Postdoctoral Fellow –Food Security

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture(ICBA) is an international, non-profit agricultural research center established in 1999 through the visionary leadership of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), and the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). ICBA is a unique applied agricultural research center in the world that is focused on marginal areas where an estimated 1.7 billion people live. It identifies, tests and introduces resource-efficient, climate-smart crops and technologies that are best suited to different regions affected by salinity, water scarcity and drought. Through its work, ICBA helps to improve food security and livelihoods for some of the poorest rural communities around the world. ICBA is an equal opportunity employer and appoints qualified staff regardless of race, creed, color, age, gender, religion or national origin. We demonstrate our commitment to each member of our team through a competitive benefits package designed to assist our employees to cover their needs and the needs of their immediate family members.

Job Summary

Background:

Under the Collaborative Research Program Grant Agreement 2019 between the UAE Ministry of Education and the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture in collaboration with the University of Wollongong in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates University will jointly implement Resilient Agrifood Dynamism through Evidence Based policies - READY project, where a joint project team consisting of experts from the three institutions is established. The project team will examine the global drivers of change and assess their impact on the UAE food system including the society and the dietary habits of the UAE consumers. 

Purpose:

The Postdoctoral Fellow will develop in collaboration with the project team a set of innovation-driven tools that will enable the UAE food system to obtain the Resilient Dynamism to adapt to changing contexts, to withstand sudden shocks and to recover from them and consolidate Food Security for the UAE citizens through improving policy-making capacity. These tools could include a vulnerability assessment tool, a set of policies, an early warning system, and a Roadmap towards strengthening the resilience of the UAE food system.

Job Responsibilities
  • Developing and testing dynamic crop models to identify crop yield gap and water use for the United Arab Emirates
  • Provide crop model outputs to support assessing and developing key food value chain processing and infrastructure in the UAE.
  • Contribute to the design of surveys and fieldwork.
  • Examine issues related to food security and contribute to vulnerability mapping.
  • Contribute to developing a correlation matrix and food security computer-based management tool.
  • Contribute to developing scenarios that will represent potential futures that reach beyond classical trend analysis.
  • Contribute to interpreting policy recommendations based on the results of scenario analysis.
  • Contribute to developing policy briefs, presenting policy options and recommendations in view of the analysis being carried out.
  • Take part in meetings, workshops, and conferences.
  • Authoring papers for publications in refereed journals.
  • Work with ICBA’s partners including the private sector, national centers, universities for advancing innovations for food value chain.
  • Assist in the creation of networks with regional, national and international institutions and take part in those already in place and conduct collaborative research with stakeholders and network partners
Qualifications and Experience

Essential

  • Ph.D. in food security and food value chain.
  • Experience in DSSAT, programing/coding in any of well-known coding: R, Python, JAVA, etc.
  • At least two years of experience in food security research.
  • A good publication record in indexed peer-reviewed journals.
  • Fluency in written and spoken English.
  • Experience working as a member of multidisciplinary teams.
  • Ability to independently design and conduct research

Desirable

  • Experience in food security and gulf food value chain.
  • Knowledge of food systems simulation models.
  • Additional language skills, Arabic is desirable
  • Experience in database (SQL) 
  • Good experience in economic analysis, machine learning, and modeling.
Post Date
29 سبتمبر 2022
Status
Closed
Vacancy Type
Full-time
Closing Date
open until filled
Location
ICBA, Dubai
Report To
Program Leader - SNRM
Job Number
ICBA-DP-2022-006
Duration of the assignment
18 months
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