**ABOUT THE ROLE**
At DSV we're looking for future Founders, entrepreneurially minded individuals with industry-specific technical and commercial domain expertise eager to solve urgent unmet challenges through venture building.
You will join DSV's venture creation programme as a Founder in Residence and work closely with the DSV team, using our methodology, to spin-out a new company. During the programme, you'll work on all aspects related to venture creation in this opportunity area, including working out the optimal approach to solve for the desired outcome, building a team and building a viable business case. Once the new venture is incorporated with pre-seed investment from DSV, you and your co-founders will own the majority stake in the business and continue receiving support from the DSV team post-spinout.
**PROBLEM OVERVIEW**
The global population will surge to over 9 billion by 2050, and we will need a 70% increase in food production to adequately feed this future global population (1)(2). Crops are essential to meet this need; 55% of the world's crop calories are consumed directly by humans, and another 36% is used for animal feed (3). Crop breeding has been a primary driver of food security due to the selection of superior cultivars that meet caloric, nutritional, and productivity metrics. However, the acceleration of climate change threatens cultivar selection efficiency since new biotic and abiotic stresses emerge without warning; thus, there is a critical need to accelerate how we breed for future crops.
Plant breeding and biotechnology technologies have helped alleviate yield losses due to climate change, such as drought and pest resistance. However, even in the era of advanced breeding and precise genetic engineering, these technologies have yet to achieve the full potential of crops because fundamental challenges remain unaddressed. To this end, this opportunity area (OA) seeks to **reduce progeny time production by 10X through novel florogenesis technologies.**
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**OUR APPROACH**:
The co-founder in residence, an AI/ML expert leading the transformation of crop improvement, will be essential in building the software that enables the hardware to accelerate the development of new commercial cultivars through novel speed breeding technologies. While traditional speed breeding techniques condense growth periods by environmental queues, our approach leverages the power of data science to pioneer a more nuanced manipulation of plant biology. We can enhance flowering processes and seed formation with unprecedented precision and efficiency by directly influencing the flowering pathway through data-driven AI models and advanced analytics. This methodology promises a transformative impact on crop development cycles and agricultural innovation.
**Requirements**:
**Position Requirements**:
**Requirements**:
- A deep comprehension of AI and ML methodologies, underscored by a demonstrated track record in the development of agricultural technology solutions.
- Experienced in the design and execution of hardware projects, which include robotics for plant manipulation, automated systems for greenhouses, and integrating sensory-driven feedback mechanisms.
- Expertise in the deployment and management of AI tools capable of synthesizing data from controlled agricultural environments to inform and direct research efforts in plant biology.
- An entrepreneurial spirit showcasing the ability to conceptualize, develop, and scale innovative scientific ideas into commercially viable products and services.
- An innovative mindset, strong problem-solving, and the ability to work both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.
- Exceptional communication skills accompanied by a facility for collaborating effectively across interdisciplinary teams and conveying complex technical information to a broad audience.
- Experience working in a science startup environment is highly desired.
- Fluency in English and Spanish is preferred.
- Willingness to relocate or frequently travel to Costa Rica, as our work will focus on accelerating progress in tropical agriculture.
**Benefits**
**OUR OFFER**
By joining DSV, you'll be joining a team of operators who have founded companies and led translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds and government agencies. 2/3 of the team have founded or led a company at C-suite and 65% have a PhD. Our team dedicate several hours every week to each Founder or founding team to provide tailored guidance, resources and feedback covering every aspect of what it takes to successfully launch a new venture from both the tech and commercial perspectives:
- We provide optimised, purpose-built, proprietary tools, resources and processes to help create high-impact ventures from scratch, using our venture creation methodology. Read more about one of our key tools here.
- We draw on opportunity area specific know-how provided by our ne