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Visiting Research Specialist, Soybean Innovation Lab - The Department of Agricultural and Consu...

Employer
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Location
Champaign, IL

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Administrative Jobs
Academic Affairs, Research Staff & Technicians
Employment Type
Full Time
Institution Type
Four-Year Institution

Job Details

Description:

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Extended

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research (Soybean Innovation Lab, SIL) is the United States Agency for International Development’s only comprehensive program dedicated to soybean research for development and has a current funding portfolio of $16M. The Soybean Innovation Lab is building a foundation for soybean production in Africa by developing the knowledge, innovation, and technologies to enable successful soybean production. As part of the Feed the Future initiative, the Soybean Innovation Lab works to reduce global poverty and hunger by accelerating growth in the agriculture sector through improvements in agricultural productivity among smallholder farmers. SIL has research partnerships with multiple government and private agencies globally.

The Soybean Innovation Lab “SIL” seeks a Visiting Research Specialist to manage and participate in research data collection, interpretation, analysis and reporting for the Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) as a component of its Monitoring & Evaluation efforts. Create a database containing quantitative activity data related to SIL’s research efforts such as the Pan-African Trials, and manage research data analysis and reporting back to research and administration teams to identify impacts, trends and patterns. Define new processes to streamline both research data collection and analysis. Utilize data representation techniques including graphs, charts, infographics, and tables to effectively and comprehensively communicate SIL research activities and impacts to stakeholders.

The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. For more information, visit http://go.illinois.edu/EEO.

Major Duties and Responsibilities Include:

Research data collection and analysis including

  • Conduct high quality and accurate data collection on SIL research activities utilizing a wide array of first and secondary sources including project reports, publications, internal and external communications, both written and verbal.
  • With a very fine eye for detail, develop a master data set for all SIL research activity that allows for ready analysis, interpretation, and reporting.
  • Analyze data to effectively communicate quantitative research program activity, impacts, trends, and patterns and present information using data representation techniques including graphs, tables, and infographics.
  • Organize and participate in weekly meetings to review research data collection and analysis activities.
  • Serve as a technical expert in determining future research data collection and warehousing activities to meet and exceed project goals.
  • Engage in research outreach and communication activities that produce timely dissemination of activity and impact results about SIL for increased awareness by stakeholders.
  • Lead, develop, and curate SIL’s Tropical Soybean Information Portal including research data related to tropical soybean such as varietal performance, research literature, reports, videos, technical guides, and other research-related resources.
  • Use strong verbal and written communication skills to develop comprehensive research reports and communication materials that align activity data with broader impact goals.

Project Administration and Communication including

  • Develop high quality written communication materials that effectively translate and synthesize research quantitative activity and impact data into written reports, human interest stories, blog posts, marketing materials, and other platforms to effectively turn research data into information, information into insight, and insight into communication to drive program development, new partnerships, and wider uptake of SIL research products, innovations, and technologies.
  • Assist SIL research and administration teams managing administrative research tasks of grant execution to comply with University and funding agency guidelines, deadlines, and regulations; including but not limited to the annual research work plans, research output documentation, research report preparation, budget and research subaward management.
  • Expand, both in scale and in time, the research project by working on proposal writing and other methods of acquisition of additional funding.

Other duties as assigned.

  • Occasional supervision of student research hourly employees as needed.

Position Requirements and Qualifications:

Education:

Required: Bachelor’s degree in Business Information, Information Management, Economics, Project Management or Related Field.

Experience:

Required: At least 3 years technical experience and expertise in database design development, data mining and segmentation techniques; Adept at queries, report writing and presentation of findings; Experience in data models and reporting packages; Experience with Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel; Strong experience in data representation techniques

Preferred: Proven working experience as a business data analyst

Knowledge Requirements

Required: Exceptional attention to detail; High level written and verbal communication skills; Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amount of information with a high level of attention to detail and accuracy; Critical thinking ability and ability to easily communicate complex ideas; Excellent English writing and communications skills; Strong interpersonal and team working skills

Salary/Appointment:

Commensurate with education and experience. The proposed starting date will be as soon as possible. This position is a 100% twelve-month appointment. Position may become non-visiting at a later date. All application materials (resume, cover letter, and references) must be submitted by May 24, 2019.

To view submit an application, please visit: http://jobs.illinois.edu. For any questions, please contact Melissa Warmbier at mwarmbie@illinois.edu.

The University of Illinois conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer.

College Name or Administrative Unit:ACES Category:6-Research Title:Visiting Research Specialist, Soybean Innovation Lab - The Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (112999) Open Date:04/12/2019 Close Date:05/24/2019 Organization Name:Agr and Consumer Economics

Organization

Since its founding in 1867, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has earned a reputation as a world-class leader in research, teaching, and public engagement.

