Research Assistant, Banana Cultivar Evaluations, Rome Bioversity International Closing date: Sunday, 13 May 2018

Research Assistant, 
Banana Cultivar Evaluations, 
Rome 
Bioversity International 
Closing date: Sunday, 13 May 2018

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Role Bioversity International is seeking a highly motivated Research Assistant to provide scientific support for a research project on the evaluation of new banana hybrids for agronomic performance and consumer acceptance in a range of expected end-user environments and target markets in Uganda and Tanzania, using a participatory varietal selection (PVS) methodology. This project is part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) funded project “Improvement of Banana for Smallholder Farmers in the Great Lakes Region of Africa”. Main Responsibilities Based in Kampala, Uganda, the successful candidate will work under the primary supervision of the Bioversity Post-Doctoral Fellow, Gender (based in Kampala, Uganda), and in close collaboration with the Senior Scientist and Research Team Leader on End-user Preferred Banana Cultivars (based in Leuven, Belgium), the Research Associate (based in Arusha, Tanzania) and project partners in Uganda and Tanzania. S/he will assist with data management, including data cleaning, coding, analysis and interpretation, and contribute to field research and data collection, to facilitate the successful implementation of the participatory evaluation activities of banana hybrids in on-station and on-farm field trials in five regions across Uganda and Tanzania. More specifically, the Research Assistant will: • Compile, clean and upload data from different project sites into the project database and open-access data repositories; and assist with the coding, analysis and interpretation of project results, making use of appropriate data analysis tools and techniques; • Assist with the coding, analysis and interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data collected during baseline studies in project sites in Uganda and Tanzania, making use of appropriate data analysis tools and techniques; • Assist with the setting up, management and continued maintenance of on-station and on-farm field trials, and with data collection in these trials, following established protocols and guidelines for evaluation of agronomic performance, end-user trait preference studies, and environmental and socio-economic data collection, with regular field visits to all project sites; • Assist with training project partners in data collection protocols for the above-mentioned studies; • Assist colleagues and project partners with administrative and organizational needs related to project implementation, such as translations, organization of workshops and consultations, compilation of project reports, and ensuring effective communication among partners; • Contribute to the production of various publications and information/knowledge products (in print and on-line, in English and relevant local languages), and assist with dissemination of project results through stakeholder workshops.