Research Associate

ternational Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a Research Associate on behalf of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

ILRI is a not-for-profit institution with a staff of about 700 and in 2015, an operating budget of about USD83 million. A member of the CGIAR Consortium (www.cgiar.org) working for a food-secure future, ILRI has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, a principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and offices in other countries in East, West and Southern Africa and in South, Southeast and East Asia.

ILRI hosts the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nairobi. IITA (www.iita.org) with its headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria, works with partners throughout Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to support on two on-going projects;
  • GIZ project which aims at developing, testing and transferring a ‘Virus Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS)’ system for cassava to IITA-Nairobi,
  • BMGF funded project which works to address solutions to cassava brown streak disease (CBSD)
• Work with a post-doctoral scientist on Ribonucleic acid (RNA) Sequencing experiments for gene discovery from various sources of tolerance to CBSD.
• Work with a post-doctoral scientist to establish a VIGS system for cassava to validate candidate genes.
• Conduct virus diagnostics including both end-point and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• Support validation of SNP markers associated with quantitative trait loci (QTL) for CBSD tolerance and marker-assisted breeding activities.

Requirements

• MSc in Biochemistry, biotechnology or related field.
• At least five years of practical experience in a research laboratory.
• Experience with growing plants in under glasshouse conditions and in the field would be an advantage.
• The incumbent should have experience with general molecular biology techniques as well as RT-PCR diagnostics, in vitro culture and recombinant DNA techniques.
• He/she should be able to record and present results and compile reports to a high standard.
• He/she should have experience with laboratory management.
• The person must be willing to travel to European labs for capacity building purposes, and be willing to engage in capacity development through training courses.
• Experience with general molecular biology techniques as well as RT-PCR diagnostics, in vitro culture and recombinant DNA techniques.

Terms of appointment: This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position based at ILRI’s Nairobi campus. It is open to Kenyan nationals only. The position is for a 3 years fixed term period

Job level and salary: This position is job level 2D and the successful candidate will be awarded a competitive salary and benefits package.

How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development through our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ before 6 April 2015. The position title and reference number; RA/IITA /03/15 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the online application.

To find out more about ILRI, visit our websites at http://www.ilri.org

To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at http://www.ilri.org/ilricrowd/