Research Scientist – Mammalian Virology (ID4471)

At the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), we have a mission we’re very serious about safeguarding animal and plant health for the benefit of people, the environment, and the economy.

Join us as a Research Scientist in our Mammalian Virology workgroup and you’ll play a key role in combating disease caused by mammalian viruses including the swine fever viruses and the ruminant pestiviruses; Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) and Border disease virus (BDV). This will involve research into the virology, detection, pathogenesis and the host’s response to these veterinary viruses and providing expertise and consultancy, both internally and to relevant national and international stakeholders. In short, you’ll help formulate and enhance our response to control these important livestock diseases across a range of settings.

Specifically, you will:

• Design and execute approaches for scientific investigations, ensuring they meet key objectives and milestones, as well as the requirements of budget, the customer, and Quality Assurance standard ISO9001.
• Communication of our science through participation in national and international conferences and ensuring publication of research in high impact peer reviewed journals.
• Monitor the horizon for technological developments that may be used to develop the research programme of swine fever and pestivirus research and the mammalian virology workgroup.
• Support the Workgroup’s senior scientist team, contribute to strategic planning and, when required act as deputy disease consultant for swine fever and related diseases.
• Develop opportunities to collaborate on national and international research proposals and contributing to funding proposals.
• Supervise and train staff, students, and visitors in the workgroup

We’re looking for a BSc-qualified scientist with post-graduate-qualification or equivalent experience in research. You will also need a strong background in Virology/Microbiology, with an insight into virus characterisation and detection including through pathogenesis studies and characterisation of the host’s response. As you will be delivering manuscripts, presentations, applications and reports, strong all-round communication skills are essential, as is bio-safety expertise/experience.

The nature of our work means you will participate in rostered on-call duties, to provide cover for occasional diagnostic investigations on weekends and Bank Holidays. There may also be the opportunity to work overtime which means you may be eligible for additional payment. APHA Management reserves the right to change overtime patterns to meet requirements.

This challenging opportunity means you will be contributing to vital, strategically important work. Due to its sensitivity, you will need a valid Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) security clearance.

Closing date: 13 July 2026.

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