USDA Agricultural Research Service
A research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) within the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) located in Manhattan, Kansas.
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency with a mission to find solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day from field to table. ARS will deliver cutting-edge, scientific tools and innovative solutions for American farmers, producers, industry, and communities to support the nourishment and well-being of all people; sustain our nation’s agroecosystems and natural resources; and ensure the economic competitiveness and excellence of our agriculture. The vision of the agency is to provide global leadership in agricultural discoveries through scientific excellence.
Research Project: The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) will be the premier center of scientific excellence for the study of transboundary, emerging, and zoonotic animal diseases that threaten U.S. agriculture economy, food supply, and public health. This state-of-the-art facility will be a national asset that helps protect our nation’s agriculture and citizens against the threat and potential impact of serious animal diseases. The NBAF Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Unit works closely with the Quality unit to provide and coordinate programs and services that minimize safety, health, environmental, and regulatory risks in a manner consistent with current regulations. NBAF is committed to applying the highest professional practices and standards, while maintaining compliance with federal, state and local mandates.
NBAF has instilled a culture of safety that empowers staff to document incidents and other events which could otherwise impact the operations of the facility and its mission. The laboratory routinely tracks the most frequently occurring events and their contributing factors to identify trends, take appropriate action, and ultimately prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
We are looking for a participant at the masters or Ph.D. level to support the development and implementation of an incident reporting framework. This framework will establish a strategy to facilitate and promote incident reporting at NBAF. Under guidance of a mentor, the participant may provide support for this project to include deliverables related to training development, tracking metrics, generating reports and presentations, creating surveys or forming focus groups, and designing recognition programs. This initiative along with other efforts will contribute to the culture of safety at NBAF and support the development of NBAF as a High Reliability Organization (HRO) by enabling continuous improvement, supporting phycological safety and nurturing the culture of open reporting and awareness at all levels of the NBAF organization.
Learning Objectives: As a result of this training the candidate will have a clear understanding in how to develop a framework in safety that brings together and in a one place all the strategic, scientific and operational concepts that are critical to achieving safe, reliable and effective science and operations at a high containment laboratory (BSL3 and BSL4). In addition, the candidate will collaborate closely with NBAF leadership to develop strategies to shift the underlaying mindset that drives behavior that could limit the creation of a “just culture” environment for laboratory safety and quality outcomes, creating the foundation that will support NBAF to become a high reliability and just culture organization.
Mentor: The mentor for this opportunity is Alfonso Clavijo (alfonso.clavijo@usda.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research, please contact the mentor.
Anticipated Appointment Start Date: July 2023. Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.
Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for two years but may be renewed upon recommendation of ARS and is contingent on the availability of funds.
Level of Participation: The appointment is full-time.
Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience.
Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.
ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and ARS. Participants do not become employees of USDA, ARS, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.
Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process, please email ORISE.ARS.Plains@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.
Apply for USDA-ARS-P-2023-0287 by 9/1/2023 3:00:00 PM Eastern.