Experiment Data Manager – Nature for Climate Fund (NCF)

Passionate about making a difference and playing your part in tackling the climate and nature crisis?  Forest Research (FR) is all about giving top quality evidence and advice to policymakers and practitioners to make a positive impact on the ground. Internationally recognised, we need people who have the skills and passion to work on excellent science and provide practical solutions for nature.

We’re small enough that your voice is heard, yet large enough, as part of the Forestry Commission, that we have everything on hand to get the job done, as well as a variety of career pathways.  Our staff are dedicated to their work and sharing it with others to bring positive change for our planet.  And you will find us a flexible and inclusive employer, so you can have a work life balance that is tailor-made to your circumstances.   Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.  To find out more about FR, visit www.forestresearch.gov.uk.

The role itself, is one of a number of new roles, following our success in securing funding through the Nature for Climate Fund (NCF), managed by Defra. The NCF supports a range of diverse research projects from climate to biodiversity, aimed at significantly increasing our knowledge around woodland planting and management, helping to plant the right trees in the right place for the right reason, and so benefiting our society and the natural environment.  

The role will be based within Forest Genetics science group, which contributes to our understanding of forest genetic resources and tree breeding. Genetic diversity is a key factor in the resilience of our forests and our research informs and underpins policy on the conservation of forest genetic resources. The position is funded within the Nature for Climate Fund ‘Research Forests’ project, which runs until the end of March 2025 and is tasked with extending the network of Research Forests within England.

There is a pressing need to:

• Realise the value and raise awareness of existing FR Silviculture and Genetics trials and their associated data, especially those derived from work in the current (and future) Research Forests
• Ensure that the associated datasets are identified, prioritised, catalogued, quality-checked and standardised
• Liaise with FR IT professionals to ensure that the new datasets are suitable for archiving within the wider FR data storage and retrieval systems
• Support the ‘Research Forests’ Project Team and other associated science groups to scope and design appropriate data-capture systems for the next generation of field trials

This specific, temporary appointment (enabled via seed-funding) is intended to undertake an initial delivery phase and scoping of the longer-term vision for the NCF ‘Research Forests’ project only.

Working closely with FR IT and the Digitisation Team in order to complement their work without duplicating. The successful candidate will work to make both recent and ‘legacy’ datasets and summary information / metadata readily available (both publicly and internally) for selected FR Silviculture and Genetics experiments.

Key Work Areas:

1. Work with scientists from the FR Silviculture and Genetics teams in order to understand their needs and priorities, and to determine a suitable strategy. 
2. Liaising with the FR IT Data and Digitisation teams, ensure that the strategy and methodologies will be compatible with the wider FR data systems in terms of quality-assurance, format, storage and sharing
3. Ensure that all work is undertaken within the FR IT Data Policy and Process Framework
4. Identify and prioritise the relevant series of historical and current trials, and their associated data-sets
5. Scope, catalogue, quality / error-check, validate and standardise the data. Data-sets will typically relate to observations of field performance of trees in experiments made on multiple occasions for either silvicultural or tree-breeding objectives.
6. Collate the data into suitable contemporary software formats and create appropriate searchable metadata by curating and merging existing metadata information with up-to-date publicly available spatial datasets (e.g. climate and weather, lithology)
7. Where required, work with other FR science groups associated with the project, e.g. the Mensuration, Growth and Yield Team, to develop data-capture systems and Reproducible Analytical Pipelines for new and emerging field trials

Essential Criteria:

• Experience in data handling/management
• Experience of setting-up and managing modern database environments
• Good collaborative skills to work with IT and Digitisation teams, data managers and scientists
• Willingness to undertake occasional travel within the UK

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of programming (e.g. C#, R, Java, PHP), particularly for reading/converting older data files into a standard format
• Experience with Oracle, PostGres or XML
• Experience of handling ‘legacy’ data files
• Forestry/Forest Science experience , with an understanding of experiment design and agricultural/forestry /ecological/biological field trials
• An understanding of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines, particularly in a public sector environment would be desirable

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Seeing the Big Picture

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Working Together

Your career

• Excellent professional development opportunities which are tailored to your role, with paid professional membership subscriptions, mentoring, and Civil Service Learning available to all
• access to world class laboratory facilities, as well as state of the art buildings within forest or science park settings

Your work/life balance

• flexible working options such as: up to two days flexi leave per month, blended working, part-time working, paid special leave, career breaks, and unpaid leave. Parents and carers will be supported to enable you to manage work and family responsibilities
• A generous annual leave allowance of 25 days per year, rising to 30 days after 5 years (pro-rata for part-timers). Plus 2.5 days of additional leave and 8 days’ paid bank/public holidays

Your wellbeing

• Wellbeing support and staff networks and including Mental Health First Aiders, Rainbow Canopy (LGBTQ+) and an Employee Assistance Programme
• We want you to feel part of something bigger and we encourage a community feel in our workplaces, with everything from cookery competitions to Pilates and fell running, plus topical talks at Wellbeing Wednesdays and Feelgood Fridays
• Paid volunteering leave of 3 days per year so you can give back to your community and charitable causes by sharing your skills and time

Your benefits

• a highly competitive Civil Service Pension where employer contributions are up to 26% of your salary
• an employee benefits scheme offering discounts on groceries, gym memberships, holidays, days out, online retailers and high street shops
• Cycle to Work scheme and Interest free loans
• Free parking is offered on-site, alongside electric car charging ports
• With maternity, adoption, and/or shared parental leave there’s the flexibility to have up to 26 weeks full pay, followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid leave. Paternity leave of up to two weeks is available with full pay.

Any move to Forest Research from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.

Job contact :

• Name : HR Services
• Email : hr.services@forestresearch.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hr.services@forestresearch.gov.uk