USDA-ARS Biosafety Program Fellowship

*Applications are reviewed on a rolling-basis.

ARS Office/Lab and Location: A research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), 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.

The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), a USDA facility located in Manhattan, Kansas, is a state-of-the-art biocontainment facility for the diagnosis and study of foreign animal, emerging, and zoonotic (transmitted from animals to human) diseases that threaten U.S. animal agriculture and public health. 

The Biorisk Management (BRM) Unit is located within the NBAF organizational structure and has the mission to provide subject-matter expertise and leadership in the planning, development, implementation, compliance, and quality maintenance of the biological risk management programs inclusive of Select Agent programs, biosafety, biosecurity, biosurety, training, personnel reliability programs, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) necessary to operate the complex critical laboratory infrastructure and support the execution of science by the diverse user community of the NBAF.

Research Project: Under the guidance of a mentor, the Biosafety Program ORISE Fellow’s projects will involve identifying methods for evaluating biosafety program effectiveness and identifying opportunities and implementations for continuous improvement. The Fellow will have the opportunity to observe, first-hand, the role that project management has on successful biosafety program roll-out and evaluation. To gain experience in successful biosafety program roll-out, the Fellow may have the opportunity to participate in drafting, evaluation, and revision of laboratory documents either related to active laboratories or in laboratories planning to go active. Some of the laboratory documents may pertain to biological agent inactivation which will educate and train an ORISE Fellow experienced in human pathogen inactivation on the unique needs of the agricultural and veterinarian community for pathogen inactivation. Additionally, to gain experience in successful biosafety program roll-out, the Fellow may collaborate in identifying and evaluating Key Performance Indicators for various biosafety programs and mechanisms for collecting KPI metrics.  

In this role, the Biosafety ORISE Fellow will learn how principles of biosafety and biocontainment are applied to handle safely high consequence animal pathogens and high-risk human pathogens in the traditional laboratory setting (BSL-3 and BSL-4) and in large (agricultural) animal settings (ABSL-3Ag and ABSL-4Ag). Due to the commitment of NBAF to becoming an ISO 9001 accredited site and its commitment to becoming a High Reliability Organization, the Fellow will also learn how procedure development and roll-out is accomplished at a quality-managed site, using quality management tools, standards, and guidelines.

Learning Objectives: 

• Experience drafting, evaluation, and revision of laboratory documents which are developed within the laboratory environment
• Educate and train in human pathogen inactivation on the unique needs of the agricultural and veterinarian community for pathogen inactivation
• Gain experience in successful biosafety program roll-out in identifying and evaluating Key Performance Indicators for various biosafety programs and mechanisms for collecting KPI metrics
• Learn how procedure development and roll-out is accomplished at a quality-managed site, using quality management tools, standards, and guidelines

Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Chad Austin (chad.austin@usda.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research, please contact the mentor(s).

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: August 2024. Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year, 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.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate should be currently pursuing or have received a doctoral degree in the one of the relevant fields (e.g., microbiology).

Preferred skills:

• Experience in microbiology with a focus on pathogenic microorganisms.
• The ideal candidate will have some experience either in biocontainment for human pathogen research seeking experience in biocontainment for animal pathogen research or vice-versa.
• The ideal candidate will have some experience designing and implementing safety programs seeking additional experience in unique or diverse safety programs.
• The ideal candidate will be experienced with the concepts and principles of biological agent (pathogen) inactivation and may have some limited experience in pathogen inactivation, seeking a broader exposure to different methodologies and end-user use cases.

Eligibility Requirements

• Citizenship: U.S. Citizen Only
• Degree: Doctoral Degree.
• Academic Level(s): Graduate Students or Postdoctoral.