Job Title:

Senior Research Associate

Function:

Bharti Institute of Public Policy (BIPP)

Reports to position:

Head of PMU

Location:

New Delhi

Reportees to Position:

NA

Band:

FT

About the TA Facility at ISB-BIPP - Overview

The needle on nutrition in India has proven hard to move. Three factors have risen to the top for consideration. One, a focus on production and consumption of cereals is insufficient to meet the challenge; the focus must move to nutrient-dense foods (NDFs), such as fruits, vegetables, and animal-source foods. Two, in the context where most food is purchased from markets, government support towards market-based approaches should be enhanced. Three, digital technology, which has transformed lives across the country, must be brought to bear on the problem.

ISB is setting up a Technical Assistance Facility to support agriculture-nutrition policy convergence  at the Government of India, where government stakeholders of both agriculture and nutrition identify synergies, collaborate and work together, at the level of both policy design and programmes, towards improving nutrition outcomes amongst low income populations in underserved geographies by building improving accessibility, availability and affordability of NDFs amongst this target segment, with a focus on Nutrient-dense foods, and emphasis on market-based approaches.

Job Purpose

The vision for the ‘Technical Assistance Facility (TA Facility) to Advance India's Ag-Nutrition Convergence Agenda’ is to support GoI to improve nutrition outcomes through ag-nutrition convergence, with a focus on Nutrient Dense Foods (NDFs) and the use of markets, technology and policy for improving availability, accessibility and affordability of NDFs to low-income consumers in underserved geographies.

One of the key outputs for the TA Facility will be to undertake rapid response research to address specific convergence questions. The Research Associate will undertake converting data and research from the ground into knowledge products and inputs for government practitioners as support for enabling ag-nutrition convergence.

Job Outline

The Research Associate will be a part of the ISB team at Delhi that will work in close conjunction with the PMU teams in the Hyderabad and States.

The incumbent will work closely with the Research Specialists at the Hyderabad & States and, with the fellows and interns in field locations who will undertake data capture and research for identified rapid response research questions to support ag-nutrition convergence.

She/He will a) work with the Research Specialists in building research questions, b) enable the sharing of and understanding of the research questions amongst the fellows and interns, c) work with the interns & fellows during the course of the research to ensure progress and outputs as planned for, d) take data at regular and continuous intervals from the field locations and e) will work with the data and undertake the required analysis to convert into knowledge products and inputs that will support government practitioners and policy enablers as support for the ag-nutrition convergence agenda. 

She/He will also analyse data for inputs to the Data Scientist who will undertake further advanced analytics of the data.

She/He will work closely with the KMCO team to ensure that the research output is carried forward with all the key & vital information and inputs in communication, outreach and in knowledge products. She/He will undertake writing out the knowledge products (a first draft for KMCO team to build on) based on the rapid response research and the associated analytics.

Job Specification

Knowledge / Education

Specific Skills

Desirable Experience

• Postgraduate/ Graduate in any field

• Experience in working with data sets for data analysis and statistical programming.
• Working knowledge with STATA/R/Python will be required.
• Experience in research writing will be a good to have.
• Experience in project management of any kind and working with teams will be a good to have as well.

• 5-7 years

Job Interface/Relationships:

Internal

External

• State ISB teams of the TA Facility
• Central TA Facility team at ISB Hyderabad
• BIPP personnel
• Departments within ISB for facilitation of the TA Facility and its activities

• Fellows & Interns
• TA Facility’s implementation partners.

S.No

Key Responsibilities

% Time Spent

1.

Converting identified opportunities & challenges into research questions (in conjunction with Research Specialists)

20%

2.

Working with interns & fellows for data capture on ground, research progress and procuring the inputs/data from interns & fellows

30%

3.

Analyzing data from the studies to create knowledge products & policy inputs & analyzing data as inputs to data scientist for further data programming

30%

4.

Undertaking writing the research outcomes into knowledge products (first drafts for KMCO team to take ahead) & providing the required inputs to KMCO team to ensure accurate capture of research outputs into products for communications & outreach.

20%

Total time spent on all responsibilities

100%

How to apply

ISB is committed to diversity at the workplace, and strongly encourages applications from women and minority candidates.

Send your application through this link here – Research Associate. Upload your updated CV and a cover letter (no more than 500 words) discussing your motivation and why do you think you are a good fit for this position.

Please note: We will accept applications through the link above only. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Applicants will be contacted only if shortlisted for an interview. In case of any issues in uploading, please write to hemamani_d@isb.edu with the subject line “Application for Research Associate - Hyd”.