Food and Beverage Accelerator Program: Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI

Join a university ranked in the world's top 50

Be part of Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) research program

Exciting new opportunity for collaboration with researchers & industry partners

Based at our vibrant St Lucia Campus

About UQ

Join UQ, a globally renowned institution fostering a vibrant academic community. Collaborate with brilliant minds from around the world in an interdisciplinary environment. Backed by world-class facilities, ample research funding, grant writing support, and post-fellowship contracts via our UQ Amplify initiative, UQ empowers research excellence. With a large PhD enrolment and commitment to accessibility, be part of a prestigious institution that empowers academics to thrive and make a lasting impact.

About the Food and Beverage Accelerator

Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) is a $160 million initiative to boost growth and innovation in the food and beverage manufacturing sector. Part of the Federal Government's Trailblazer Program, FaBA leverages $50m of government investment with more than $110m from universities and industry. Partners work across four areas: the research programs ‘Innovative Ingredients' and ‘Premium Food and Beverage Products', and the enabling programs ‘Innovation Pathways' and the ‘FaBA Training Centre'.

A national initiative, FaBA provides F&B manufacturers access to research teams, next generation industry professionals, state-of-the-art equipment and pilot facilities. FaBA is proudly hosted by The University of Queensland, in collaboration with participants QUT, UniSQ and UniQuest.

The Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) Innovation Pathways

FaBA's Innovation Pathways has been designed with industry input to address a gap in the provision of dedicated mentoring and services to researchers and businesses to more rapidly progress their technologies and products along the latter part of their commercialisation pathways (TRL4-9). Innovation Pathways will provide researchers and industry participants with tools and partnerships to develop R&D that is customer-focused and market-driven, progressing beyond TRL4 and supporting start-ups to become viable scale-ups and SMEs. Successful scale-ups will be targeted for funding through UQ's Investment Fund.

Innovation Pathways comprises the following three components:

The Insights Engine is a comprehensive new service to drive strategic thinking in the development of research priorities and will transform the way research opportunities are identified (industry pull as opposed to research push) and translated.

The Impact Foundry will enable researchers and industry participants to co-create and deliver market-driven research beyond early-stage discovery. The process will integrate tools, models, frameworks and programs designed by industry/commercialisation experts and take interdisciplinary teams of university researchers, scientists and technicians from partner companies through rapid skills development in key areas that build the first stage of a developmental pathway to market. Formulations can be tested and prototypes developed at bench-scale using the FaBA MakerSpace.

The Design Accelerator will provide additional support and intelligence for TRL/IRL5-9. Start-ups will be mentored and coached to determine appropriate business models and commercial arrangements for transition to investment through institutions such as UniQuest and other investors.

The Innovation Pathways stream of FaBA has professorial leads for each of its three components. Professor Damian Hine from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) leads the Impact Foundry.

About This Opportunity

You will work with the Innovation Pathways leads, data scientists and the two other Postdoctoral Associates, to develop and implement an innovative applied research program that utilises the Innovation Pathways data insights and analytics to undertake quantitative and qualitative research based on innovation theory, strategic management theory, business model innovation, innovation ecosystems and financial management theories to deliver insights on the translation and commercialisation of research through commercial and legal vehicles. Key foci are the innovation process post-invention disclosure, speed to market, commercial vehicle selection, life cycle stage progression barriers and enablers, all aimed at enhancing research commercialisation and translation performance.

The position will be based on the St Lucia Campus at the Queensland Bioscience Precinct where some of the QAAFI offices are located.

Key responsibilities will include:

Working together with program leads, data scientists, other post-doctoral associates to design and develop an innovative program to deliver market- driven research.

Undertake quantitative and qualitative research independently on business innovation, impact evaluation of ecosystems and financial management interventions aimed at enhancing research commercialisation and translation performance.

Develop and apply statistical and analytical tools you to address pivotal policy and decision-making challenges for food and beverages innovation pathways.

Conduct data analytics for various research projects using economic/econometric and financial modelling using analytical tools and techniques from science to generate new insights.

Produce structured statistical analysis using statistical tools (such as R and Python) and generate innovative data visualisations.

