RE-ADVERTISEMENT : Post-Doc (Breeder / Pre-breeder for Food and Forage Legumes)

Location : Rabat, Morocco

Closing date : This position is open until filled.

Reporting to : Research Team Leader - Genetic Resources, Conservation, Characterization and Use (GRS) and Legume Breeder

About ICARDA

All CGIAR Centers are currently engaged into a reform process (“One CGIAR’”) that will help ICARDA and CGIAR achieve better impact through more strategically integrated research, unified governance, an integrated structure and new research modalities across participating Research Centers. This transformation is supported by CGIAR donors who have committed to increased funding as a result of these reforms.

Main purpose of position

ICARDA holds the global mandate for the collection, conservation and use of food legumes (chickpea, faba bean, lathyrus, lentil, pea) and forages (Vicia, Pisum, etc.) genetic diversity, and it conducts major breeding activities on these legume crops. At present, two H2020 projects (INCREASE and BELIS) focusing on the improvement of chickpea and lentil have been added to the portfolio of investments, which already included the Crop Trust support for the exploitation of wild relatives in grasspea, two major efforts by the One CGIAR agenda : the Genebank Platform, and the Accelerate Breeding Initiative. To deliver across this array of initiatives, ICARDA is seeking a motivated scientist capable of supporting the pre-breeding effort for food legume crops (chickpea, faba bean, lentil and grass pea) and forages, strengthening the linkage between genebank characterization of diversity and its breeding use.

Main responsibilities

• Assist in the characterization and evaluation of ICARDA’s Genebank legumes (Chickpea, lentil, faba bean and Grasspea and forage legumes) germplasm for various traits related to yield, nutritional content, and environmental adaptation.
• Develop a pipeline for the identification, cloning and use of new genes of interest from landraces and wild relatives of the four legumes crops.
• Perform gene introgression, population advancement and selection of best lines to be transferred to the four breeding programs.
• Develop and implement collaborative research, building up networks and capacity.
• Establish / maintain / expand collaboration with Global Research Centers of Excellence.
• Support the delivery and development of research proposals.
• Supervision of students and technical staff.
• Provide comprehensive project reporting mechanisms to effectively communicate milestones and outcomes.
• Publish scientific articles.
• Represent ICARDA at national and international fora.