Research Associate - Transform at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Duties and responsibilities

Breeding Technical support

• Provide technical support to NARES and CGIAR breeding networks to implement and operationalize tools and services provided by the Excellence in Breeding Platform and the OneCGIAR Genetic Innovations Action Areas.
• Provide support to the NARES - CGIAR networks for the improvement of seed systems and breeding operations in East Africa in coordination with supervisor.
• Provide technical support to the Transform group and NARES breeding programs to assemble product design teams, conduct national market segmentation and develop product profiles for priority market segments.
• Provide support to priority CGIAR-NARES breeding networks in East Africa to cost out their breeding operations in coordination with thematic leader.

Database management:

• Learn and operate the Breeding Management System (BMS) or the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS) to support priority NARES breeding programs to digitize historical, current trials and nursery data, and closely engage with the thematic leader in Transform to scale support.
• Support priority NARES breeding programs to get their current season's activities onto BMS/EBS and to the RTB crops database.

Training and Supervision of casual labor

• Organize and run EiB CGIAR-NARES workshops as required to achieve the deliverables indicated above.
• Organize and facilitate trainings for the CGIAR-NARES regional networks on various topics from the core domain in East Africa.
• Supervise contract and casual labor in multi-location.

Education, knowledge and experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Science or Master Science in Plant Breeding, Agricultural Sciences, Biotechnology or Statistics
• Basic understanding of plant breeding, experimental design, seed systems, breeding operations and applied research.
• Basic Supervisory skills and experience
• At least three (3) years of industry or academic experience in the management of agricultural activities or research projects.
• Good writing records, computing software and other IT materials
• Ability to work independently with minimal day to day supervision and proactively solve problems
• Driving License and ability to travel independently in East Africa.

Personal attributes and competencies

• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate with CGIAR – NARES network partners. Participates/contributes to publishing of journals.
• Manage allocated resources within a single work area.
• Comfortable with creating posts for our social media platforms.
• Ability to work independently and well within teams.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate with CGIAR – NARES network partners. Participates/contributes to publishing of journals.
• Manage allocated resources within a single work area.
• Comfortable with creating posts for our social media platforms.
• Ability to work independently and well within teams.

The application deadline is 11 Feb, 2023