Job Description
The Role
The Institute of Biological, Environmental & Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University carries out research and innovation on grassland systems. The institute is strategically funded by the BBSRC and traces its crop science history back to the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, established in 1919. BBSRC strategic investment funds the Core Strategic Programme in Resilient Crops which includes research on forage crops, upland grasslands, Miscanthus and oats. This strategic science is translated through plant breeding programmes, in collaboration with commercial partners, for forage grasses and legumes, cereals and pulses, and energy crops with many varieties on national and recommended lists. We have assembled unique germplasm and curate one of the most significant collections of forage grasses and legumes globally within a state-of-the-art genebank facility. This extensive crop biodiversity is subjected to powerful phenotyping and genotyping technologies to understand the biological mechanisms of yield quantity, quality and the stability of both. Our farmed environments and trial plots range from maritime, temperate locations that are amongst the most productive in Europe; to the uplands where grasslands deliver important agro-ecosystem, tourism supporting and well-being services. The genetic resources, the expertise of IBERS’ plant, animal and microbial scientists, the close involvement of industry, and the Institute’s’ position as a knowledge hub for extension services, training, and capacity building, deliver demonstrable people and planet benefits.
As part of our ongoing commitment to the role of forages crops in sustainable agriculture and building on our close working relationship with Germinal, we are seeking to appoint a highly motivated and experienced research scientist to lead research on translational plant breeding research at IBERS with a focus on the Germinal forage plant breeding programmes. The ideal applicant will have an established research background in plant genomics and phenomics and their application to plant breeding.