Research Support Staff in Animal-Microbe Interactions | minimum 24 hours

Are you curious about the role of the microbiome in shaping host health and performance? Are you interested in combining molecular work and in-house sequencing technology with ecological and evolutionary laboratory experiments, to investigate animal-microbe interactions? Then IBED is looking for you to join our multidisciplinary support staff team!

Research Support Staff in Animal-Microbe Interactions

Faculty of Science

• MLO / HLO
• Minimum 24 hours
• min. €2.899 – max. €3.809
• Closes on 23-5-2025

About the position

The position is based in the Evolutionary and Population Biology (EPB) department. EPB is part of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) and the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. At EPB, we work on various plant, animal and microbial systems, tackling both fundamental and pressing applied questions, for instance related to sustainable agriculture, urban adaptation, and symbioses. Our research spans a diverse range of ecological and evolutionary disciplines, including population genetics, community ecology, evolutionary genetics, behavioral ecology and ecophysiology. Research support staff have their own department within IBED and you will thus become part of this exciting multi-disciplinary team with access to state-of-the-art equipment and extensive, shared laboratory infrastructure. You will work together with Dr. T. Blankers and Dr. M. Bruijning, both evolutionary ecologists working on the evolutionary implications of host-microbe interactions.

A good salary

Your salary will be determined on the basis of your experience and seniority, in accordance with the Labour agreement. Your grading and therefore the amounts mentioned are based on full employment of 38 hours per week. Read more

232 vacation hours

We also offer parental leave, partner leave and social engagement leave. Through the Employment Conditions Menu Card, there are opportunities for even more vacation hours. Read more

Financial arrangements

On top of your salary, you receive holiday allowance (8%) and a year-end bonus (8.3%). You build up a good pension with ABP. And in addition, we offer many other allowances and schemes. Read more

Career development and room for growth

The UvA encourages you to continue to professionalise through training courses and open UvA lectures. Read more

Flexibility

You have the flexibility to combine work and private life, often with the possibility of working from home.

What are you going to do?

You will play a key part in supporting microbiome research in two commonly-used, and exciting, model systems for host-microbe interactions: Daphnia magna and Caenorhabditis elegans. This research aims to develop our mechanistic understanding of the role of the microbiome in host performance and evolutionary potential. We achieve this goal by integrating various ecological and evolutionary experiments with third-generation sequencing. Together this work will determine the effect of host variation on microbiome variation, identify causal relationships between microbiome composition and host performance, and characterizing what the evolutionary consequences are of the microbiome-performance relationships.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Support ongoing laboratory experiments on Daphnia and C. elegans, e.g., conducting microbiome transplant experiments, and assessing microbiome-dependent plasticity and fitness;
• Molecular lab work to characterize microbiome communities using 16s rRNA sequencing on the in-house Oxford Nanopore sequencers, with help from the bioinformatics support team in the Science Park Study Group;
• Rearing and maintaining of Daphnia cultures;
• Contribute to supervision of students together with a multi-disciplinary team of IBED support staff.

Your profile

Your experience and profile:

• Medium or higher technical education (MBO/HBO);
• Interest in microbiome research and evolutionary biology;
• Experience in microbiology, including media preparation, bacterial plating and general sterile techniques;
• Experience in rearing, setting up and conducting laboratory experiments, preferably on Daphnia, C. elegans or other (small) animals;
• Experience in molecular techniques such as DNA extraction, PCR and gel electrophoresis;
• An independent, responsible and team-oriented candidate;
• Good organization skills and flexibility.

Our offer

We offer a temporary employment contract for 24 hours per week for a period of 24 months. The preferred starting date is flexible but ideally as soon as possible.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between € 2,899 and € 3,809 (scale 7). This gross monthly salary does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end allowance. For this position the University Job Classification profile Education/Research Officer 4 is applicable.The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Besides the salary and a vibrant and challenging environment at Science Park we offer you multiple fringe benefits:

• 232 holiday hours per year (based on fulltime) and extra holidays between Christmas and 1 January
• multiple courses to follow from our Teaching and Learning Centre;
• a complete educational program for PhD students;
• multiple courses on topics such as leadership for academic staff;
• multiple courses on topics such as time management, handling stress and an online learning platform with 100+ different courses;
• 7 weeks birth leave (partner leave) with 100% salary;
• partly paid parental leave;
• the possibility to set up a workplace at home;
• a pension at ABP for which UvA pays two third part of the contribution;
• the possibility to follow courses to learn Dutch;
• help with registration at UvA- Housing for a studio or small apartment when you’re moving from abroad.

Are you curious to read more about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits, take a look here.

Your place at the UvA

The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) is one of eight research institutes of the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. The research at IBED aims to unravel how ecosystems function in all their complexity, and how they change due to natural processes and human activities. At its core lies an integrated systems approach to study biodiversity, ecosystems and the environment. IBED adopts this systems approach to ecosystems, addressing abiotic (soil and water quality) and biotic factors (ecology and evolution of plants, animals, and microorganisms), and the interplay between those. The IBED vision includes research encompassing experimental and theoretical approaches at a wide variety of temporal and spatial scales, i.e. from molecules and microorganisms to patterns and processes occurring at the global scale. The University of Amsterdam has excellent high performance computing facilities. Furthermore, IBED has a dedicated computational support team with specialized knowledge of bioinformatics, (geo)database management and scientific programming. IBED also works with non-academic partners to deliver transdisciplinary science for society.

The current position will be based in the Department of Evolutionary and Population Biology. Evolutionary and Population Biology Research in the department of Evolutionary and Population Biology focuses on understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that drive community dynamics and speciation, and determine biodiversity patterns.

Organisational unit

The University of Amsterdam is ambitious, creative and committed. An inspiration to students since 1632, a vanguard player in international science and a partner in innovation.

The University of Amsterdam is the largest university in the Netherlands, with the broadest range of courses on offer. An intellectual hub with 42,000 students, 6,000 staff and 3,000 PhD students. Connected by a culture of curiosity.