NZAGRC Senior Scientist – AgResearch
An opportunity has opened for an experienced and passionate scientist to join the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC).
The role requires monitoring New Zealand’s science input into the Global Research Alliance and providing underpinning advice on collaborative research between New Zealand and international scientists from a range of disciplines. This will include overseeing the administration of large integrated research programmes. You will provide the NZAGRC with advice and leadership in climate change research.
Job Description
- Assess quality and delivery of science inputs against programme milestones
- Assist in the development of a new, collaborative research programme
- Provide underpinning knowledge on climate change and climate change policy
- Compile written science recommendations suitable for policy audiences
- Ensure research contracted by the NZAGRC is of the highest standards
- Establish sound working relations and collaboration between key stakeholders
Ideal candidate background
- PhD degree in a climate change related discipline with particular emphasis on agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation
- Proven track record of research and development in agriculture
- Experience in negotiation, administration and monitoring of research contracts and research outputs
- Working knowledge of evidence informed policy establishment
- Knowledge and interest in New Zealand pastoral agriculture industries
AgResearch provide a diverse range of benefits including flexible working options that help our staff balance their own lifestyle and needs with their work commitments.
Applications
For a confidential discussion contact Harry Clark, NZAGRC Director on 06 351 8334
See here for more information and to apply. Applications close 5pm, Thursday 14 June 2018
An opportunity for a Bio-economy Specialist has arisen in the Livestock Information, Sector Analysis and Policy Branch (AGAL) of the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome. AGAL provides information services and carries out analysis in support of technical and policy interventions towards sustainable livestock sector, focussing on social, economic and environmental pillars.
Tasks and responsibilities:
- Provide expertise and support the implementation of FAO work on the sustainability of livestock production systems;
- Develop a strong research base delivering fundamental knowledge on the reduction of waste streams and utilization of nutrients and biomass in the livestock systems;
- Collect, research and analyses technical information for assessing the contribution of the livestock supply chains to the circular bio-economy;
- Identify the opportunities and challenges to implement the circular bio-economy concept in livestock production systems, considering heterogeneity between supply chains and regions;
- Evaluate the economic, social and environmental performance of livestock systems;
- Understand the role of policy actions in promoting the bio-economy including the review of existing initiatives and policies that promote circular bio-economy for livestock sector and identify the role of different stakeholders;
- Perform any other tasks as required.
Minimum Requirements
- Advanced university degree in Agricultural Economics or Agricultural Sciences with emphasis on animal science, agro-technology
- At least 3-5 years of relevant experience in research on circular economy, sustainable food systems, environmental and socioeconomic assessments of food systems
- Working knowledge of English or French and limited knowledge of one of the other French or Spanish, Arabic, Chinese or Russian
HOW TO APPLY
To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Only applications received through the recruitment portal will be considered.
The deadline for applications is 23:59 Central European Time (CET) on 31 May 2018. We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.
If you need help, or have queries, please contact: [email protected]
Our partner, the Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), has released its April 2018 newsletter. This edition includes information on their 2018 Award for an individual or group’s exceptional contribution to reducing short-lived climate pollutants, including in the area of agriculture.
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Entries and nominations are for projects, programs and policies that demonstrate:
To submit an entry, nominate a group or individual, or learn more about the awards program, visit the website. Entries will be accepted until Monday, 4 June 2018. Winners announced this September. If you have any questions you can contact the Climate & Clean Air Coalition Secretariat at [email protected] or at (+33) 1 44 37 14 73. |
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The first successful candidates of the GRA and CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change (CCAFS) joint CLIFF-GRADS initiative have been announced.
CLIFF-GRADS is a new international doctorate scholarship programme designed to support budding agricultural scientists.
Some 65 applicants from 23 countries applied for the scholarship following its launch at the United Nations climate conference in November last year. The nine successful first-round candidates come from a range of countries including Argentina, Ethiopia, Colombia, Nigeria and Tunisia.
Scholarship recipients will work in a range of research fields including nutrient management, pasture management, soil and rumen microbiology, tropical agriculture, and greenhouse gas measurement.
The awardees are:
- Abubakar Halilu, Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria
- Sebastián Vangeli, National Institute of Agricultural Technology, Argentina
- Ridha Ibidhi, Mediterranean Institute for Agricultural Economics of Zaragoza, Tunisia
- Yohannes Gelan Regassa, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia
- Isabel Cristina Molina Botero, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, Colombia
- Banira Lombardi, National University of the Centre of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- María De Bernardi, National University of the Centre of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Florencia Garcia, National University of Córdoba, Argentina
- Ofonime Eyo, Pan African University institute of Life and Earth Sciences (University of Ibadan), Nigeria
They will be hosted by research organisations in six countries:
- International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia
- Rothamsted Research and Bangor University, United Kingdom
- Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
- International Centre for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT), India and Bangladesh
- National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA), Chile
The latest letter from FACCE-SURPLUS (Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture for Food and Non-Food Systems) is now available. This edition includes information on the upcoming International Conference on Agricultural GHG Emissions and Food Security – Connecting Research to Policy and Practice
The latest newsletter of our Partner, Global Open Data on Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN), is now available. This edition includes information on the Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Congress and an article on how to make agricultural research data more discoverable, reusable and reproducable.
The Global Research Alliance has reached a milestone membership of 50 volunteer member countries from around the world. Our 50th Member, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has joined us as the result of discussions at the Japan Pavilion side event at the COP23 Event in Bonn last year. We would like to thank Japan for hosting this event.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is our seventh African country to have joined the membership of the GRA, and we are looking forward to working together to help grow more food while reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
Below is a list of all our 50 Member Countries:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Belgium
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ghana
- Honduras
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Lithuania
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Norway
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Senegal
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- Tunisia
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- Uruguay
- Vietnam
- Zimbabwe
The Global Research Alliance has updated our website to include a list of all our current Affiliates.
