Associate Director, IndiaBioscience

IndiaBioscience is a program based out of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, that aims to catalyze the growth of biology within India, and to this end, we work with academia, government, industry, and the not-for-profit sector. The primary funding of the program is from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. As part of the DBT-funded program, IndiaBioscience is looking to appoint eligible personnel to the position advertised on contractual terms. The appointment will be initially for a period of one (1) year that may be extended up to 1 year, depending on the duration of the grant and the performance of the selected candidate.

Activities at IndiaBioscience include running initiatives across Community Building, Skill Building, Science Communication, Data & Policy, Networking and Mentorship, and Digital Initiatives. IndiaBioscience is a small, diverse, and efficient team that works in a cohesive manner to create an informed impact. Creativity, execution, implementation, time management, multitasking, quality of work, independence, and teamwork are highly valued attributes of all team members. As part of the IndiaBioscience team, the appointed person will have the opportunity to collaborate with talented and dedicated colleagues, as well as with the research community across India and abroad, while developing and expanding their careers.

Operating under the broad guidance of the Executive Director and the Advisory Board, the Associate Director will be responsible for supporting the development and execution of all IndiaBioscience activities and projects, with a particular focus on the Skill Building vertical.

This position will spend approximately 60% of its time working closely with the Executive Director towards managing, coordinating, implementing, and building the current and ongoing activities of IndiaBioscience. This will include the day-to-day roles and processes related to managing the website, email inboxes and newsletter lists, communication with partners, developing partnership plans, and providing inputs, assistance and support to the program managers/​team members for their verticals. In addition, the Associate Director will be responsible for leading the writing of work-related quarterly and annual reports at IndiaBioscience, preparing slide decks for meetings and presentations, and coordinating Board meetings. The Associate Director will also be expected to build policy documents for human resource management and the work structure at IndiaBioscience, as well as build out an implement a project management system for the program. The Associate Director will be responsible for human resource management, administrative and operational functions at IndiaBioscience.

In the remaining 40% of the time, the Associate Director will specifically run, coordinate, manage, build, and grow the Skill Building vertical at IndiaBioscience. This will include being in charge of all aspects (end-to-end competence) related to the International Grants Awareness Program (iGAP) and Crafting-Your-Career (CYC) workshop series. In addition to growing the above programs, other skill-building activities at IndiaBioscience, such as the jobs and internships newsletter, recruitment of interns, and leadership, grant writing, scientific writing workshops, and other workshop plans may be built in partnership with external organizations. The Associate Director will also be responsible for seeking and raising funds related to the Skill Building vertical via writing small grants, outlines for potential partners, and pitch decks.

Description of a day in the role of Associate Director, IndiaBioscience: The team member will be based out of the IndiaBioscience office in NCBS, Bangalore. This is intended to be an in-person or hybrid (hybrid work guidelines as per current IndiaBioscience norms), and only in very exceptional cases will remote working be considered. The typical work schedule will be 8 – 9 hours in the day, five days a week. The Associate Director’s day will include several tasks related to the running of the programs at IndiaBioscience. Simultaneously, the Associate Director will also have to build and execute plans for the skill-building vertical at IndiaBioscience. Further, based on requests for plans and outlines for partnerships, report deadlines, slide decks, and grant openings (from the Executive Director), the Associate Director will work on these documents in a paced manner to ensure deadlines are met. While select large pieces of work are expected from the Associate Director, all work will need to be of an advanced quality with attention to detail.

Age: 45 years as of 1^st July 2024

The position is expected to start on 7^th October 2024.