Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy

This full time Natural Environment Research Council funded post is available from 18 March 2024 on a fixed term basis until 17 September 2025. 

Summary of the role

Managing the competition: How do burying beetles and microbes sustainably coexist in competition over shared resources?

The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for a project with Dr Nick Royle, Prof Ben Raymond and Dr David Studholme investigating how burying beetles manage competition from microbes.

The post will involve producing and sequencing resistant and evolved bacteria, investigating the role of antimicrobial combinations on the relative fitness of resistant mutants, selecting for the evolution of resistance of bacteria in vivo to investigate the role of a diverse bacterial community and characterizing bacterial communities with 16S metabarcoding and the expression of beetle antimicrobials via transcriptomics. In addition, the PDRF will be responsible for day-to-day management of the lab, data collection and analysis and primary results write-up. 

You will join the Centre for Ecology & Conservation at the Penryn campus which provides a world class research environment in ecology with a particularly strong track record in microbial ecology and evolution , insect evolutionary biology and antimicrobial resistance research .  

About you

The successful applicant should be a microbiologist/evolutionary biologist, with broad knowledge in the discipline and excellent organisational ability who works well in a team.  They would be expected to be capable of working independently; preparing data for publication and presentation at conferences and willing to assist in training of graduate students.

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study. The ideal successful applicant will have demonstrable expertise in microbiology or evolutionary biology and sufficient molecular biology experience to prepare samples for sequencing. It would be desirable for candidates to have good quantitative/statistical and experimental design skills. Prior experience working on experimental evolution, especially with insects or microbes, would also be an advantage, as would some experience of bioinformatic analysis.   

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

What we can offer you

• Freedom (and the support) to pursue your intellectual interests and to work creatively across disciplines to produce internationally exciting research;
• Support teams that understand the University wide research and teaching goals and partner with our academics accordingly
• An Innovation, Impact and Business directorate that works closely with our academics providing specialist support for external engagement and development
• Our Exeter Academic initiative supporting high performing academics to achieve their potential and develop their career

• A beautiful campus set in the heart of stunning Devon.

The University of Exeter

We are a member of the prestigious Russell Group of research-intensive universities and in the top 200 universities in the world (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 and QS World University Ranking 2024).  We combine world-class teaching with world-class research, achieving a Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework Award 2023, underpinned by Gold ratings for Student Experience and Student Outcomes.

Our world-leading research impact has grown more than any other Russell Group university in recent years, and we are home to some of the world’s most influential researchers, seeking to answer some of the most fundamental issues facing humankind today.  More than 99% of our research is of international quality and 47% is world-leading (2021 Research Excellence Framework).

We encourage proactive engagement with industry, business and community partners to enhance the impact of research and education and improve the employability of our students. Read about our world leading research – Green Futures and how we are transforming education for a changing world. We are located in a beautiful part of the country and Exeter (a fast growing tech hub) is one of only a few UK cities to have been designated as a UNESCO Creative City

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment

We are committed to ensuring reasonable adjustments are available for interviews and workplaces.

Whilst all applicants will be judged on merit alone, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently underrepresented within our working community. 

With over 30,000 students and 7,000 staff from 150 different countries we offer a diverse and engaging environment where our diversity is celebrated and valued as a major strength. We are committed to creating an inclusive culture where all members of our community are supported to thrive; where diverse voices are heard through our engagement with evidence-based charter frameworks for gender (Athena SWAN and Project Juno for Physics), race equality (Race Equality Charter Mark), LGBTQ+ inclusion (Stonewall Diversity Champion) and as a Disability Confident employer.

Further information

Please contact Dr Nick Royle (e-mail: [email protected] , tel: 07749 010091) or Prof Ben Raymond (email: [email protected] ).