Research Assistant or Research Fellow in Soil Microbial Metagenomics

School/Department: School of Water, Energy and Environment
Based at: Cranfield Campus, Cranfield, Bedfordshire
Hours of work: 37 hours per week, normally worked Monday to Friday. Flexible working will be considered.
Contract type: Fixed term contract
Fixed Term Period: For 2 Years
Salary: Research Assistant: Full time starting salary is normally in the range of £32,810 per annum. (if close to obtaining PhD) Research Fellow: Full time starting salary is normally in the
range of £35,559 per annum. (If PhD obtained)
Apply by: 07/05/2023

Role Description

About the Role

The person we are seeking will be engaged in planning and carrying out research, involving processing, and analysing soil metagenomic data (selecting and implementing appropriate algorithms and pipelines) from samples across a range of restoration sites, as part of the NERC funded “Restoring resilient Ecosystems” Project (RestReco),  https://restreco.com/

Your focus will be on understanding microbial community structure, diversity and complexity in restoration sites, incorporating metagenomics, results synthesis, production, and dissemination of outputs, working with collaborators across the Consortium producing similar data and synthesis with differing plant and animal groups, and other measures of complexity, in order to deliver on project objectives.

About You

You will be educated to doctoral level or equivalent experience in bioinformatics and ideally have experience in ecology/microbiology. You will have expertise in bioinformatics and statistical analysis of results, and a peer-reviewed journal publication record, with personal ‘drive’ to produce high quality manuscripts, some led by you, some as part of the wider RestReco team.

About Us

As a specialist postgraduate university, Cranfield’s world-class expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships are creating leaders in technology and management globally. Learn more about Cranfield and our unique impact here .

The Environment and Agrifood Theme combines research groups with 50+ years of experience in contributing to societal challenges such as sustainability, enhancing natural capital and future global food systems resilience. We have substantive worldwide recognition by industry, government and academe for our research and teaching in food biosciences, soil, digital and sustainability.. Find out more about our work here https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/themes/environment-and-agrifood

Our Values and Commitments

Our shared, stated values help to define who we are and underpin everything we do: Ambition; Impact; Respect; and Community. Find out more here .

We aim to create and maintain a culture in which everyone can work and study together and realise their full potential. We are a Disability Confident Employer and proud members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme. We are committed to actively exploring flexible working options for each role and have been ranked in the Top 30 family friendly employers in the UK by the charity Working Families . Find out more about our key commitments to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Flexible Working here .

Working Arrangements

Collaborating and connecting are integral to so much of what we do. Our Working Arrangements Framework provides many staff with the opportunity to flexibly combine on-site and remote working, where job roles allow, balancing the needs of our community of staff, students, clients and partners.                            

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Dr. Alexey Larionov, Lecturer in Bioinformatics, on (T): +44 774 377 8884 or (E): [email protected]

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details on E: [email protected] . Please quote reference number 4497.