Vacant: Junior Professor in Agro- and Ecosystems Restoration Engineering - Department of Ecosystems and Conservation

The successful candidate will develop research activities in the field of Agro- and Ecosystems Restoration Engineering, focussed at reducing land degradation and biodiversity decline and at restoring system health of mixed landscapes including natural and/or agricultural systems, with the aim of regaining and optimizing regulating, provisioning and cultural services. This includes designing new and spatially explicit strategies to enhance regenerative system processes through nature-based solutions and data-driven precision management, as well as win-win with agricultural production. This focus will necessarily imply attention for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, through e.g. anthropogenic emission reduction (source and target oriented) in the landscape, carbon capture in soil and vegetation, assisted migration of species or other adaptive strategies. This cross-disciplinary profile focussing on agro- and ecosystem restoration engineering should supplement the already existing expertise in soil, plant and animal science within the group. This vacancy is part of the effort to meet these needs, and the successful candidate is expected to explicit ambition to strive for complementarity and synergy with current research efforts on Campus Geel.
In your research, you will creatively integrate new insights and research results from various fields of ecology, plant science, animal science and engineering, as described above. To do so, you will set up your own research group, build collaborations on campus and internationally and competitively obtain both project-based government funding and bilateral (industrial) funding that results in PhD’s and publications that meet international standards and lead to broad international recognition. You pay effort to the valorisation of your research results for society and industry. To this end, you are motivated to develop demand-driven research and transfer fundamental insights and concepts into management recommendations and solutions that can be converted to scalable field applications to improve health and resilience of agrosystems and ecosystems.

Teaching

You provide high-quality education to both Bachelor’s and Master’s students enrolled in the Master of Biosciences at Campus Geel, within the domain of ecology and the management of natural areas (e.g forests, grasslands, peatlands) and rural areas with a clear commitment to the quality of the programme as a whole, and in accordance with KU Leuven’s views on activating and researched-based education. Courses will focus on Ecosystem dynamics and management, eco- and agro-system health and practical sessions in recording and analysing ecosystem component traits (taught mainly in Dutch).
Yo… For more information see https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/60195100

You have a PhD in Bioscience Engineering, Ecological Engineering, Engineering Technology or a related degree. You have demonstrated excellence and productivity in the field of data-driven restoration of ecosystems and/or agrosystems and in optimizing land management for ecosystem services (e.g. through the subject of your doctoral thesis, research projects and publications). You possess organisational skills and have a cooperative attitude. You also possess leadership competencies in a university or industry context.
You have a strong research track record in the discipline. Relevant experience in working with professionals and stakeholders is an important asset. You have an interdisciplinary vision on research and can demonstrate a vision on the possible synergies with ongoing research on the campus in Geel and within the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. A proven interest in international collaboration for research and for development in the Global South are an asset.
You have a vision on providing high quality academic education in your field, and are committed to the educational project at Campus Geel. Teaching experience on an academic level is an advantage.
A good command of English and Dutch is a requirement for this position. Since this position involves teaching in Bachelor (fully in Dutch) and Masters (mainly in Dutch), this position requires a C1 level in Dutch from the start.
The official administrative language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of your employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in meetings and to acquire the level of Dutch that is required for tenure.
Before teaching courses in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn Dutch resp. English to the required standard.