You will work with wild-caught great tits, foraging on artificial prey, to understand both how they weight prey size and distastefulness, as well as how the available options shape their choices. You will conduct learning and preference trials, help to design the experimental procedure, and analyse and write up the findings for academic publications. You will also be part of the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics and attend group meetings and seminars. 

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Carrying out experimental work at Lammi research station (Finland)
• Design and improve experimental protocols
• Data analysis
• Manuscript writing
• Mentoring BSc/MSc students

Your experience and profile:

• A PhD degree in behavioral ecology, animal behavior or a related field
• Experience with academic publishing
• Experience conductive behavioral research with animals (ideally birds)
• Strong statistical and data analysis skills

We offer a temporary employment contract for 38 hours per week for a period of 14 months. The preferred starting date is as soon as possible. For this position the University Job Classification profile Researcher level 4 applies.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between € 3,546 to € 5,538 (scale 10).  In addition, you will receive a 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end allowance.

A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants.

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. 

Where you will work

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 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.