School/Department School of Water, Energy and Environment
Based at Cranfield Campus, Cranfield, Bedfordshire
Hours of work 37 hours per week, normally worked Monday to Friday. Flexible working will be considered.
Contract type Fixed term contract
Fixed Term Period 25 months
Salary £33,309 per annum (Research Fellow) or £30,600 per annum (Research Assistant)
Apply by 27/08/2020

Role Description

Cranfield University welcomes applications from well-qualified postgraduates with a background in agronomy, soil science, geography, crop science to apply for this fantastic opportunity to work on two projects focusing on evaluating novel green fertilisers and assessing fate and transport of gastroenteritic pathogens in soil and crops. These projects are funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and Medical Research Council respectively.  

As the UK’s only exclusively postgraduate university, Cranfield’s world-class expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships is creating leaders in technology and management globally.  Our distinctive expertise is in our deep understanding of technology and management and how these work together to benefit the world. 

Our people are our most valuable resource and everyone has a role to play in shaping the future of our university, developing our learners, and transforming the businesses we work with. Learn more about Cranfield and our unique impact here.  Our shared, stated values help to define who we are and underpin everything we do: Ambition; Impact; Respect; and Community. To find out more please visit our website: https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/about/about 

Cranfield Environment and Agrifood is one of the eight themes at Cranfield University offering world-class and niche post-graduate level research, education, training and consultancy. For 50 years, Cranfield has been contributing to enhancing natural capital and ensuring that global food systems are more resilient for the future. We are recognised worldwide by industry, government and academia for our research and teaching in plants, soil, water and air. In 2017, we received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for research and education in large-scale soil and environmental data for the sustainable use of natural resources in the UK and worldwide.

You will contribute to two projects and move on the second project once completion of the first one. The first project (for 13 months) will UK based focusing on evaluating green fertiliser efficacy developed by carbon capture technology on organic waste material. This will involve setting up field trials and evaluating nutrient uptake by crops, carbon sequestration and root imaging. 

The second project (for 12 months) will be in collaboration with project partners in Pakistan. The field locations will be in Islamabad and Faisalabad involving a two week field campaign to collect samples but most of the analysis will be conducted in the UK. The focus of this project will be on evaluating fate and transport of gastroenteritic pathogens in the environment – soil and crops when irrigated with contaminated canal water to grow vegetables. 

You will have a fantastic opportunity to move between two distinct projects, travel abroad, work with a group of experienced scientists and industrial collaborators and gain valuable insight of very topical research projects that focuses on sustainable agriculture.           

You will have a PhD (or near completion) in Soil Science, Agronomy, Geography or Crop Science and have experience in agronomic field trials, laboratory analysis, data analysis and publishing peer-reviewed manuscripts 

At Cranfield we value Diversity and Inclusion, and aim to create and maintain a culture in which everyone can work and study together harmoniously with dignity and respect and realise their full potential.  To further demonstrate our commitment to progressing gender diversity in STEM, we are members of WES & Working Families, and sponsors of International Women in Engineering Day. 

Our equal opportunities and diversity monitoring has shown that that women and minority ethnic groups are currently underrepresented within the university and so we actively encourage applications from eligible candidates from these groups.

We actively consider flexible working options such as part-time, compressed or flexible hours and/or an element of homeworking, and commit to exploring the possibilities for each role.  To find out more, please visit https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/about/working-at-cranfield/diversity 

For an informal discussion, please contact Dr Ruben Sakrabani, Senior Lecturer in Soil Chemistry on (T); +44 (0)1234 750111 (extension number 2710) (E); r.sakrabani@cranfield.ac.uk