There is an open call position for a postdoctoral researcher within the ERC Starting Grant “Greenhouses as Vital Landscapes: Sustainability, Relationality, and the Future of Food” (VITALGREENHOUSE<https://vitalgreenhouse.eu/>) led by Rebeca Ibáñez Martín. VITALGREENHOUSE is hosted at the Meertens Institute (KNAW) and the Anthropology department (UvA) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Application deadline: June 8, 2026
Starting date: September 1, 2026
Contract: 2 years (24 months), 0.8 FTE
VITALGREENHOUSE Project:
“In Europe, horticultural greenhouses are under pressure to adapt to changing needs. The push to enhance productivity, coupled with concerns about land, biodiversity loss, and chemical exposure, is challenging Europe’s traditional industrial production model. VITALGREENHOUSE brings anthropological and ethnographic insight into the complex world of industrial greenhouse agriculture. From the nurseries of the Netherlands to the greenhouses of southern Spain, we investigate how growing practices, other than human dynamics, and technological systems intersect to shape food production in Europe. The project investigate how scientists, growers, workers, and environmental groups enact various forms of sustainability in an around the greenhouses”.
Postdoctoral Position:
“Digital agricultural innovations are often framed by policymakers, international organisations, and private actors as key drivers of sustainable agricultural transitions. This postdoctoral position focuses on the digitalisation of greenhouse horticulture — one of the most contested political and socio-ecological dimensions of contemporary industrial food production. The postodoctoral reseracher will investigate the relationship between digitalisation and sustainability within the framework of the EU Green Deal, developing their own empirical case study — conducting fieldwork in the Netherlands, Spain, or both countries, depending on prior research experience to produce an ethnographic account of digitalisation in greenhouse horticulture”.
More information here: https://vacatures.knaw.nl/job/Amsterdam-Postdoctoral-Researcher-in-Anthropology-Digitalisation-in-Greenhouse-Horticulture-Meertens/1351501955/