Professor - Bioengineering

Professor in Specialized Plant Metabolism and Plant Metabolic Engineering

ABOUT GHENT UNIVERSITY

Ghent University is one of the most important education and research institutions in the Low Countries. On a daily basis, over 9,000 staff members and 41,000 students implement its motto "Dare to Think". Ghent University's mission statement is characterized by qualitative education, internationally renowned research and a pluralistic social responsibility.

ASSIGNMENT

The department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics has a vacancy for a full-time (100%) full professor or senior full professor position, responsible for academic teaching, academic research and services in the discipline of “Specialized Plant Metabolism and Plant Metabolic Engineering”.

Academic Education

• You lecture various course units in the discipline of plant biotechnology and specialized plant metabolism.

Academic Research

• You conduct research in the discipline of specialized metabolism and metabolic engineering in plants.

Academic Services

You take part in the internal and external service provision of the department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics.

PROFILES

Experience

• You have already conducted eminent academic research in the given discipline, which is clearly reflected in publications in high-quality academic journals and peer-reviewed books;
• You are capable of initiating, supervising and acquiring the necessary funding for academic research;
• You are didactically skilled to teach university students to develop academic competences;
• You have successfully guided and supervised Master, PhD students and postdocs;
• You have shown international mobility, among other things thanks to research stays at institutions external to the one where you acquired your highest academic degree;
• You have international recognition as evidenced by international prizes, citation scores, participations in international consortia, organizing international symposia, editorial roles and/or industrial consultancy;
• You have experience in gene discovery in plant specialized metabolism in model, medicinal and crop plants;
• You have experience in unravelling plant metabolic networks at both the structural and regulatory level;
• You have experience in functional genomics in model, medicinal and crop plants;
• You have experience in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology in plants.
• In case you are required to teach, you must demonstrate that you have mastered the teaching language in which you will teach a course unit at CEFR-level C1. You can demonstrate this by means of a language certificate or a diploma obtained from an institution in which that language is the language of instruction. In addition, Article II.270, §1 of the Codex of Higher Education requires that: (i) you must master the Dutch language at least at CEFR-level A2 within two years after the start of the appointment. (ii) you must be able to master the Dutch language at least at CEFR-level of B2 within five years after the start of the appointment. More info: Language requirements at Ghent University for professorial staff — Ghent University (ugent.be)

Skills / Attitude

• You are quality-oriented;
• You have a sense of initiative;
• You have good organizational, interpersonal and communication skills.

Admission requirements

You hold a thesis-based doctorate in Plant Biotechnology or Molecular Biology (or in a related discipline that is considered admissible by the assessment committee) or a diploma or certificate that is recognised as equivalent (article V.20 Codex Higher Education).

Upon evaluation of a foreign (non-EU) diploma, a certificate of equivalence may still have to be requested at NARIC. If this is the case, we advise you to initiate this recognition procedure as soon as possible. You are required to have the recognition no later than on the date of your appointment.

You have at least two years of postdoctoral experience on 1 September 2022. This term of two years is determined by the date written on the above-mentioned required diploma.

APPOINTMENT INFORMATION

Depending on the specific profile of the selected candidate, the degree of full professor or senior full professor is awarded. This will be decided by the University Board as proposed by the Faculty Board.

We offer you a permanent appointment in the starting grade of full professor or senior full professor, without prejudice to the possibility of a temporary appointment offered in article V.28 of the Codex of Higher Education.

OUR OFFER

The career and evaluation policy for Professorial Staff is based on talent development and growth, prioritizing vision development and strategy - at the personal as well as the group level. At UGent we focus on career support and coaching of the Professorial Staff in the different phases of the career. More information can be found on www.ugent.be/en/work/mobility-career/career-aspects/professorial-staff.

Ghent University is committed to properly welcoming new professorial staff members and offering them appropriate guidance. The basic teacher training and courses of 'Dutch' and 'English' for foreign-speaking lecturers are only a few examples of our wide range of training and education opportunities. Furthermore, each Ghent University staff member can count on a number of benefits such as a bike allowance, reimbursement of public transport commuting costs, daycare, a wide range of sports facilities and EcoCheques. A complete overview of all our employee benefits (in Dutch).

Ghent University also invests in welcoming international professorial staff. It offers various housing options, a relocation bonus, the International School for school-aged children (with a discount on the tuition fee), support when registering at the City of Ghent, support with the procedure of family reunification and other administrative matters in connection with moving to Ghent www.ugent.be/en/work/talent.

Candidates who are newly appointed at Ghent University with an appointment as autonomous academic staff of at least 50% or candidates whose appointment as autonomous academic staff at Ghent University is increased to a minimum of 50% receive a Starting Grant of € 210.000 to contribute towards the personnel, operating and/or equipment costs of establishing a research team.

GENDER AND DIVERSITY

Ghent University conducts an equal opportunities policy and encourages everyone to apply. Ghent University also strives for a gender balance. Female applications are thus especially welcomed.

SELECTION PROCEDURE

After the final application date, all received applications will be sent to the faculty assessment committee assembled for this vacancy. This committee will first evaluate the application files. Therefore it will match all elements of the file against the required expertise for the position in terms of education, research and scientific service. Based on this deliberation, relevant candidates will be shortlisted to be invited for further selection (interview, possible presentation or test lecture …). Afterwards, the committee will rank the suitable candidates and present this ranking to the Faculty Board. The advice of the Faculty Board will then be presented to the University Board for approval.

Candidates are asked to further discuss their top 5 most important publications or other academic achievements with the highest impact. Next to academic publications, the candidate is thus also able to show merit of knowledge transfer by academic dissemination, social valorisation, public awareness, seminars or conference presentations. These competences are also taken into account when evaluating the candidates.

The evaluation of the required international mobility is broad and partly takes the gender perspective into account, thus not only considering longer stays abroad by also other forms of internationalisation.

Pregnancy leave, prolonged sick leave, parental leave, filial leave or other forms of absence are taken into account when evaluating the available time for the realisation of academic output.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply online through the e-recruitment system before the application deadline (see above). We do not accept late or incomplete applications, or applications that are not sent through the online system.

Your application must include the following documents:

• In the field ‘Application form’: the professorial staff application form (+ all annexes mentioned in the form), merged into one pdf file.
• In the field ‘Cover letter’: your application letter in pdf format
• In the field ‘Diploma’: a transcript of your doctoral degree. If you have a foreign diploma in a language other than our national languages (Dutch, French or German) or English, please add a translation in one of the mentioned languages.
• In the field 'Certificate of equivalence': only for diplomas awarded outside the European Union: certificate of equivalence (NARIC) (if already in you possession). For diplomas awarded in the UK before January 31st of 2020, a certificate of equivalence is not required.

Note that the maximum file size for each field is 10 MB.

MORE INFORMATION

For further information regarding this vacancy, please contact Professor Yves Van de Peer (yves.vandepeer@UGent.be, +32 (0) 9 331 38 07) at the faculty of Sciences, department Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics.

Do you have a question regarding the online application process? Please read our FAQ.

Job details

Title: Professor in Specialized Plant Metabolism and Plant Metabolic Engineering (22235) - Faculty of Sciences

Employer: Ghent University

Location: Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 33 Ghent, Belgium

Job type: Professor

Field: Bioengineering, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Botany and plant science

Contact Person: If you wish to apply for this position, please specify that you saw it on AKATECH.tech