Research Fellow (Postdoctoral)

University of Birmingham - School of Biosciences

Placed On: 12th March 2026

Closes: 26th March 2026

Job Ref: 106589

Salary: As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade 7, salary £36,636

Contract Type: Fixed Term contract up to March 2028

Background

The Plackett and Kettles labs at the University of Birmingham are seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with expertise in bioinformatics to undertake a 2-year project ‘Speed breeding technologies for UK broadleaved trees’ as part of the Defra-funded Centre for Forest Protection (CFP). This project is a UK-wide collaboration with Dr Abigail Johnson (Niab East Malling Research) and Prof Richard Buggs (Kew Royal Botanic Gardens). With this project we aim to identify whether it is possible to accelerate the maturation and flowering of three tree species (Oak, Ash and Silver Birch) through applying ‘speed breeding’ conditions (speed breeding) as a tool to enable future breeding programmes in these species to improve resistance to disease and environmental stress.

Main Duties

• Undertake experimental work under the supervision of Dr Andrew Plackett and Dr Graeme Kettles to collect research data. This will be primarily be bioinformatic (dry lab) in nature but will also include supporting wet-lab duties such as RNA extraction.
• Manage their time to achieve key project milestones in data preparation, analysis and interpretation by specified dates to meet funder requirements.
• Analyse and interpret data.
• Develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research, with assistance of a mentor if required. This will include contributing to the design of follow-on experiments to meet the research goals of the project, in collaboration with the wider project team.
• Contribute to writing bids for research funding based on the experimental data gathered.
• Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding.
• Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc.
• Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline.
• Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods.
• Undertake management/administration arising from research.
• Contribute to Departmental/School research-related activities and research-related administration.
• Contribute to enterprise, business development and/or public engagement activities of manifest benefit to the College and the University, often under supervision of a project leader.
• Present research outputs, including drafting academic publications or parts thereof, for example at seminars and as posters.
• Provide guidance, as required, to support staff and any students who may be assisting with the research.
• Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines.
• Promote equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Candidates are required to hold the following qualifications:

• A Bachelors or Masters degree in a relevant STEM discipline (eg. Biological sciences, Data Science).
• A PhD (or near completion) in Bioinformatics, Plant Genomics or other related field appropriate to the goals of this project.

Informal enquiries can be made to Andy Plackett, email: A.R.G.Plackett@bham.ac.uk

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.