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The Opportunity

• Do you have a PhD in as agricultural science, farming systems or digital agronomy?
• Keen to work on the yield response of chickpea and lentils to frost and heat events?
• Join CSIRO's Agriculture and Food team in this exciting multi-organisational 3-year postdoctoral role

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.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a multi-organisation, inter-disciplinary team delivering cutting edge research and development in a project supported by a grant from the Grains Research Development Corporation.  This role also offers the opportunity to present the findings of the project in appropriate top-tier journals or at conferences.

The project ‘Frost and Heat Management Analytics’ aims to develop and commercialise analytics-based technologies to help growers manage the impacts of frost and heat in wheat, barley, canola, chickpeas, and lentils. It will develop and deliver solutions to map and monitor frost and heat events on-farm and predict the yield losses from those events. The project will enable delivery of those solutions to growers, agronomists, and others in the grains industry through commercial partnerships with multiple AgTech businesses. Those partnerships will enable transformation of the underpinning science into analytics-products that aid key sowing decisions, in-crop management decisions, and underpin the development of new risk management tools. 
 

As a member of this inter-disciplinary team, the CERC Fellow will work with CSIRO scientists, engineers and collaborate with national and international university and business partners across Australia. The work will specifically focus on the yield response of chickpea and lentils to frost and heat events. 
 

The CERC Fellow will focus on chickpeas and lentils to develop novel knowledge of, and quantify the processes leading to, yield loss associated with frost and heat events at different stages of crop development. The task will require expertise in crop/plant physiology and will be carried out using field and controlled environment experiments and crop simulation modelling.
 

Your duties will include:

• Reviewing relevant literature and gathering data from existing projects to design and carry out field and controlled environment experiments to detect and quantify frost and heat damage in chickpeas and lentils.
• Carrying out data analysis and implementing new knowledge on frost and heat damage in chickpea and lentil in a simulation model and testing its predictive capability.
• Contributing to design of a framework to survey and predict damage of frost and heat over multiple years and locations.
• Providing insight and knowledge to the broader project team in relation to frost and heat damage in pulses.
• Publishing results in relevant international scientific venues (high-level journals and conferences).

Location: Brisbane, Queensland

Salary: AU$92k - AU$101k plus up to 15.4% superannuation

Tenure: Specified term of 3 years

Reference: 90591

To be considered you will need:

• A doctorate (or will shortly satisfy the requirements of a PhD) in a relevant discipline area, such as agricultural science, farming systems or digital agronomy. Please note: To be eligible for this role you must have no more than 3 years (or full-time equivalent) of postdoctoral research experience.
• Demonstrated knowledge of plant/crop physiology in relation to abiotic stress in the field.
• Demonstrated understanding of crops, and familiar with the use of advanced crop modelling (e.g. APSIM, DSSAT, AquaCrop) and proximal sensing monitoring techniques (e.g. CropCircle).
• Awareness of pulse crops, and the advantages they may bring to agriculture. 
• High-level written and oral communication skills including journal publication and effective presentation of complex research ideas to research scientists and external stakeholders.

For full details about this role please view the Position Description

Eligibility

 Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

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. 

CSIRO is committed to values-based leadership to inspire performance and unlock the potential of our people.

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

31 January 2023, 11:00pm AEDT