Jobs 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

go to method of application »

The purpose of this job is to lead research on sustainable value chains and investments at CIFOR-ICRAF including nurturing strategic partnerships and policy engagement; develop and lead a fundraising strategy and manage the resulting project portfolio to ensure sustainable staffing and development of the research area and its policy and development impact; oversee the design and consistent use of analytical and methodological approaches; and, ensure organized collection and archiving of evidence, and production of high quality scientific outputs commensurate with the size of the theme (number of staff and funding).

Duties and responsibilities

• Formulating and developing world leading research on sustainable value chains and investments together with other themes and geographic units at CIFOR-ICRAF and external partners in the public and private sector and obtaining resources for CIFOR-ICRAF and partners to use in the implementation
• Setting medium and annual goals and targets for the theme monitoring their achievement with appropriate KPIs.
• Formulating, developing, and sustaining partnerships with key research, donors, policy, and development organizations
• Leading the development of project proposals and relationships with donors together with principal investigators (PIs) across the theme and other CIFOR-ICRAF units and partners as appropriate
• Managing, in liaison with Principal Investigators, the sequencing, content and implementation of projects within the portfolio including participation in projects to ensure sustainable funding of staff, development of the research area and documentation of its contribution to policy engagement; use of inclusive business models, sustainability of supply chains and responsible financing in the private sector; and development impact.
• Monitoring career and capacity development opportunities and working arrangements for staff contributing to the theme inclusive of mentoring of scientists and PhD students.
• Providing scientific guidance to ensure that the concepts and methods of the research carried out are appropriate and meet the highest scientific standards, reflecting up to date scientific methods and concepts.
• Identifying and supporting progress along impact pathways to ensure the relevance of research to target policy arenas, private sector actors and practitioner communities.
• Leading in publication of high impact scientific articles in ISI journals, including participating in writing of articles and facilitating publication of high-quality articles by scientists associated with the theme.
• Supervising the probity and accessibility of evidence generated by scientists working on research areas covered by the theme at CIFOR-ICRAF and the scientific quality of outputs.
• Ensuring that the number and quality of scientific outputs produced by the theme is commensurate with the staffing and funding of the theme.
• Ensuring that scientific evidence is conveyed to next users, including policy-makers and private sector actors through appropriate engagement and products in appropriate formats (engagement in policy fora and with the private sector, policy briefs, manuals, leaflets, training courses, etc).
• In liaison with CIFOR-ICRAF’s communication, outreach and engagement unit, ensuring that advances in the research area of the theme are widely promoted through conferences and other events, popular articles, blogs and social media.

Requirements

• PhD in a relevant field with 15 years research experience.
• Proven track record of high impact research both in terms of scientific articles and their policy and practical impact.
• Proven track record of policy engagement and productive relationships with the private sector.
• Reporting skills and attention to detail
• Excellent writing skills.
• Organizational skills.
• Has initiative and capable of working independently as well as an effective team player.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to effectively interact with people in a trans-disciplinary and multi-cultural environment.

Education, knowledge and experience

• PhD in a relevant field with 15 years research experience.
• Proven track record of high impact research both in terms of scientific articles and their policy and practical impact.
• Proven track record of policy engagement and productive relationships with the private sector.

The application deadline is 06 Mar, 2023