Associate professor in the scientific field of animal science and technology (f/m/d)

Freie Universität Bozen

Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences

Associate professor Academic recruitment in the scientific field of animal science and technology with a focus on livestock systems, animal breeding and genetics

Position type: Permanent position

Profile

The profile of the candidate must fulfil the following criteria:

• Holder of an equivalent academic position at the candidate’s current foreign university as required in the “Direct call from abroad” Italian legislation
• Postdoctoral research in the scientific field mentioned above
• Documented above-average performance in teaching
• Research publications in highly ranked journals and contributions to high-level conferences (international and national)
• German at C1 level or mother tongue and adequate knowledge of English or Italian is required.

Position

The position offered is at the associate professor level in livestock systems, animal breeding and genetic, whose competences range from topics related to livestock production systems (mainly dairy cows) and relations with health, animal welfare and performance. This may include monitoring of related indicators and management issues through digital components integrated into enterprise information systems. This is a tenured position with a teaching load of 120 hours/year in bachelor and/or master courses.

The research activities will focus on the evaluation and improvement of existing livestock production systems, through breeding, feeding and management in the context of current challenges (e.g., climate change, changing consumer demand). Digitalization should be used as a main transversal approach to all research activities in cooperation with other disciplines at the Free University of Bolzano. This could both concern: 1) the use of data coming from automated solutions for the sector; 2) and the support of the development knowledge management applications, to be adapted to the requirements of small and medium size agri-environmental enterprises.

The working place is in Bolzano, mainly at the Central Campus but also at the NOI Techpark laboratories.

The position offers a working opportunity in a team of experts open to collaborate on innovative and cross-disciplinary projects. Also, various funding possibilities (European, provincial, third sector and internal funds) are at disposal. A multilingual working environment completes the position (including free language teaching support to reach the required certifications).

Research directions:

The associate professor may explore several diverse research directions that bridge aspects of animal science, agriculture, sustainability, and technology. Some of the key research areas may cover the following aspects:

• Development of sustainable livestock production systems including climate adaptation studies and carbon footprint and methane reduction strategies
• Breed development and conservation including the support of indigenous breed conservation, breed adaptation to local environments and hybrid vigor and crossbreeding
• Developing systems for precision livestock farming, where genetic and phenotypic data are used to manage animals more efficiently and sustainably
• Integration of new technologies like whole-genome sequencing, RNA sequencing, and metabolomics to understand and improve livestock systems
• Optimization of the overall outcome of livestock production systems through genetic and/or management including animal welfare and behavioral genetics, management practices for welfare and the use of genomic data to predict traits such as disease resistance, growth rate, reproductive efficiency, and feed conversion
• Interdisciplinary topics:
• Smart livestock farming
• Automation and robotics
• Economic and social aspects of animal breeding
• Bioinformatics and data integration in livestock genetics

Application procedure

Please send us the documents listed below in hard copy or by e-mail:

• Expression of interest letter
• Detailed Curriculum Vitae (attachment A – University Academic CV)
• List of publications
• Research statement – Research focus and research projects
• Description of the teaching experience and courses taught plus final evaluations
• Statement about the current academic position
• Language certificate at C1 level for German (‘Recognised language certificates’). If German is the mother tongue, it is not necessary to submit a certificate for this language. The adequate knowledge of English or Italian will be determined through a conversation about the research topics of the academic discipline AGRI-09/A (livestock systems, animal breeding and genetics).

Application deadline: 31.08.2025

Please note:

• Only applications duly signed and dated on the last page will be accepted and considered as complete
• Only short-listed candidates will be invited to an interview
• The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano aims to increase the proportion of women in research and teaching and therefore strongly encourages female scientists to submit their expression of interest

Mail address:
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Piazza Università, 5
I – 39100 Bolzano
Telephone: +39 0471 017000

E-Mail address:
personnel.academic.agriculture@unibz.it
More information
Position call:       Positions for Academic Staff / Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (unibz.it)
Faculty website: https://www.unibz.it/en/faculties/agricultural-environmental-food-sciences/

Description

AGRI-09/A (ex AGR/17 Livestock systems, animal breeding and genetics/Zootecnica generale e migloramento genetico / Allgemeine Tierhaltung und Tierzucht)

The sector brings together the research themes inherent to zootechnical systems, the evolution of the relationship between livestock farming and society, the structural characteristics of animal populations, the genetic causes of production variability, in order to derive principles and methods of livestock management and genetic improvement, aimed at increasing the efficiency and quality of production within the framework of sustainable zootechnics. Training competences range from general zootechnics, analysis and protection of animal genetic resources, zootechnical demography and ethnology, veterinary genetics, biotechnology applied to genetic improvement, biometrics and genetic improvement of animals in livestock production.

About the Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences

We are a young and growing faculty with a strong multidisciplinary and multinational dimension. In our staff we have nationally and internationally recognized experts.

We have a solid network of international collaborations and high-end research facilities, are expanding in many directions and open for new ideas.

New challenges are our daily routine and therefore people who like innovation and strive for top scientific goals are a good match with our culture.

Our main areas of interest are agricultural production, food technologies, environment and dynamics and management of mountain ecosystems.

Those areas are further subdivided into smaller research groups, where scientists work/specialize on some concrete topic of interest.

We teach various bachelor courses, master courses and PhD study programmes.

We carefully choose our academic personnel by hiring prominent scientists from abroad as guest/contract lecturers or tenured professors. We are a vital part of one of the world’s rare universities that offers their students lectures in three languages of tuition, and, upon the conclusion of the study program, a trilingual qualification in English, German and Italian.

Both our students and professors are provided with the support of the Language Centre of the University. It helps them in finding the right method for the study of the language of interest and in achieving the desired level of language proficiency through its courses and language counseling.

Finally, it offers a preparation for internationally recognized language certificates. We further encourage our academics to improve their language skills by incentivizing financially those with B2 and C1 certificates in the second or third language.

We participate in research projects and our work is visible all over the province of Bolzano, as our interdisciplinary and hands-on approach resulted in many fruitful collaborations, with a strong support from the local community. In this context, ideas can be transformed into projects in a matter of months. We firmly believe that our researchers are our greatest asset and a competitive advantage on a market in need of innovation: responding to real life problems with respect for the environment, creating eco-sustainable solutions and using the expertise from many scientific areas in getting a problem resolved is what we are committed to.