The mission of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) as a nationally and internationally active research institute is to deliver solutions for an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable agriculture – together with society. ZALF is a member of the Leibniz Association and is located in Müncheberg (approx. 35 minutes by regional train from Berlin-Lichtenberg). It also maintains a research station with further locations in Dedelow and Paulinenaue.

The Working Group “Governance of Ecosystem Services” is seeking a motivated student assistant to join our team. Our group focuses on the analysis of market- and community-based instruments designed to incentivize the provision of ecosystem services as public goods—both for specific beneficiaries and for society at large. Our research is inter- and transdisciplinary, with a strong emphasis on empirical case studies in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

The position is part of the research project ‘KoMBi’ (collective models to support biodiversity) that aims to support the development and implementation of collective agri-environmental and climate schemes (AECS) in different federal states in Germany. The project consortium, coordinated by NABU, consists of three academic institutions and practice stakeholders from different German states (e.g., land care associations).

To support the KoMBi project team, we are offering a temporary position as a student assistant (up to 40h/month) at our campus in Müncheberg, starting 01.12.2025 until 31.08.2026.

• Organizational tasks, e.g., prepare meetings and workshops, follow-up with writing minutes, etc.
• Assist in facilitating stakeholder workshops that require overnight stays at various locations in Germany
• Support in our empirical work, e.g., literature search, interview transcriptions, online surveys, data cleaning and handling, etc.
• Assist in preparing research results for publication, including presentation on the project website

• Student in economics, agricultural economics, human geography, or related fields of study
• Interest in scientific work, prior experience with scientific work is of advantage
• Very good communication skills in German and English (oral and written)
• Joy in actively working in an interdisciplinary and international research team

• A friendly working environment in an international working group
• Option to conduct up to 40% of your monthly working hours as mobile work
• Salary according to the usual hourly rates for student/scientific assistants in Brandenburg State

ZALF promotes equality among all employees and welcomes applications regardless of ethnic, cultural, or social background, age, religion, ideology, disability, gender, or sexual identity. The filling of the position in part-time is possible in principle. Please send your application preferably online (see button online application below). For e-mail applications, create a PDF document (one PDF file, max. 5 MB; packed PDF documents, archive files like zip, rar etc. Word documents cannot be processed and therefore cannot be considered!) with the usual documents, in particular CV, proof of qualification and certificates, stating the reference number 61-2025 until 02 November 2025 to (see button e-mail application below).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Tobias Vorlaufer (tobias.vorlaufer@zalf.de).

For cost reasons, application documents or extensive publications can only be returned if an adequately stamped envelope is attached.

If you apply, we collect and process your personal data in accordance with Articles 5 and 6 of the EU GDPR only for the processing of your application and for purposes that result from possible future employment with the ZALF. Your data will be deleted after six months.