THE ORGANIZATION

The Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

The Alliance works with local, national, and multinational partners across Sub Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia, and with public and private sectors. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services.

Background of the position

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT have initiated a project, titled Artemis. Artemis is developing AI technology to enable on-farm breeding. Crop breeding is one of the foundations of agriculture, under the current breeding systems a common assumption is that it takes 10 years to develop a new variety. Given the pace of climate change this timeframe is no longer viable. New approaches are needed to speed up the breeding cycle and enable a greater synchrony between plant breeding and on-farm conditions, shifting breeding from a majority on-station to majority on-farm process. Artemis is addressing this issue by leveraging the power of technology to enable breeding programs with a new generation of AI-powered and smartphone-deployable tools. The principal technology is computer vision phenotyping, with explorations into multimodal data that integrates speech and text to actively integrate farmers into the plant improvement process. Artemis is currently in the second investment phase, having been featured recently in Reuters.

The Research Assistant I will assist in organising and conducting field research agronomy trials in support of image acquisition for AI modeling and standard operating procedure (SOP) development.

Key duties & responsibilities

• Assist with the technical planning of agronomic field trials
• Assist land preparation
• Assist with agronomic management, including agricultural input application (seeds, fertilizers, crop protection), irrigation, and weeding
• Assist data collection (imagery and traditional agronomic data – e.g. crop-cut yield measurements)
• Work with the software and technical engineering team to test and iterate on SOP development and other execution-oriented tasks
• Work with the user research group to better understand breeding and agronomic process flows as well as iterative testing of app model development

Requirements

• BSc or Diploma in agronomy, plant breeding, or related agricultural fields
• Demonstrated experience in managing agronomy research trials
• Professional working proficiency in English
• Basic understanding skills with Microsoft Office and related software (e.g. Excel, Google Sheets, Word, Google Docs, etc).
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across teams and stakeholders in the agricultural and research fields.
• Great organisational skills, including time management, ability to multitask.

Terms of employment

This is a nationally recruited position based in Arusha, Tanzania. The initial contract will be for one year subject to a probation period of three months and is renewable depending on performance and availability of resources. This position is graded at BG04 level in a scale of BG01 to BG14 (BG14 being the highest level according to the Alliance job classification framework policy). We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits including but not limited to insurance, retirement plan, staff training and development, paid time off and flexible working arrangements.

The Alliance Bioversity-CIAT is committed to fair, safe, and inclusive workplaces. We believe that diversity powers our innovation, contributes to our excellence, and is critical for our mission. Recruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization that reflects our global character is a priority. We encourage applicants from all cultures, races, colors, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability statuses, sexual orientations, marital status, and gender identities. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Applications

Applicants are invited to visit https://alliancebioversityciat.org/careers to get full details of the position and to submit their applications. Applications MUST include reference number RFPxxxxx – Research Assistant I as the position applied for. Cover letter and CV should be saved as one document using the candidate’s last name, first name for ease of sorting. The Alliance collects and process personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Applications closing date: 26th June 2024

Please note that email applications will not be considered.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

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