Area
Plant & Crop Sciences
Location
Sutton Bonington
Salary
£35,116 to £46,735 per annum pro-rata depending on skills and experience. Salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance.
Closing Date
Friday 26 September 2025
Reference
SCI221925
We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to work on an exciting project investigating the role of the microbiome in providing resilience to multi-stress environments in Anthony Bishopp’s lab (Sutton Bonington Campus, University of Nottingham, UK).
This research is part of a trilateral grant in Climate Proofing Agriculture, involving partners in the USA (Eric Lam’s group Rutgers) and Germany (Hardy Rolletscheck’s group, IPK Gatersleben). The project will investigate how a range of abiotic stresses interact to impact plant growth and explore the role that the microbiome has in providing stress resilience. We will use duckweed as a model to frame this question. In addition to being a model species, duckweed is also emerging as a promising new protein source that does not require arable land. Duckweed’s small size and experimental tractability enable us to examine a wider matrix of environmental stress combinations than would be possible with any other species. The goal of this project is to identify specific combinations of stresses that provide the greatest challenges to plant productivity.
This position will be especially suited to candidates with an interest in plant-environment interactions, plant phenotyping, molecular biology, and the microbiome. The role involves working alongside a technician in Nottingham, and partners in the USA and Germany to conduct a large-scale genotype-by-environment screen of duckweed growth under various conditions. The candidate will then focus on a subsection of specific stress combinations and explore the role that the microbiome may play in providing stress resilience.
Applicants must be highly motivated, with a PhD in plant biology or a related area. PhD students about to submit their thesis in a relevant area will be considered. The successful candidate must have experience in the following areas: molecular cell biology, plant phenotyping, and image/data analysis, as well as working as part of a large team. A track record of publishing research is highly desirable and the ability to work as part of a team is essential.
This is a full-time post (36.25 hours) and is available from 1st November 2025 on a 3 year fixed-term contract.
Requests for secondment from internal candidates may be considered on the basis that prior agreement has been sought from both your current line manager and the manager of your substantive post, if you are already undertaking a secondment role.
For more information on our duckweed research in Nottingham please visit: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/duckweed-research/index.aspx
For more details about the project please contact
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