The Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Braunschweig is recruiting for a Data Scientist (m/f/d) in the Microbial Ecology and Diversity Research Department in the Science Policy group. The appointment will be for a 3-year position at the public sector TV-L 13 pay scale at full-time (39.8 hours per week). A part-time employment will not be feasible.
A new project called “Examining Trends in Non-Monetary Benefit-Sharing” (ET-NMBS) funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) will link and integrate data from international bio-based research projects to “benefit-sharing” with low- and middle-income countries. For many countries, the benefits from the utilization of genetic resources as foreseen by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Nagoya Protocol are unsatisfying. This project will break new ground and support these international policy processes by providing an evidence basis in a policy area that has so far been poorly documented and never quantified. The data scientist will develop bibliometric tools to assess different types of non-monetary benefit-sharing (NMBS) with a focus on scientific publications, research results, and international collaborations. Project results, methods, and outcomes will be presented to national and international policymakers.
The main tasks of the data scientist will be the mobilization of large text corpora and the development of new machine-learning-based methods to connect access and benefit-sharing (ABS) permits (legal documents) to scientific outcomes, such as publications, datasets, and collaborations, at the global level. Extraction of author metadata from the scientific literature and large-scale text mining to identify the associated genetic resource will enable a linkage between the legal starting point and the scientific outcomes. All data recovered within the project will be hosted in a new database and the project will work closely with the DSMZ database department, text mining experts from ZB MED and will be integrated into the German bioinformatics network de.NBI, German research data infrastructure (NFDI), as well as the European network ELIXIR.
We invite applications from highly motivated scientists with strong expertise in bibliometrics, text mining, machine learning or informatics and with good working knowledge of scientific publication databases (e.g. PubMed, Web of Science) and data-publishing platforms (e.g. GenBank, GBIF). A Master’s degree or PhD in (bio)informatics, computer or data sciences, or comparable disciplines is required as well as experience in programming and database management and strong command of Python, R and/or SQL. Peripheral knowledge, experience, or interest in international (United Nations) policymaking is an asset.
The Leibniz Institute DSMZ is one of the largest and most biologically diverse bioresource centers in the world. The institute is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments for microbiological, chemical, and molecular work, including in-house next-generation sequencing, metabolomics, and bioinformatics core facilities. The institutes of the Leibniz Association strive to increase the proportion of female scientists. Disabled applicants with identical qualification will be preferentially selected. The DSMZ is an equal opportunity employer, supports balanced work-life career development, and holds the certificate of the audit berufundfamilie®.
For further information please contact Dr. Amber Hartman Scholz (amber.h.scholz@dsmz.de; phone: ++49-531-2616-400).
Please send your complete application documents including: CV, motivation letter, short summary of master/PhD thesis, copies of diplomas/certificates, publication list, and two references under the application number 10/21 as a single pdf file to bewerbung@dsmz.de.
Applications are welcome in German or English. The deadline for this application is April 18, 2021.