The page can be viewed alongside our Partners on our Community page, and shows the organisations represented by our 49 Member countries and by invited experts who participate in our Networks.
The March issue of the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-ERA-GAS) newsletter is now available.
This issue mentions the International Conference on Agricultural GHG Emissions and Food Security – Connecting research to policy and practice (September 10-13), which will be held alongside the GRA’s annual Council meeting in Berlin (September 10-11).
Read the newsletter here
Scientists in the LRG’s Rumen Microbial Genomics Network have had their work to develop a global reference set of genome sequences of rumen microbes published in Nature Biotechnology.
The project, called the Hungate1000*, was led by New Zealand scientists Dr Bill Kelly and Dr Sinead Leahy and brought together nearly 60 scientists from 14 research organisations across nine countries**. This global collaboration has generated a reference catalogue of 501 rumen microbial genomes—before Hungate1000, just 15 rumen microbial genomes were available to the scientific community.
Dr Kelly says the project gives a new understanding of what exactly is taking place inside a rumen.
“Hungate1000 means we can now start to reveal the intricacies of how the rumen microbial community functions, and provide a roadmap for where to take the science next,” he says. “This data can be translated into interventions that are globally useful, such as identifying targets for vaccines and inhibitors to reduce methane emissions and improve productivity, among other things.”
Dr Leahy says the project represents a major scientific advancement in the field of rumen microbiology, an area of science that up until recently had largely been unexplored.
“These microbes in the stomachs of ruminants are crucially important—they convert grass and other dietary components into smaller compounds that the sheep or cow uses to make meat and milk,” she says. “The data we’ve made available with Hungate1000 will underpin the development of technologies to target these microbes and aid productivity or reduce greenhouse gas emissions—you need to know what you’re targeting to make a specific impact on the rumen microbiome environment.”
Dr Andy Reisinger, Deputy Director of the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) and New Zealand representative in the LRG, says Hungate1000 is central to the work that the LRG and New Zealand are leading.
“Hungate1000 shows what a powerhouse the rumen is in converting digestible plant material to energy, and gives us a much better understanding of how we might be able to use science to influence that process,” he says. “This will help us find ways not only to enhance productivity but also to achieve emissions reductions and deliver solutions to farmers—such as inhibitors and vaccines—that don’t affect their economic baselines.”
In line with the GRA’s philosophy that research should be conducted in a manner that ensures the widest possible benefit, the Hungate1000 data is publicly available as a community resource on the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute website.
The Hungate1000 was funded by the New Zealand Govenrment in support of the GRA. The genome sequencing and analysis component of the project was supported by the US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute via its Community Science Program.
Dr Harry Clark, NZAGRC Director and Co-chair of the LRG, says Hungate1000 would not have come about without the GRA and the support of the New Zealand Government.
“This project shows the power of international collaboration—we’ve been able to bring scientists together from around the world to create this resource that can benefit all countries,” he says. “We’re already looking at ways that the Hungate1000 data can be exploited in future LRG collaborations.”
One such example is RumenPredict, a European-funded project that will bring together Hungate1000 and the Global Rumen Census (an earlier New Zealand-funded LRG collaboration) to link rumen microbiome information to host genetics and phenotype and develop feed-based mitigation strategies.
Dr Kelly says he and the rest of the Hungate1000 team are delighted to see their work published in Nature Biotechnology.
“It’s the culmination of a long journey and a lot of work, and we have achieved something that I think is really worthwhile,” he says. “The kudos of getting something published in a high-impact journal like Nature Biotechnology is enormous, and highlights the value of this work to a global audience.”
* So named after Bob Hungate, an American scientist who developed the pioneering technique of growing anaerobic bacteria that has been the cornerstone of the project.
** Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, USA, Wales
The ‘International Conference on Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Food Security – Connecting Research Policy & Practice’ has opened a call for abstracts.
The conference will focus on agricultural GHG emission reduction in the light of climate change, sustainable agriculture, and food security.
Under the guiding question “What are options, global potentials and visions to the mitigation of greenhouse gases and the enhancement of carbon sinks by agriculture?” we would like to broaden the scope of the scientific conference and focus on holistic, integrative state-of the art research in the light of political and societal challenges relevant for implementing climate action under the Paris agreement.
Abstracts must be submitted by the 30th April using the website: http://www.agrighg-2018.org.
Thursday 8 March was 2018 International Women’s Day. Our Partner, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) posted some short interviews on their website, showing how researchers are pushing for progress in the area of gender equality in agriculture. Dr Leocadio Sebastian, Regional Program Leader of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), addressed the goal of equal access to climate-smart agriculture for hands-on female farmers across the globe:
“Our studies reveal that [women] have less access to climate-smart technologies, training, and information compared to men. Our research focuses on how we can help reduce women’s drudgery in rice production, provide women access to climate information, and engage them in community-based climate-smart technologies and practices. For example, our project, “Using Agro-Climate Information to Enhance the Adaptive Capacity of Women and Ethnic Minority Smallholders” in Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR, has a strong gender-focus and will closely monitor climate information in terms of acceptability to men and women. We also promote climate-smart rice varieties, such as improved salt-tolerant rice varieties, to reduce replanting, a task which is relegated to poor women. We help empower women with technical knowledge through training, demonstration trials, and participatory community-based activities like backyard swine production using local materials for feed ration.”