"Post doc: Soil Health awareness and sustainability education and learning"

We are looking for an enthusiastic Post-Doc candidate (or a candidate at the very end of the PhD trajectory) that will work on soil health literacy and awareness, and help advancing environmental and sustainability education and learning. The selected candidate will work within the context of the LOESS (Literacy boost through an operational educational ecosystem of societal actors on soil health) project, a large EU Horizon project involving a network of over 20 core European partners.

The candidate will contribute to the project’s aim of boosting soil health literacy and awareness in both academia and society, and advancing socio-ecological sustainability. Within this aim, the candidate will be responsible for reviewing the current state of knowledge in this field, as well as creating, designing, coordinating, facilitating, and evaluating creative learning activities and events to enhance soil health literacy and awareness among diverse audiences, including academic targets (e.g. scientists, students) and non-academic targets (e.g. children, policymakers, general public).

This large EU project is part of the EU mission ‘A soil deal for Europe’. It embraces a Community Engaged Research and Learning approach as practiced for example through Living Labs and Science Shops. It brings together science and society, it values creative methods unifying science and arts, and it includes and connects formal learning in schools and universities, with knowledge in society and place-based learning through for example environmental conservation groups, urban food initiatives associations, city greening initiatives and social movements.

The position entails cross-collaboration and participation into various activities within this large project. The selected candidate will work on site at Wageningen University, Education and Learning Science group (ELS). Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Review knowledge status of soil health and sustainability education and learning
• Write academically, and present findings and learning tools at (international) events and conferences
• Coordinate, design, facilitate and assess creative learning activities (e.g. unifying science-arts) about soil health for different educational targets (from children to higher education students to civil society)
• Translate scientific knowledge about soil health (in relation to nature, agriculture, climate, sustainability) into inspiring text, creative illustrations, digital content to engage academic (e.g. scientists, students) and non-academic audience (e.g. policy makers, citizens)
• Build a network and organize events in a highly diverse international environment to enhance soil health awareness
• Develop and facilitate soil health Communities of Practice (CoPs) at WUR
• Participate in and represent ELS/WUR in consortium activities of the LOESS project, and participate in relevant activities at ELS and WUR.

Your team: This candidate will work in close collaboration with Valentina Tassone (WUR LOESS project leader), with experts from WUR Education and Learning Sciences and the large EU LOESS project.

Requirements: PhD degree (already completed or almost completed in one of the following fields: educational and learning sciences or soil science). Analytical skills, capacity to review literature and map state of knowledge on soil health and sustainability. Ability to identify synergies, bridge disciplines and cross boundaries (e.g. soil-climate-agriculture-sustainability; science-society; science-arts). Academic writing. Communication skills, able to inspire and connect. Academic record (as shown by PhD related outputs). Expertise applying creative learning methods, e.g. artistic methods. Familiarity with working in international environments and within networks. Collaboration, pro-activity, flexibility. Proven proficiency in English (oral and written) at language level C1.

Conditions of employment: Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms including sabbatical leave, study leave, partially paid parental leave, flexible working hours, focus on vitality, sports facilities, a fixed year-end bonus of 8.3%, excellent pension scheme, and a gross salary between €3,546 and €5,538 for a full-time working week of 38 hours (scale 10, CAO-NU). Initial temporary contract that can be extended based on performance.