Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry – Mickleham VIC Who we are The Plant Innovation Centre (PIC) is the department's dedicated Plant Biosecurity research, development, innovation and extension section based at the national Post Entry Quarantine (PEQ) facility at Mickleham in Victoria (35 minutes north from Melbourne's CBD).
The facility is a state of the art, world-class plant and animal biosecurity centre and includes BC2 and BC3 research and diagnostic laboratories.
We develop, optimise, validate, and implement innovative solutions to improve plant biosecurity outcomes with particular expertise and focus on molecular diagnostics and treatments.
The PIC also supports Honours and higher-degree (MSc/PhD) students with scholarships, supervises students, and actively engages with universities and external scientific and research organisations.
The key duties of the position include: The Job As a Molecular Scientist with the PIC team, your duties will include, but are not limited to: working within a small team to develop and deliver applied and innovative plant biosecurity projects that address operational and policy challenges within the department assisting in developing proposals to trial innovative solutions and collaborations between potential project partners collaborating with internal and external stakeholders including sustaining synergistic partnerships with policy makers, industry, the biosecurity research community, and education sector communicating technical scientific research to internal and external stakeholders, through report writing, manuscripts, meetings, and workshops providing technical supervision to students and graduates within the laboratory A merit pool will be established from this recruitment process which may be used to fill future ongoing vacancies.
Eligibility What we are looking for Knowledge and experience We thrive when our teams are made up of people from different backgrounds, cultures, genders, education, training, and skills.
The successful applicants will have the following knowledge, capabilities, and experience: knowledge and experience in molecular biology to develop, optimise and validate new and existing diagnostics and supportive tools, contributing to applicable research, innovation, extension and implementation knowledge and experience in plant biotechnology, plant pathology, botany or agricultural sciences experience and understanding of plant biosecurity, bioinformatics and aseptic technique (desirable) self-motivated and able to work independently with minimal supervision familiar with supervising and mentoring undergraduate and post-graduate (Honours/MSc) students (desirable) #J-18808-Ljbffr