Faculty

A talented and highly respected faculty is the University's most significant resource. Many are recognized for exceptional scholarship with memberships in such organizations as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Engineering. 

Our faculty have been awarded Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes, and the Fields Medal in Mathematics.The success of our faculty is matched by that of our alumni: 11 are Nobel laureates and another 18 have won Pulitzer Prizes.

Academic Resources

Academic resources on campus are among the finest in the world. The University Library is one of the largest public university collections in the world with 11 million volumes in its 37 unit libraries. Annually, 53,000,000 people visit its online catalog. Students have access to thousands of computer terminals in classrooms, residence halls, and campus libraries for use in classroom instruction, study, and research.

Research

Students and scholars find the University an ideal place to conduct research. The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology is a model for interdisciplinary research, where eighteen research groups from sixteen University departments work within and across three broadly defined themes: biological intelligence, human-computer intelligent interaction, and molecular and electronic nanostructures. The University is also home to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

Undergraduate Education

The University has a fundamental commitment to undergraduate education. Nearly 28,000 undergraduate students are enrolled in nine undergraduate divisions, which together offer some 4,000 courses in more than 150 fields of study.

Undergraduate admission is highly selective. In the 2001 freshman class, students in the middle 50% had ACT scores between 25 and 30 and ranked between the 83rd and 96th percentiles of their high school graduating classes.

The University enrolls over 9,000 graduate and professional students in more than 100 disciplines. It is among the top five universities in number of earned doctorates awarded annually in the United States.

Also integral to the University's mission is a commitment to public engagement. Each year about 65,000 Illinois residents participate in scores of conferences, institutes, courses, and workshops presented statewide. Research and class projects take students and professors off campus to share expertise and technical support with Illinois farmers, manufacturing firms, and businesses. In a typical year, student volunteers log more than 60,000 volunteer hours.

The Arts

A major center for the arts, the campus attracts dozens of nationally and internationally renowned artists each year to its widely acclaimed Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The University also supports two major museums: the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion; and the Spurlock Museum, a museum of world history and culture. 

Other major facilities include the multipurpose Assembly Hall (16,500 seats); Memorial Stadium (70,000 seats), site of Big Ten Conference football games; and the Intramural-Physical Education Building, one of the largest recreational facilities of its kind on a university campus.

Inclusive Illinois, one campus, many voices

Inclusive Illinois is the University’s commitment to cultivating a community at Illinois where everyone is welcomed, celebrated, and respected. Illinois is about how we value difference to make a difference. http://www.inclusiveillinois.illinois.edu/

As evidence of the University’s commitment to enhance the working, living, and learning environment for faculty, staff, and students, the University will encourage a standard of conduct and behavior that is consistent with the values of inclusivity. In an environment of inclusivity, there is no place for acts of hatred, intolerance, insensitivity, bigotry, threats of violence, harassment or discrimination.

Inclusive Illinois, one campus, many voices

Inclusive Illinois is the University’s commitment to cultivating a community at Illinois where everyone is welcomed, celebrated, and respected. Through education, engagement, and excellence, each voice creates the Inclusive Illinois Experience.

How can we appreciate difference to make a difference?

Illinois is the place where we embrace difference. We embrace it because we value it. We value it because we know that we have so much to learn from each other in our living, learning, and working environment.

Illinois is the place where we recognize the power of possibility and where great potential is realized. Inclusive Illinois is the vision of that place: a vision made real by leadership and commitment.

Illinois is the place where consensus is forged by discourse and where everyone’s contributions are recognized: significant contributions that elevate us because they are informed and enhanced by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, physical ability, religion, class, and national origin. We are enriched by these perspectives, and we are united by the very discourse that brings these views together.

It is a process. It is transformative. And we celebrate the remarkable changes we set in motion here … taking an important step … crossing boundaries … starting with our own.

It all starts with each of us: with our willingness to embark on the journey in the search for answers, and with our openness and acceptance of the answers we find. Illinois is the place where it all comes together.

Learn more about how Inclusive Illinois promotes diversity here.

Commitment to Equal Opportunity

The commitment of the University to the most fundamental principles of academic freedom, equality of opportunity, and human dignity requires that decisions involving students and employees be based on individual merit and be free from invidious discrimination in all its forms, whether or not specifically prohibited by law. Among the forms of invidious discrimination prohibited by the University policy but not law is discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of sexual orientation. Complaints of invidious discrimination in violation of University policy are to be resolved within existing University procedures. The policy of the University of Illinois is to comply with all federal and state nondiscrimination, equal opportunity, and affirmative action laws, orders, and regulations. The University will not engage in discrimination or harassment against any person because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, disability, unfavorable discharge from the military, or status as a disabled veteran or a veteran of the Vietnam era. This nondiscrimination policy applies to admissions, employment, and access to and treatment in University programs and activities

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