Acknowledgement of Country

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation

The Opportunity

• Do you have a PhD in acoustics, signal processing, engineering, physics or computer science?
• Keen to be involved in providing novel monitoring technology to the farm?
• Great opportunity to be part of a dynamic and vibrant research environment with multi-disciplinary and multi-site connections

CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Postdoctoral Fellowships provide opportunities to scientists and engineers who have completed their doctorate and have less than three years of relevant postdoctoral work experience. These fellowships aim to develop the next generation of future leaders of the innovation system.

We are thrilled to be able to deliver on the commitment we made in our strategy to invest in frontier science with the CSIRO Agriculture & Food Winanga-y Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme. The word Winanga-y (pronounced win-na-gnay) is a cultural asset gifted by the Gomeroi Nation in Myall Vale to CSIRO's Agriculture and Food Business Unit to name the Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme. Winanga-y means to understand, know, remember, and think.
 

Livestock farming faces constant scrutiny on animal welfare practices and sustainability, both of which feed into the social license to operate, and into ongoing market access. Societal expectations are changing, becoming increasingly stringent, and this trend is set to continue. The Australian livestock production sector needs to provide evidence of high welfare and sustainability, and evidence of an ongoing commitment to continuous improvement in these areas.
 

This project aims to provide novel monitoring technology to the farm, providing objective monitoring tools that currently don't exist; based on monitoring approaches that at best are applied in a haphazard manner because of the cost associated with manual assessment, and considered inherently untrustworthy due to their subjective nature. This provides Agribusiness, government and farmers will have a robust and objective means of measuring and setting standards aimed at improving environmental and ethical (animal welfare) outcomes.
 

Objective measures of biodiversity will also be required into the future as evidence for various sustainability related credentials, and as a meant to monitor the outcomes of changed practices or novel sustainability interventions.
 

The CERC Fellow will bring an acoustic analysis approach to align with existing projects focussed on the classification and interpretation of animal behaviour using inertial sensors or image analysis. Collaboration across disciplines will ensure rich learning opportunities. There are multiple applications possible, and the CERC Fellow will be expected to shape and direct the direction of the project in consultation with the supervisory team.

Your duties will include:

• Participating in a collaborative, multidisciplinary team to design and carryout research in laboratory, industrial settings and environmental settings.
• Exploring the use of soundscape analysis as a novel tool for monitoring livestock wellbeing.
• Carrying out innovative, impactful research of strategic importance to CSIRO that will, where possible, lead to novel and important scientific outcomes.
• Recognising and exploiting opportunities for innovation and the generation of new theoretical perspectives, and progressing opportunities for the further development or creation of new lines of research.
• Utilising design thinking methodology to plan and prepare research proposals, and applying non-academic impact methodology to research projects.

   

Location: Armidale, NSW

Salary: AU$89k - AU$98k plus up to 15.4% superannuation

Tenure: Specified term of 3 years

Reference: 88542

To be considered you will need:

• A doctorate (or will shortly satisfy the requirements of a PhD) in a relevant discipline area, such as acoustics, engineering, physics or computer science.  Please note: To be eligible for this role you must have no more than 3 years (or full-time equivalent) of postdoctoral research experience.
• Evidence of high level computational and programming skills (including relevant programming languages); experience in using them to build acoustic signal processing models and conducting analyses.
• Depth of knowledge of acoustic signal processing and machine learning, and the ability to understand, develop and apply mathematically-founded algorithms and toolkits.
• Demonstrated ability to apply mathematical models to life science or agricultural research areas; ability to acquire an understanding of relevant systems aspects of an inter-disciplinary research project.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary, regionally dispersed research team, as well as the ability, motivation and discipline to carry out independent research.

   

For full details about this role please view the Position Description

Eligibility

Applications for this position are open to Australian/New Zealand Citizens, Australian Permanent Residents or Australian Temporary Residents currently residing in Australia.  Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

To enter a CSIRO site, CSIRO will require you to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 (or show a valid medical exemption from vaccination). If you are unable to meet this requirement, then you must return a negative result on a Rapid Antigen Test (within 48 hours prior to attending site) and wear a face mask whilst on the CSIRO site. These requirements apply if you are attending a CSIRO site as part of a recruitment process.

Flexible Working Arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. 

Diversity and Inclusion

We are working hard to recruit people representing the diversity across our society, and ensure that all our people feel supported to do their best work and feel empowered to let their ideas flourish. 

About CSIRO

At CSIRO Australia's national science agency, we solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. We put the safety and wellbeing of our people above all else and earn trust everywhere because we only deal in facts. We collaborate widely and generously and deliver solutions with real impact. 

Join us and start creating tomorrow today!

How to Apply

Please apply on-line and provide a cover letter and CV that best demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the requirements of this role.

Applications Close

13 November 2022, 11:00pm AEDT