Potato Breeding

Applications are invited for the above 36 month fixed-term, part time (0.6 FTE) post working jointly in The School of Natural Sciences and the BioComposites Centre on a project aimed at transforming potato production through reduced inputs.

The role is to support the potato breeding and field trials component of the project at Bangor University let by Dr Katherine Steele (School of Natural Sciences).

The field-based duties will include managing and running field and glasshouse trials (including planting and harvesting), scoring for field performance during growth, harvesting, labelling and record keeping, general plant husbandry, making crosses, recording symptoms of pests and diseases, data collection, curation and analysis. The desk-based duties will include ordering samples and consumables, keeping up to date with current potato research and development, writing reports, communicating with project staff and presenting progress at meetings with consortium partners.

The job requires the successful applicant to be physically active for the greater part of the day to undertake tasks such as harvesting plants, setting up field experiments, and working with machinery. The post is based at the University farm located at Abergwyngregyn with additional use of laboratories and other facilities in Bangor. There is some requirement to travel to other project field sites as and when required.

Applications will also be considered to carry out this role on a part-time or job share basis.

Committed To Equal Opportunities

Overview

Researchers in the School of Natural Sciences are addressing the some of the most challenging global questions. Previous research led to changes in the methods used for crop breeding by international research organisations, and in the greenhouse gas emissions inventories used by governments to monitor emissions reduction. These scientists are now tackling the question: How can we continue to feed the growing global population and at the same time reduce the environmental harms caused by food production methods?

Henfaes Research Centre is the school’s field facility, located about 7 miles from Bangor. It has extensive field facilities including arable crops and livestock grazing and a range of temperature-controlled glasshouses and laboratories.

The Project

Potato growing uses intensive soil cultivation and very large inputs of inorganic nutrients, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. Large amounts of energy are used for cooled storage to prevent post-production sprouting prior to consumer use. Such practice leads to continuous degradation of farm soil organic matter and large emissions of greenhouse gases.

The project is led by a commercial partner based in Lincolnshire and involves seven commercial potato growers spread across England. Bangor University, James Hutton Institute (Dundee) and the Sarvari Research Trust are academic partners in the consortium.

It will provide, new data on soil-carbon sequestration and GHG emissions, measurable information on improvement of biodiversity, procedures for mínimal/no-tillage approaches for potato production, and evaluation of new potato clones that require no pesticides. Genomics will inform strategies to combine multiple pest and disease resistances with low-input production traits. These techniques will be applied and tested in an integrated approach for potato cultivation in diverse pedoclimatic regions of the UK.

Purpose of the Job

The post is part of an established team working in the area of sustainable agriculture. The project involves field, laboratory and desk-based work. The research outcomes will be understanding about a suite of novel techniques for reducing the inputs of crop production. The post-holder will be involved in providing general research support for the research conducted by the team. This will include assisting the research team in meeting their anticipated outcomes within the agreed timescales of the project.

Main

**Responsibilities**:

- To provide support to the research team in the gathering and analysis of data.- Assisting in the design and implementation of research- Maintaining experimental plot areas, glasshouse space and laboratories.- Participating in data collection or sampling- Laboratory analysis and preparation of biological samples following standard protocols- Record keeping, data input into spreadsheets and performing statistics and data analysis.- Be responsible for the completion of risk/COSHH assessments for specific processes and pieces of equipment where necessary.- Conducting scientific literature searches- To work as part of the research team in delivering research outcomes- Contributing towards the creation of reports- Helping in the preparation of materials for presentation to conferences- Supporting the research team in the presentation of research outcomes to internal and external stakeholders as part of knowledge transfer- To take responsibility for completing designated task