoortenNL will be the co-supervisor of this project.

In this interdisciplinary research project (DECISION: Dairy and Ecology: Co-Innovating buSIness Operations for Nature) you will closely collaborate with three other PhD candidates and a postdoctoral researcher working in animal sciences and social sciences at Wageningen University and Erasmus University. The research consortium also includes agribusinesses, financial businesses, farmer associations and governmental organisations.