Scientific Community-Building Fellow

The Good Food Institute (GFI) is a nonprofit think tank working to make the global food system better for the planet, people, and animals. Alongside scientists, businesses, and policymakers, GFI’s teams focus on making plant-based, fermentation-enabled, and cultivated meat delicious, affordable, and accessible. Powered by philanthropy, GFI is an international network of organizations advancing alternative proteins as an essential solution needed to meet the world’s climate, global health, food security, and biodiversity goals.

How you will make a difference

Advancing the science of plant-based meat depends on drawing in the right expertise, yet many of the disciplines best equipped to solve its hardest technical problems are not yet well represented in the field. In this fellowship, you will reach out to professionals in the physical sciences, engineering, and others outside of food science whose expertise is essential to solving the field's hardest technical barriers. The Scientific Community-Building Fellow will be responsible for:

• Creating an outreach strategy: Working closely with the Senior Scientific Partnerships Manager to create an outreach strategy for engaging critical and underrepresented disciplines in plant-based meat research — e.g. how we reach them, what we offer, and how we bring them into the ecosystem. Understanding the core scientific and technical concepts (e.g., in an academic research paper) of plant-based meat research and translating them into the language of other disciplines.
• Mapping key disciplines, individuals, and forums: Creating a database of people, disciplines, and societies and identifying opportunities for GFI to have a presence at scientific forums where these stakeholders gather.
• Building outreach materials: Developing the groundwork for relationship-building with individuals and academic departments — i.e., identifying target universities and department heads, and assembling the briefing materials, talking points, and persuasive, audience-tailored toolkit. Assessing opportunities to improve upon GFI’s existing outreach materials and tools, and implementing those recommendations. Supporting outreach and engagement: Coordinating outreach to priority stakeholders, scheduling and facilitating meetings or symposia as identified above, and designing and conducting interviews and/or surveys. With your supervisor, pilot a small number of outreach contacts drawn from your target lists, and fold learnings back into the strategy and toolkit. Synthesizing and presenting findings: Creating a final report and presenting a summary of findings to GFI’s Science and Technology team at the end of the fellowship tenure.
• Performing other duties as assigned.

Who we’re looking for

An ideal candidate for the Scientific Community-Building Fellow position will have experience that reflects the following:

• Fluency in the culture of the physical sciences and/or engineering disciplines, as demonstrated by a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in the discipline or at least 3 years of academic research .
• Preference will be given to candidates who are pursuing a Master of Science (MSc) or higher degree in a relevant discipline for plant-based meat research, including but not limited to: physical sciences and engineering such as material sciences, mechanical engineering, soft matter physics, chemical or biological engineering, etc.
• Ability to effectively translate technical concepts across academic disciplines.
• Ability to professionally communicate verbally and in writing with students, researchers, and other innovators of both scientific audiences and science-interested lay audiences.
• Preference for those with experience planning scientific and academic research events, community-building, or society/committee work aimed at bringing scientists together.
• Strong skills in analyzing and interpreting literature and disparate data sources to draw meaningful conclusions and suggest future directions.
• Ability to perform independent, self-paced work.
• A commitment to fostering a work environment that is respectful, supportive, fair, and welcoming to all.
• Comfort working remotely in a collaborative, caring, and high-performing culture that values inclusion and innovation.
• Strong support for GFI’s philosophy and mission; demonstrated interest in plant-based & other alternative proteins, public health, environmentalism, climate change, animal protection, or hunger relief.
• A commitment to GFI’s values: believe change is possible, do the most good we can, share knowledge freely, act on evidence, and invite everyone to the table.

GFI wants the best people and is committed to a fair hiring process. We use a third-party anonymizing tool to redact personal information from submitted applications — including name, location, contact details, and several other factors — to increase fairness in our process. We also prioritize an inclusive work environment absent of discrimination and harassment during the application process and after you join the team.