Professor in Mucosal Immunology (BOF) (13647) – Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

    →   Apply until 24/03/2020 23:59 (Brussels time)
→   Discipline: Mucosal immunology
→   100% Assistant professor tenure track
→   Reference number: 201912/DI04/ZAP/002

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 characterised by qualitative education, internationally renowned research and a pluralistic social responsibility.

ASSIGNMENT

Mucosal immunology is an important domain within (veterinary) immunology because most pathogens encounter a mucosa before they infect a host. Besides, mucosa come continuously into contact with commensals, environmental antigens and food antigens, which they normally tolerize.  However, sometimes these microbes or antigens induce inflammation and/or allergy.  The complexity of the mucosal immune regulation and the differences between different animal species (companion and farm animals) make the development of intervention strategies challenging but nevertheless important. The main focus of this position will be to perform research in the field of mucosal immunology in companion and farm animals and use this knowledge to support other clinical and non-clinical research groups from the faculty in their mucosal research. Supervision of master thesis students and PhD students with topics related to mucosal immunology is part of the assignment.  The successful tenure track candidate will teach a.o. mucosal immunology to students veterinary medicine within the courses immunology and immunopathology.  This position in the rank of assistant professor, funded by the Special Research Fund, is a tenure track appointment for a period of 5 years with a focus on research and with a teaching load limited to no more than 8 ECTS credits per semester on average over a period of 3 years. For the further development of the academic career, please see ‘Appointment information’ below.

Academic education

You lecture various course units in the discipline of immunology/immunopathology including mucosal immunology. You are also expected to supervise master theses (in mucosal immunology) and act as academic advisor for doctoral students. You actively contribute to the organization of educational programs and courses in which the department is involved. Following this tenure track mandate, the intention is that you will teach the immunopathology course.

Academic Research

You conduct high quality research in the discipline of mucosal immunology of domestic animals with publications in high ranked journals. You are prepared to attract research funding and to present your research on international conferences within your discipline.

Academic services

You take some part in the internal and external service provision of the department of virology, parasitology, immunology e.g. diagnostics, scientific advice to veterinarians and colleagues and different faculty commissions.

PROFILE

Experience

• You have preferably a doctoral degree in medical, veterinary , biomedical or biotechnological sciences
• You have already conducted excellent academic research in the given discipline mucosal immunology and preferably mucosal immunology of domestic animals, which is clearly reflected in outstanding publications in national and international peer-reviewed books and/or journals;
• You are didactically skilled to teach university students to develop academic competences;
• Recommended are:
  • Experience in supervising research and/or coaching Ph.D. students;
  • International mobility, among other things thanks to research stays at institutions external to the  one where you acquired your highest academic degree;
  • Positively evaluated experience in provided or organised academic lecturing;
  • Professionalisation of education.

Skills / Attitude

• You are quality-oriented;
• You take initiative;
• You are a team player
• You have good communication skills

Admission requirements

• You hold a thesis-based doctorate 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 1 september 2020. This term of two years is determined by the date written on the above-mentioned required diploma.

APPOINTMENT INFORMATION

• We offer you a temporary appointment as an assistant professor in a tenure track system for a term of five years with a focus on research. If positively evaluated by the University Board, the term of office will be transferred into a permanent appointment as an associate professor. At that moment the time devoted to research, education and academic services may be altered.
• Should you already be a member of the professorial staff or hold an equal post at another university or research institution, you can immediately be appointed as an assistant professor, without prejudice to the possibility of a temporary appointment offered in article V.28 of the Codex of Higher Education.

The recruitment is possible no sooner than 1 september 2020.

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. More information can be found on www.ugent.be/en/living.

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 in which a maximum of 60% of the academic staff with a PhD degree is of the same gender. Female applications are thus especially welcomed.  As long as this goal is not achieved at the level of the group of scientific disciplines involved, the university board will in principle, for positions within this group, give priority to candidates of the underrepresented gender but only in case of equal qualifications of the applicants. This priority is neither automatic nor unconditional; the personal situation of each candidate needs to be taken into consideration in the evaluation at all times.

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 Research Council for advice and subsequently be sent to the University Board for approval.

Candidates are asked to further discuss their 5 most impactful academic achievements. 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 applications or applications that are not sent through the online system.

Your application must include the following documents:

• In the field ‘Cv’: the BOF Tenure Track professorial staff application form + all annexes mentioned in the form (a.o. 5-year research plan and long term research vision), merged into one file of maximum 10 MB.
• 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)

MORE INFORMATION

For further information regarding this vacancy, please contact Professor Eric Cox (eric.cox@UGent.be, +32 09/2647396) at the faculty of Veterinary Medicine, department Virology, Parasitology, Immunology.