Associate Scientist

ICRISAT seeks applications from dynamic Indian nationals for Associate Scientist to support ICRISAT™s Seed systems team under Global Research Program Accelerated Crop Improvement. This position is based at ICRISAT Headquarters, near Greater Hyderabad, Telangana State, India.

ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi- arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these disadvantaged populations to overcome poverty, hunger, and a degraded environment through better agricultural production systems.

ICRISAT is headquartered at Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and eight country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT envisions prosperous, food-secure, and resilient dryland tropics. Its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics. ICRISAT conducts research on its mandated crops of chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The Institute focuses its work on drylands and in protecting the environment. Tropical dryland areas are usually seen as resource-poor and perennially beset by shocks such as drought, thereby trapping dryland communities in poverty and hunger and making them dependent on external aid. Please visit  www.icrisat.org

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Work closely with the ICRISAT Breeding teams, Trait scientists, other scientists (planning crop improvement trials), Data Management and Analytical Support (DMAS) and NARS partners in South Asia, for moving the ICRISAT breeding material to partners for multi’environment testing (MET)
• In consultation with Product Placement Lead (PPL), engage with lead scientists and their team members- Scientific Officers, Post-doctoral Research Associates, Crop Improvement Operations Team (CIOT), and DMAS team for timely shipment of seed, trial information and trial protocol
• In association with Scientist and PPL, support regular on-ground monitoring of MET in NARS locations through-out growth stages of crop, support NARS on trial protocol implementation, data collection, and use of digital devices
• Responsible for distribution of required consumables, bar-code generation, field trial books development, enabling electronic data capture, annual calibration of moisture meters and precision balances to facilitate quality data collection and supporting national partners
• In association with Scientist, PPL and team facilitate uploading of the MET data received from partners in to BMS with support from DMAS
• Refine standard operating procedures for stage1 and stage2 trialing and documentation related to modern trialing and testing strategies
• Identifying capacity building needs of partners and working with PPL to increase trial quality (based on pre-defined quality metrics)
• Contribute to developing reports, stage and gate templates as guided by the supervisor from time to time
• Production of Breeder Seed of ICRISAT-bred varieties released through partners, as per the indents received from Govt of India
• Liaison with certification agencies and arranging monitoring team visits to breeder seed plots, seed processing and supplying to various partners
• Perform other related activities as per the guidance of the supervisor

Requirement:

• Ph D Plant Breeding / Genetics/ with minimum 3 years (post PhD) of relevant experience in CG Centers/ ICAR/SAUs/Seed Industry/other Agri Industry. Person with experience in quantitate genetics, and expertise in multi environment testing, data-driven product advancement and knowledge of statistics (specially design of experiment) is preferred. Any discipline related to Crop Sciences
• Experience in Field experimentation (Field layout, field book), data analysis and interpretation (GENSTAT, R and SAAS)
• Experience in quality seed production, monitoring and seed processing is preferred
• Sound knowledge of MS Office programs, breeding data analysis, and experience of working with breeding data management systems is desirable
• Experience or knowledge of using additional technologies (e.g., markers, drones, AI/ML based tools) to assess performance of breeding material will be an added advantage
• Preferred multi-lingual with good communication and presentation skills, report, SOP writing skills are added advantage
• Working in teams must have skill

General:

This is a contractual role for a period of 36 months (3 years).

How to apply:

Applicants should apply on or before 27 August 2023, with their latest Resume, and the names and contact information of three references that are knowledgeable about their professional qualifications and work experience. All applications will be acknowledged; however only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

ICRISAT is an equal opportunity employer.