PhD Position - Foundation Models for Agricultural Sciences

The Artificial Intelligence group is looking for an aspiring PhD to investigate modern self-supervised learning methodologies for developing and testing domain-specific AI foundation models for agricultural sciences. Currently, established AI models often fail to generalize in agricultural applications, especially when tested with data that is different from their training setting, even in subtle ways. 

In this Ph.D. project, you will advance this research field by investigating how to develop, design, and evaluate domain specific foundation models that learn from multi-modal heterogeneous data (e.g. text, location, and images), associated with diverse applications, such as earth observation, climate, and phenotyping. Your models will be tested for a variety of highly relevant problems in agriculture, like crop type classification, crop yield forecasting, field boundary delineation, crop disease, and crop failure detection. The Ph.D. research builds upon recent advancements in self-supervised, contrastive, physics-informed and knowledge-guided machine learning, and involves designing, implementing, and evaluating multi-modal architectures especially for image and time series data. Processing and integrating multiple data modalities will also be key to the research objective of developing dynamic and intelligent systems that provide further insight into modern agricultural applications and food security problems.

You will work with an interdisciplinary and international team of experts in artificial intelligence (e.g. foundation models, deep learning) and green life sciences (e.g., remote sensing, crop modelling, and food security), within the AgriscienceFM project, which has recently been awarded by the European Commission.

Your duties and responsibilities: 

• Familiarize with the state-of-the-art in self-supervised methods for developing Foundation Models.
• Design, develop, and evaluate self-supervised model architectures to increase our understanding about how agriculture-specific latent representations can be learned from multi-modal data.
• Perform large-scale training of domain-specific foundation models on an HPC server
• Disseminate the research results by writing papers and presenting your work at international conferences.
• Collaborate with other project partners in joint tasks, such as the construction of the datasets, and development of benchmarking downstream tasks, and contribute to the overall project success.

You will work here

The research is embedded within the chair Artificial Intelligence, led by Prof. Ioannis Athanasiadis. You will be co-supervised by Prof. Ricardo Torres and Dr. Taniya Kapoor.

You are highly motivated, self-driven, and curious to advance use-inspired artificial intelligence methods. You bring along your enthusiasm to work in a highly dynamic, international team towards a common objective.

You also possess: 

• A successfully completed MSc degree in artificial intelligence, computer science, and engineering, or a similar relevant field.
• demonstrated experience in applied machine learning, preferably in remote sensing or agricultural applications.
• Proficiency in programming in Python and experience in Pytorch, Scikit-Learn or related modern machine learning libraries.
• Good writing skills, as demonstrated by your thesis report or contributions to scientific papers.

For this position, your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognised Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• Partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will receive a fully funded PhD position and you will be offered a course program tailored to your needs and the research team.
The gross salary for the first year is € 3.059,- per month rising to € 3.881,-  in the fourth year in according to the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale P). This is based on a full-time working week of 38 hours. We offer a temporary contract for 18 months which will be extended for the duration of the project if you perform well. 

We encourage development and internal mobility within our organisation. Our recruitment and selection policy sets out the conditions that apply specifically to you as a (former) employee. If you have any questions, we are happy to help.

You will work on the greenest and most innovative campus in the Netherlands, in an international and open working environment. 

Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees. 

Because we expect you to work and live in the Netherlands our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family. 

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. Wageningen University & Research's International Community page contains practical information about what we can do to support international employees coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, our Welcome Center can assist you with any additional advice and information about for example housing, opening a bank account, dual career programs or schooling. Finally, certain categories of international staff may be eligible for a tax exemption on a part of their salary during the first five years in the Netherlands.

For more information about the position, please contact Ioannis Athanasiadis, Professor, via email: ioannis.athanasiadis@wur.nl
Questions about the procedure? Get in touch with Noorien Abbas, Corporate Recruiter, via noorien.abbas@wur.nl

Ready to apply?
You can apply directly using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval. Only applications submitted through our website will be considered.

To apply, please send the following documents (max. 3 pages each document):

• Complete and up-to-date curriculum vitae;
• Motivation letter.
• Sample of your scientific writing (one paper, thesis, or report that you have written yourself)

The maximum length of the documents must not exceed 3 pages. If it exceeds, applications will not be considered. Additional files such as grades and transcripts are not required during this stage and will not be considered.

You can apply up to and including 4 May, 2026. The first interviews are scheduled for 15 May 2026.

Welcome, safe, and valued
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) highly values diversity and inclusion because we believe that different insights lead to innovative solutions. We create a work environment where everyone feels welcome, safe, and appreciated, regardless of background, identity, or experience. Together, we are building a culture where everyone's unique contribution adds to the success of our organization.

​The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7,600 employees (6,700 fte) and 13,100 students and over 150,000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch the video below to get an idea of our green campus!

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.

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