ARE YOU A MOTIVATED AND CURIOUS INDIVIDUAL WITH A STRONG INTEREST IN FORESTS, FOREST DYNAMICS AND CLIMATE SCIENCES? DO YOU HAVE AN MSC. DEGREE IN FOREST ECOLOGY, EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE, CLIMATE SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, OR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE OR A SIMILAR RELEVANT FIELD, AND ARE YOU PROFICIENT IN PROGRAMMING WITH R/PYTHON? THEN WE HAVE THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU!

The Team Sustainable Forest Ecosystems is looking for an aspiring PhD student within the frame of the Horizon Europe project NextGenCarbon.
NextGenCarbon’s overall aim is to better understand the role of the European biosphere in the global climate and its feedbacks. All the top research groups of Europe are participating in this project. Generally global vegetation models and satellites capture the role of forest losses very well, but not the regrowth rates and to which saturation these develop in strict forest reserves. The role of WenR in the NextGenCarbon is to explore the regrowth rates in European forests and the role of strict forest reserves in this. You will work partly with existing unique National Forest Inventory datasets from across Europe, partly within the forest reserves programmes in Europe and Netherlands.

As a PhD researcher you will:

• Develop robust approaches for combining data acquired from heterogeneous sampling designs.
• Collect data from forest reserves
• Develop novel techniques to analyse forest regrowth and saturation points, including information on mortality rates.
• Develop spatiotemporal gap filling methods for several forest variables.
• Work within the NextGenCarbon consortium (https://nextgencarbon-project.eu)
• Relate your work to the national greenhouse gas reporting of the LULUCF-sector
• Synthesize the above in journal papers and a PhD-thesis.

The research is hosted within the Team Sustainable Forest Ecosystems and is related to the forest ecology and forest management group of WU, and will be supervised by Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Sven van Baren and Silke Jacobs.

This PhD programme is also a part of PE & RC, a collaborative research and PhD training institute coordinated by Wageningen University (WU). The PhD programme is embedded in a coherent and productive research environment that aims to perform academic research of the highest quality. For more information, click here. Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• sabbatical leave, study leave, and partially paid parental leave;
• 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 € 2.753 - per month rising to € 3.519 ,- in the fourth year in according to the CAO Wageningen Research (scale P). This is based on a full-time working week of 36 hours. We offer a temporary contract for 18 months which will be extended for the duration of the project if you perform well.
Wageningen University & Research offers plenty of opportunities for growth and development, with a strong internal recruitment policy and excellent training programmes.
You will work on the greenest and most innovative campus in the Netherlands, in an international and open working environment. For 20 consecutive years, we have been voted the “best university” in the Netherlands! A place to be proud of.

Please refer the Job description for details