PhD Thesis “Microbiomes for improving drought stress resilience of wheat”

We are Austria’s largest research and technology organisation and an international player in applied research for innovative infrastructure solutions. This makes us a powerful development partner for industry and a top employer in the scientific community. Our Center for Health & Bioresources in Tulln (in immediate vicinity to Vienna) invites applications for a:

PhD Thesis “Microbiomes for improving drought stress resilience of wheat”

IMAGINE

• Soil and plant microbiomes are highly important for supporting plant growth and health, and have the potential to improve stress resilience of plants.
• You will be working in a project, which aims to elaborate basic understanding to be able to further develop tools to improve crop production under changing climate conditions.
• You will work in a team with different experts and will be able to learn to work with microorganisms, plants and bioinformatics, and ultimately contribute to an emerging field.

ENGAGE

• In our project we aim to assess the role of soil and plant microbiomes for drought stress alleviation of wheat and to better understand the underlying mechanisms.
• You will use advanced microbiome, metagenome and metatranscriptome analysis as well as analyse isolated bacterial strains.
• You will employ a range of bioinformatic tools to finally elaborate microbial consortia showing beneficial effects on plant growth.

ACHIEVE

• Your work shall lead to excellent publications and a PhD thesis.
• You will obtain expertise in microbiome analysis, plant-microbiome understanding and microbial applications agriculture.

Your qualifications as an Ingenious Partner:

• Master’s degree in Microbiology, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, or a related field
• Ideally you should have experience in common experimental techniques used in microbiology and molecular biology
• Experience in working with microbiome analysis and/or the work with soils and plants is a bonus
• Knowledge of bioinformatic techniques will be beneficial, and the applicant should be ready to learn and employ a range of bioinformatic tools
• Working language will be English and the applicant is expected to be fluent and able to give talks and participate in writing publications

What to expect:

EUR 32.204,20 gross per year for 30 hours/week, for 42 months. There will be additional company benefits. You will be part of our international AIT PhD community and participate in our AIT PhD framework programme . As a research institution, we are familiar with the supervision and execution of PhD theses and we are looking forward to supporting you accordingly!

At AIT, the promotion of diversity is important to us - that's why we are especially looking forward to applications from female candidates!

TOMORROW TODAY - WITH YOU?

Please submit your complete application documents including CV, cover letter and certificates online.