People: Research Assistant, Ultan O'Donnell, Hadj Ahmed Belaouni (AFBI), Marialaura Destefanis (DAFM), Amanda Brechon (DAFM), Annmarie Hamilton (Coillte), Archie Murchie (AFBI), Niall Farrelly (Teagasc) Conor McGee (DAFM), Richard O'Hanlon (DAFM), Jon Yearsley (UCD)
Application closing date: 24th Jan 2025.
We are seeking a research assistant to work with a multidisciplinary team on the “forest protection measures” pillar of the ADAPTForRes project. This team involves researchers from UCD, AFBI and the DAFM Plant Sciences Division, and includes one PhD student and one postdoctoral researcher. The team work closely to develop optimised surveillance tools for the early detection and rapid protection of trees and forests.
The appointed ‘Research Assistant’ will support the team in tasks ranging from fieldwork to molecular laboratory techniques. The experience gained in this project in the areas of microbiology and plant pathology will provide the successful candidate with highly important skills, which would be suited to either a career in academia, research or in government/state agencies working on diagnostics in the animal/plant health or food safety area.
Dr Jon Yearsley, UCD (jon.yearsley@ucd.ie).
This research is pillar 3 of the project entitled "Adaptation, mitigation and protection strategies to increase resilience of Irish forests to address the impacts of climate change (ADAPTForRes)". The ADAPTForRes project main website is here.
The ADAPTForRes project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between seven institutions (UCD, Teagasc, AFBI, University of Limerick, Trinity College Dublin, DAFM, and the National Botanic Gardens) across the Ireland of Ireland. The project aims to protect the ecosystem services delivered by Irish forests in the face of environmental perturbations by developing the resilience of forest ecosystems in three strategic pillars:
Pillar 3, will conduct research in forest protection, including a global horizon scanning and pest risk assessment of key forest species, and examine the potential of an innovative risk-based surveillance network (using sentinel sites) to detect and track the progression of pathogens in Irish forests. There is provision for the development of an authenticated reference pest collection for assisting plant health regulations.
This work is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) and Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).
