Working at NIOO
With more than 200 staff and students, the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) is one of the largest research institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Most are from the world of (international) science: professors, researchers and PhD students. They are joined by indispensable support staff in HR, Science Communication, Finances, ICT and Facilities. Everyone makes their own passionate contribution towards a more liveable world. Does that sound like you?

©
Perro de Jong / NIOO-KNAW
Quick links
Diversity & inclusion
We set great store by a working environment in which everyone can feel welcome and appreciated. Together, we strive for an inclusive culture that embraces difference.

©
Perro de Jong / NIOO-KNAW
Facts and figures
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- Staff & students
- >200
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- Nationalities
- >30
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- Women/men
- 52% / 48%
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- Research projects
- >120
Vacancies
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Field assistants in the BioClock project
Are you interested in the effects of light pollution on nature? Then there is a perfect paid summer job for you at the UvA. -
Management and Office Assistant
Does organising give you energy? And would you like to work in the inspiring world of science? NIOO has a vacancy for a Management and Office Assistant.
Internships
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Systematic literature review on modelling aquatic greenhouse gas emissions
In this study, we aim to have an overview of how existing models estimate CO2 and CH4 emission processes in inland waters and identify key modelling processes. -
HBO internship: Molecular and isotope probing of soil virus ecology
The project offers opportunities for a HBO intern who is interested in applying molecular techniques to environmental samples, in an exciting area of soil ecology. -
MSc internship / thesis project: Bacteriophages as drivers of soil biogeochemistry
In this project, we investigate the soil virosphere to assess phage interactions with soil materials, host bacteria, and soil fauna, with the aim of understanding their influence on carbon and nitrogen cycling. -
Fieldwork internship: soil ecology throughout the Netherlands for sustainable land use
For this project, we are looking for students to join our fieldwork campaign and collect soil samples throughout the Netherlands. -
Ecology of flower bulb breeding birds
Where biodiversity loss has on average been halted in nature reserves, biodiversity of rural areas keeps declining. The larger aim of this project (project Living Lab B7) is to enhance biodiversity in the rural part of The Flower Bulb Region. -
Carabid beetle communities in Flower bulb fields: enhancing biodiversity through small-scale landscape elements
Where biodiversity loss has on average been halted in nature reserves, biodiversity of rural areas keeps declining. The larger aim of this project (Living Lab B7) is to enhance biodiversity in the rural part of The Flower Bulb Region. -
Flying insect biomass and community assembly across a land-use gradient in the Dutch Flower Bulb Region
Where biodiversity loss has on average been halted in nature reserves, biodiversity of rural areas keeps declining. The larger aim of this project (Living Lab B7) is to enhance biodiversity in the rural part of The Flower Bulb Region. -
Microbial competition and cooperation in the phyllosphere
Suitable for Master students for at least six months -
Exploiting foliar yeasts for fungal pathogen inhibition and mycotoxin degradation
Suitable for Master students for at least six months -
Sperm biology and evolution (thesis/internship projects)
Sperm are critical to successful fertilisation in sexually reproducing animals. The function of sperm – to find and fertilise ova – is universal throughout the animal kingdom, yet the sperm cell is the most morphologically diverse cell type known. -
Well-hidden but still there: patterns of cryptic speciation in Dutch rotifer populations
Before the advent of molecular genetic techniques, zooplankton taxa were believed to be not exceedingly rich in species. Many species were also assumed to have a wide biogeographic distribution pattern. Recently, however, it has become more and more obvious that cryptic species (i.e. species that can not be morphologically distinguished) are actually rather common and that earlier biodiversity assessments have largely underestimated the number of species. This opens a lot of interesting avenues for evolutionary and ecological research, with questions such as: How long ago have these species come to existence? Did they evolve in sympatry or allopatry? Is there still hybridization going on? And to what extend do such species (and possibly their hybrids) differ from each other ecologically? -
Pathogen determination in black water
Pathogens can be categorised as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and helminths (Awuah, 2006). The most common pathogen found in wastewater is Salmonella. However, there are many other pathogens harmful to human health, such as E. coli, Pseudomonas, Shigella, Vibrio, Mycobacterium, Clostridium, Leptospira, Yersinia, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, intestinal worms, Norwalk virus and rotavirus (Marsalek et al., 2002). -
Master student in ecological genomics
Evidence is accumulating that epigenetic mechanisms can affect heritable phenotypic traits and thus, may play a role in plant adaptation. However, little is known about the magnitude and relevance of functional epi-allelic variation in natural plant populations. -
Manipulating your victim: the adaptive significance of host usurpation by the endoparasitoids Cotesia glomerata and Cotesia congregata
Parasitoid wasps are known to exhibit two strategies for exploiting host resources during development. The first is for the parasitoid larvae to consume the entire host (such as a caterpillar) before pupation. However, some parasitoids consume only a small fraction of the host during development. In this case, the mature parasitoid larvae emerge through the sides of the still-living host and pupate on, or next to it. In some instances, the caterpillar may remain alive for up to two weeks after parasitoid pupation and remain very close to the parasitoid cocoons. -
Lifetime reproductive success in two secondary hyperparasitoid wasps, Lysibia nana and Gelis agilis
Hyperparasitoids are insects that develop on, or in another parasitoid species. Secondary hyperparasitoids attack primary parasitoid hosts (usually their cocoons) that have already emerged from the secondary herbivore host. In spite of their potential importance in affecting the dynamics of plant-herbivore-parasitoid systems (over three trophic levels), little is still known about the biology and life-history of secondary hyperparasitoids (in the fourth trophic level). -
How do soil micro-organisms affect the chances of woodland expansions during water pulses?
Woodland expansion in arid environments occurs episodically during wet years. Recent research indicates that tree seedling growth rate and survival is crucial to explain the differences across ecosystems and that soil microorganisms likely play a crucial role. -
Coping with a changing world: the consequences of rapid evolutionary adaptation to combinations of multiple stressors
Rapid evolutionary adaptation is increasingly considered as an important mechanism allowing animals to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Our research has shown that rotifers, a type of very common freshwater zooplankton, are able to adapt to poor food quality or enhanced salt concentrations in not more than a few months. At this moment, we investigate how rotifers cope with combinations of stressors. More specifically, we run evolution experiments in the laboratory exposing populations to the metal Cu and high temperatures, with the aim to study how adaptation to one stressor impedes or enhances the response to the other stressor. -
Comparing insect communities on native Dutch wild mustard plants over a growing season
Host-plant suitability and quality for herbivore (and possibly natural enemy) development is determined by the presence of sufficient levels of nutrients and concentrations of adverse metabolites such as specific secondary plant compounds and digestibility reducers. In nature, these characteristics are dynamic and can change within individual plants over the course of a growing season. Many species of multivoltine insects (insects have more than one generation per year) are known to attack short-lived annual plants i.e. plants that are present for only 1or 2 months in the field. These short-lived plants may germinate and grow at different times and/or locations during the growing season. In this situation, each herbivore generation is faced with the challenge of leaving the natal patch to find and lay eggs on a different plant species that may be growing some distance from where they themselves developed. At the same time, the quality of the different food plant species on which they feed and grow over the spring and summer seasons may also be highly variable. -
Bad or good food, that’s the question!
A study on the effects of stoichiometric constraints on rotifer populations
HR team
This is our Human Resources team
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Drs. Monique Timmermans
- Function
- Head of Personnel/HRM
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Alexandra Bösche
- Function
- Personnel/HRM Staff
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Carola Buurman
- Function
- Personnel/HRM Staff