Collaborate closely with industry partners, researchers, government agencies and post-graduate students in co-designing applied research that will have direct benefit to FaBA stakeholders.

Identify priority areas for the Innovation Pathways to pursue in partnership with industry, government, and other stakeholders

Engage and communicate activities with leaders, industry, and policy makers.

Publish high-quality research outputs, supervise, and mentor honours and Higher Degree by Research students, and take active participation in preparing research funding applications.

Actively pursue and develop external links and partnerships by cultivating relationships with industry, government departments, professional bodies and the wider community.

Citizenship and Service

Demonstrate behaviours that align to the UQ values.

Show leadership of self and others through mentoring, collaboration and active participation in priority activities for FaBA

Provide support to other academic positions and FaBA operations as needed during other team members absences.

Manage internal service roles and administrative processes as required, including participation in decision-making and service on relevant committees.

Any other duties as reasonably directed by your supervisor.

This is a full-time (100%), fixed-term position through to 9 January 2027, initially appointed at Academic Level B.1.

This is a research-focused academic position. The full-time equivalent base salary will be $104,579.67, plus a generous super allowance of up to 17%. The total FTE package will be $122,358.21 annually.

The greater benefits of joining the UQ community are broad: from being part of a Group of Eight university, to recognition of prior service with other Australian universities, up to 26 weeks of paid parental leave, 17.5% annual leave loading, flexible working arrangements, and genuine career progression opportunities via the academic promotions process.

About You

A PhD or similar qualifications in business, economics, agribusiness, finance, and econometrics, potentially combined with studies in science

Proficiency in integrating methods and results from qualitative and quantitative research

Strong analytical skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities along with mathematical and statistical modelling competence

High-level data analytics skills predictive analysis using statistical computing environments and programming languages such as R and Python

Experience in conducting analyses within large cross section and longitudinal integrated data sets

Excellent skills and demonstrated experience in data visualisations using different tools such as Power-B Knowledge of the translation and commercialisation of university or private sector research settings

Demonstrated experience in developing and leading peer-reviewed publications in journals and conferences

A track record of contributing to high-quality peer review research publications, technical reports, and conference presentations

Demonstrated high-level communication and interpersonal skills including the ability to consult and negotiate with other stakeholders to ensure program objectives are met.

Strong interpersonal and written and oral communication skills

Ability to work well in an interdisciplinary team

Evidence of successful industry and government collaborations.

Desirable

A moderate level of understanding of food and beverages innovation systems in Australia

Experience with graduate research students

Demonstrated ability to work with external partners such as industry, government agencies, international organizations and agribusinesses.

Bachelor and Master degree in science such as chemistry, biology, and agronomy.

In addition, the following mandatory requirements apply:

Work Rights: You must have unrestricted work rights in Australia for the duration of this appointment to apply. Visa sponsorship is not available for this appointment.

Background Checks: All final applicants for this position may be asked to consent to a criminal record check. Please note that people with criminal records are not automatically barred from applying for this position. Each application will be considered on its merits.

Questions?

For more information about this opportunity, please contact Professor Damian Hine – [email protected]

For application queries, please contact [email protected] stating the job reference number (below) in the subject line.

Want to Apply?

All applicants must upload the following documents in order for your application to be considered:

Resume

Cover letter

Responses to the ‘About You' section

Please note that you will be asked to add all documents into the one upload box labelled ‘resume', which is step one of the application form.

Other Information

At UQ we know that our greatest strengths come from our diverse mix of colleagues, this is reflected in our ongoing commitment to creating an environment focused on equity, diversity and inclusion. We ensure that we are always attracting, retaining and promoting colleagues who are representative of the diversity in our broader community, whether that be gender identity, LGBTQIA+, cultural and/or linguistic, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, or people with a disability. Accessibility requirements and/or adjustments can be directed to [email protected]

If you are a current employee (including casual staff and HDR scholars) or hold an unpaid/affiliate appointment, please login to your staff Workday account and visit the internal careers board to apply for this opportunity. Please do NOT apply via the external job board.

Applications close Tuesday 26 September 2023 at 11.00pm AEST (Job Reference Number – R-19246). Please note that interviews have been tentatively scheduled for late September.