InnovPP076/2024 - Bioinformatics - Collaborative Laboratory “InnovPlantProtect – Association"

We are looking for a passionate and resourceful PhD or MSc candidate able to integrate into an organization that is developing innovative products and services to protect crops against pests and diseases.

The work will be done within a multi-disciplinary team comprised of data scientists, statisticians, microbiologists, plant biologists and other bioinformatics researchers.

The ideal candidate must be able to demonstrate a solid background in Bioinformatics, ideally in the field of Host-Microbe Interactions.

Main responsibilities
The candidate shall report directly to the Director of the Department of Data Management and Risk Analysis and will have the following responsibilities:
 Use computational tools to gather and analyse genomic/transcriptomic data in the fields of plant and microorganism population biology and genetics;
 Work closely with wet-lab scientists to develop/implement tools and pipelines that accelerate the development of new products for biological protection of crops;
 Systematically improve, maintain and document in house developed software (following best practices on reproducibility);
 Register, interpret and report results accordingly to InPP´s established procedures, both internally and with external stakeholders.

Specific requirements
 MSc/PhD qualification in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology or similar;
 Strong background in bioinformatics/computational biology;
 Experience in analysing next generation sequencing data (e.g. microbial and plant genome assembly & annotation; metabarcoding; metagenomics; metabolomics; transcriptomics);
 Proficiency with one or more scripting languages (e.g. R, Python) and with bash/unix scripting;
 Willing to both learn new techniques and teach/supervise MSc/BSc level researchers/students;
 Creative and independent, but also able to work as a member of multidisciplinary, project-oriented team, with demonstrated problem-solving skills and flexibility;
 Good written and spoken English (Portuguese is beneficial).

Ideal requirements
 Expertise in plant-microbe interactions
 Experience with working in Unix/Linux environments, literate programming (Rmarkdown, Jupyter notebooks) and version control systems (e.g. Git)
 Experience in developing end-to-end bioinformatics pipelines for automated data analysis
 Familiarity with: AWS/Google cloud computing, containers (e.g. Docker), application of Machine Learning to high-throughput sequencing data


InnovPlantProtect is a private non-profit association

InnovPlantProtect aims to create innovation for the protection of crops, seeds and post-harvest products through:
 Development of innovative technologies and knowledge creation, as well as improvement of existing technologies for crop protection;
 Applied scientific research to create novel intellectual property developed technologies in the market, and to develop processes and products;
 Provide technical support to public or private companies and entities, assisting them in the introduction of biotechnological strategies, methods and processes, and in the orientation and implementation of industrial research and development, directed towards the protection of crops, seeds and post-harvest products;
 Collaboration with (inter)national public and/or private institutions, in their areas of activity.

Workplace
The work location will be at the headquarters of InnovPlantProtect in Elvas, situated in INIAV, at the former National Plant Breeding Station.

Salary and contract
A full-time contract, expected to start on 1st August 2024 will continue until 31st December, 2025 with a trial period of one month. The contract may be renewed annually for a further one year depending on performance and further financial support. All the activities to be developed will be subject to confidentiality clauses. Gross remuneration will depend on the qualification and experience of the selected candidate, ranging from €1.559,00 (14 months – €21.826,00/year), to €2.046,00 (14 months – €28.644,00/year), plus €6 for daily lunch subsidy.

Financial Support
This contract is defined and financed by Investment RE-C05-i02 – “Missão Interface”, referring to Advise n. º 01/C05-i02/2022, within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan “Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência” (PRR).



How to Apply
To the care of the Chief Executive Officer of InnovPlantProtect Collaborative Lab, Professor Pedro Fevereiro ---@---

To apply for this position, the following documents should be sent in a single PDF document with the reference “InnovPP076/2024” in the subject:
 Curriculum vitae (CV)
 Motivation letter
 Two reference contacts
 Statement of honour that CV content is accurate.

(PLEASE NOTE THAT DEGREES OBTAINED IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES NEED A PORTUGUESE RECOGNITION ISSUED BY A PORTUGUESE HIGH DEGREE INSTITUTION, ACCORDING TO THE DECREE-LAW NR. 66/2018, OF AUGUST 16TH AND THE MINISTERIAL ORDER NR. 33/2019, OF JANUARY 25TH. THE PRESENTATION OF SUCH RECOGNITION IS MANDATORY FOR CONTRACT SIGNATURE. MORE INFORMATION CAN BE OBTAINED IN: HTTPS://WWW.DGES.GOV.PT/EN/PAGINA/DEGREE-AND-DIPLOMA-RECOGNITION)

Deadlines
This call is open from June 13th to July 7th, 2024, with a decision expected by July 15th.

General rules of data protection (GDPR)
With the entry into force of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 April 2016, commonly known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and in order to ensure a fair and transparent treatment of the holder of the data, InnovPlantProtect informs that by applying for this position you are authorizing InnovPlantProtect to (1) collect and process your personal data deemed necessary and relevant to this recruitment process, (2) to disclose the results of the evaluation in accordance with the legislation in force.