Background to the role

Helping people, animals and the planet as the lead of our scientific community-building function.

The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe) is at the forefront of the movement to transform meat production in order to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, from climate change and global hunger, to antibiotic resistance and animal suffering.

We work with scientists, businesses and policymakers to make plant-based and cultivated meat (grown directly from cells) delicious, affordable and accessible. Please check out the rest of our website, our 2022 Year in Review and our 2022 Europe Highlights blog post to find out more about who we are and what we do. We are at an exciting stage in our growth and are looking for a Scientific Partnerships Manager to join our team. For more information about this role, please take a look at the job brochure.

How you will make a difference

We need the best scientists in Europe to be engaged in plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-made protein research and development. Additionally, the growing industry will need a steady supply of technical talent to comprise their future workforce. 

At GFI Europe, the goals of our scitech work are threefold: 1) grow the technical research and training community, 2) enable and catalyse the work of this community, and 3) increase the research funding this community receives. This role focuses on the first of these goals. As a nascent field, there are relatively few researchers carrying out the most pressing research, and there are extremely limited educational and training opportunities for those looking to move into the space.

Reporting to the Senior Science and Technology Manager, you will lead the scientific community-building function for GFI Europe. You will engage and partner with universities, researcher networks, journals, conferences, science media, and other relevant stakeholders across Europe with the twin goals of 1) inspiring existing scientists to work on sustainable proteins and 2) supporting students and educational institutions to build a strong scientific training ecosystem.

As a member of our scitech team, you will help radically transform the food system by:

• Developing and delivering a short-term and long-term strategy for growing the technical research and training community that aligns with the wider scitech strategy for GFI Europe.

• Collaborating with relevant external strategic partners to inspire, energise, coordinate, and mobilise scientists, students and educators across Europe to work on sustainable protein research and development, and build a strong scientific training ecosystem. This will include, among other things:
  • Analysing the research and education landscape in Europe, including 1) identifying and mapping universities, departments, labs, scientists, and others who might conduct relevant research and development and 2) analysing gaps in education (eg formal or informal academic curricula) and training pipelines (eg internship and fellowship programmes) for sustainable protein scientists.
  • Building and actively managing strong, meaningful, long-term relationships with impactful and relevant strategic partners to amplify your message; these could include students, researchers, university administrators, researcher networks, journals, conferences, science media, or other relevant stakeholders.
  • Inspiring researchers and educators with relevant expertise (either directly or in collaboration with strategic partners) to work on the highest priority research areas in sustainable proteins, and to increase the number of sustainable protein-focused educational and training opportunities. This could include giving presentations at conferences, organising meetings and events, supporting the development of educational and training resources, events, and programmes, or writing persuasive pieces to target relevant scientific audiences.
  • Providing a clear pathway forwards for those interested in conducting sustainable protein research and ensuring that all interested individuals are aware of career opportunities in the industry.
• As part of your work with external strategic partners, providing mentorship to GFI’s European Alt Protein Project student groups to ensure that they are maximally effective and supported in their community-building work (for example, providing strategic input on their plans, and connecting them with sustainable protein scientists within their university). 
• Acting as the bridge and link between equivalent roles in GFI’s global scitech teams and colleagues and partners in Europe.
• In conjunction with our communications team, potentially communicating about sustainable proteins through science media and at scientific conferences.
• Performing other tasks as required as a member of our small, nimble team, including other science and technology work streams such as supporting the sustainable proteins research community, or helping researchers secure access to grant funding. 

Who we’re looking for

You must have:

• A passion for GFI’s philosophy and mission.
• Excellent people skills: the ability to influence, network, build alliances and represent GFI in front of academic and other important stakeholders. 
• Either a BSc (or equivalent) in a science or engineering field OR demonstrated professional experience in a research/research-adjacent role OR the ability to develop a functional understanding of the principles, methods, equipment, and techniques used in plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-made protein research and manufacturing.
• A strategic mind; with your team, you will be responsible for selecting the highest-impact things to work on to grow the scientific community.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and the ability to tailor messages to a range of different audiences in the research and education ecosystem. 
• Strong team spirit and open and collaborative instincts (you will be working closely with colleagues in our global scitech team). 
• A can-do approach: a self-starter with the drive and initiative to take responsibility for delivering impact.
• Comfort working remotely in a rapidly-growing and evolving organisation: the ability to work well independently and under pressure, set priorities, coordinate multiple projects simultaneously, and meet deadlines. 

• An affinity with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and with maintaining our welcoming and supportive culture.
• A good level of IT literacy and a willingness to learn new software packages. 
• Fluent English, both written and spoken.

It would be an advantage to have some or all of the following attributes, but none of them are prerequisites, and we very much welcome applications from candidates without any or all of them:

• Experience working in or adjacent to scientific research or education.
• The ability to work in European languages other than English.
• An established network and rapport with a broad range of contacts relevant to GFI.

We want the best people and we don’t want biases holding us back. We strongly encourage people of every colour, orientation, age, gender, origin, and ability to apply. As we are a pan-European organisation, we welcome applications from people from nations, locations and cultures across the whole continent. Because we value a diverse workplace, we prioritise an inclusive climate absent of discrimination and harassment during the application process and after you join the team.

Benefits and the fine print

• Terms of employment: Full-time (flexible hours), permanent. Requests for part-time hours (0.8 FTE or above) can be considered. Please state this in your application.

• Location: Flexible – we will consider applicants from anywhere in Europe. This is a remote role, and you will be able to work from home, or anywhere you choose. We are happy to consider supporting costs for co-working to enable you to work from an office if you wish. You would be expected (although not required) to travel routinely for conferences etc, as per the requirements of the role. The whole GFI Europe team aims to get together in person approximately twice per year for around three-four days at a time. Travel costs will be covered by GFI Europe within our travel policy.
• Salary: The salary and benefits package for all of our roles are researched and benchmarked based on similar nonprofit roles in the country/location of hire. Due to capacity, we cannot complete that research for every European country in advance, but approximate indicative ranges (total amounts received in gross salary plus benefits including home-working allowance) are likely to be:
  • €4,920 to €5,400 per month if based in Germany.
  • €2,700 to €3,600 per month if based in Lithuania.

We actively encourage people from all countries across Europe to apply for this role.

• Right to work requirements: The successful candidate must, by the start of the employment, have permission to work in the country where they are based.

Application Deadline: 23 July, 11.59pm CET. We will get back to all candidates after that date, no matter the outcome of their application: you should expect to hear back from us within about a week of the deadline.

Application process

Please upload your sample work task through this short application form. The sample work task document can be found here. After you have submitted this, subject to an initial review of your application, you may receive an email link to a short cognitive aptitude test. The assessment consists of two 10-minute tests, with the opportunity for a break in the middle. Please complete both parts before the deadline.

We want you to have every opportunity to shine and show us your talents – we are happy to make all the reasonable adjustments that we possibly can to make sure the assessment process works for you. Email us at europe-hiring@gfi.org.

The full application process is outlined in the job brochure. We really look forward to hearing from you!

Any questions?

Check out the recording of our recent live question and answer session on the role with Senior Science and Technology Manager Seren Kell and Managing Director Alex Mayers.

If you have any questions about this role, please do reach out to us at europe-hiring@gfi.org. If you’ve read this far but decided not to apply, please share this job description with someone else in your network who you think might be a good fit for the role! Thank you.