Group Leaders, Generative Biology Institute
Responsible for leading and managing an independent research group within the Generative Biology Institute (GBI), delivering a program of bold, ambitious and transformational research broadly aligned with GBI’s vision of making biology engineerable and unlocking its potential for good.
Key Responsibilities
* Set the research direction for your group and ensure research activity aligns with that direction and directly supports GBI’s vision.
* Recruit and manage a team of outstanding researchers, including postdocs, doctoral students, research assistants and other scientists.
* Mentor early‑career researchers to achieve the group’s goals and advance their career objectives.
* Collaborate with other groups within GBI and with colleagues across the broader EIT family to deliver bold, ambitious research that would not be possible within an individual group.
* Help shape GBI’s facilities as part of the scientific strategy for delivering the institute’s vision.
Essential Knowledge, Skills & Experience
* A PhD in a relevant scientific discipline (e.g., synthetic biology, computational biology and AI, microbial, plant and human cell biology, genomics, robotics and automation, nucleic acid chemistry).
* A strong publication record demonstrating the ability to deliver bold, ambitious, transformational advances.
* A track record of building and managing collaborations, both internally and with external academic and/or industry partners.
* Strong communication and leadership skills, with the ability to engage senior researchers, technical teams and external stakeholders.
* Experience running an independent group as a Professor, Associate Professor or Assistant Professor, or a strong application for the first independent position.
* Experience in a commercial setting (e.g., biotech companies leveraging AI for research) is welcomed.
Our Proposition For Group Leaders
* Substantial core funding for posts, consumables and equipment matched to project needs.
* Availability of additional posts to support specific research projects, especially collaborative initiatives.
* Opportunity to supervise graduate students and participate in the doctoral programme in generative biology established through the Oxford‑EIT alliance.
* Access to cutting‑edge facilities including mass‑spectrometry, flow cytometry, imaging, automation, and sequencing, with intentions to expand in line with GBI’s strategy.
* Significant compute capacity and capability in partnership with EIT’s AI team.
* Encouragement to publish work from the group.
* Opportunity to translate research with commercial application into a separate company in partnership with GBI’s translational team, with financial and operational support from EIT.
* Support for faculty appointments at Oxford University, building on the Oxford‑EIT Alliance (where appropriate).
We Offer The Following Benefits
* Globally competitive salary and bonus.
* Pension and travel allowance.
* Training and development opportunities.
* Additional benefits including enhanced holiday pay, life assurance, income protection, private medical insurance, hospital cash plan, therapy services, perk box.
Terms Of Appointment
* You must be eligible to work in the UK and willing to travel as necessary; we may sponsor employment visas on a case‑by‑case basis where available.
* You must be based in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford.
* During peak periods, longer hours may be required and work across multiple time zones may be necessary due to the global nature of our work.
Your Application
* Submit a CV (no more than 3 pages, including up to ten key publications) and a cover letter (no more than 2 pages) to gbi@eit.org.
* Submit a proposal (no more than 5 pages) covering:
o The research questions you would like answered over a 5‑10 year period and how this relates to GBI’s vision.
o How this relates to your previous work.
o The challenges you need to overcome and the resources required for success.
o How you would partner with colleagues at GBI and the broader EIT family.
* We are interested in all research consistent with GBI’s vision. Relevant areas include:
o Molecular and Cellular Design and Evolution.
o Enzyme design.
o Design of molecular assemblies and machines.
o Experimental accelerated evolution.
o Robotics, automation and autonomous labs.
o Genome mining and informatics‑based discovery.
o Computational AI sequence to function.
o Modelling and building genetic and cellular circuits.
o Cellular design.
o Expanding chemistry in biology.
o Nitrogen fixation.
o Carbon fixation.
o Programming cellular assemblies and synthetic tissues.
o Scalable error‑free DNA and genome synthesis.
o Microbial genome synthesis and design.
o Gen‑scale genome synthesis for plants, human cells and animals.
o Combinatorial synthetic genomics.
o DNA delivery.
o Predictive models of DNA sequence to function, at the scale of genes and genomes.
o Human health applications and delivery mechanisms.
* Applications are considered on a rolling basis. Recruiting timelines will vary depending on the timing of your application. For additional information, email gbi@eit.org.
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