The Partnerships and UN Collaboration Division (PSU) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has issued a call for expressions of interest (vacancy announcement: 2202715) to attract suitable individuals to undertake consultancies and/or PSAs in particular as Information Management Specialists to work on the AGROVOC multilingual agricultural thesaurus, the International System for Agricultural Science and Technology (AGRIS) and/or Research4Life.

The Organization frequently engages experts to work on short-term activities and projects as international consultants or under personal service agreements (PSA). International consultants or PSAs are engaged by the Organization to provide expertise, skills or knowledge for the performance of a specific task or piece of work, which is short-term by nature. The assignment may involve fulltime or part-time functions. The assignment can be for a period of one month up to a maximum of 11 months. The possibility of extension is subject to satisfactory performance and depends on the resources and needs of the Organization.

Particularly for AGROVOC, the Consultants or PSAs should focus on one or more of the thematic areas, such as nutrition, biotechnology, agroecology, food security and food systems, digitalization, forestry, climate change, agro-industry, rural development, animal health, natural resources, livestock, pest and pesticide management, pollination, food loss and food waste, economic and social development, land and water, emergencies and resilience, the environment and related topics, and in the various areas related to FAO’s mandate, priorities and strategic framework, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Tasks of the Information Management Specialist dedicated to AGROVOC will include:

• Supporting the overall AGROVOC content development strategy and maintenance, in particular, to improve discoverability and visibility of data and publications in line with the FAIR Principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets).
• Reviewing systematically, on demand, existing concepts in AGROVOC based on the specialized area of expertise.
• Identifying gaps in content and suggesting new concepts.
• Understanding the AGROVOC hierarchy and suggesting placement for new and existing concepts.
• Researching pertinent definitions of concepts including their reliable sources, such as FAO publications, FAOTerm, domain specific literature among others.
• Contributing to the AGROVOC Editorial Guidelines Task Force with guidance on relevant domain specific authorities to check new and existing terminology in AGROVOC.
• Supporting the AGROVOC Editorial Main Team at FAO in any additional task related to terminology.
• Contributing to drafting reports/working papers and to disseminating results

Tasks of the Information Management Specialist dedicated to AGRIS will include:

• Implementing and delivering training programs, online seminars and workshops in the context of access to scientific information resources in food and agriculture through AGRIS.
• Delivering capacity development activities to increase capacity and awareness on how to manage, access, exchange and use information more efficiently in the AGRIS Network.
• Providing strategic guidance and maintenance of agricultural bibliographic information services.
• Reviewing and publishing structured metadata about scientific literature in food and agricultural sciences.
• Supporting the inclusion of new OAI compliant data repositories into AGRIS.
• Promoting the use of AGRIS.
• Contributing to drafting reports/working papers and to disseminating results.

Tasks of the Information Management Specialist dedicated to Research4Life will include:

• Ensuring accuracy and currency of institution support database of Research4Life registered institutions. including contact details and other information points required for access to the Research4Life content
• Participating in the joint activities of the Research4Life programmes and collective partnership in the areas of user support and outreach, draft administrative procedures, adjust automated workflows and liase with relevant backups.
• Responding to assigned category of user inquiries from available prepared templates, using judgment as necessary when adjustment of the available prepared template is required.
• May engage in:

1. integrating statistical reports from compiled usage data as well as compiling and redistributing information about Research4Life and Research4Life user experiences for the preparation of training, outreach services and promotional materials.
2. troubleshooting access problem reports.

Minimum Requirements include:

• University degree in library or information science, knowledge management, computer science, natural sciences, food and agricultural sciences, forestry, geography, ecology, social sciences, economics, fisheries, animal production and animal science or any field related to FAO's mandate;
• At least five years (for Level B) and one year (for Level C) of relevant experience in information management preferably in the food and agriculture sector or international development sector; and
• Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, or Russian for Consultants. Working knowledge of English is sufficient for PSA.SBS.

Interested and qualified professionals should apply for the opening by Monday, 31 October 2022.

Individuals meeting or exceeding the requirements of the opening will be included in the Partnerships and UN Collaboration Division Roster. Experts who are registered in the Roster are available for consideration whenever relevant opportunities matching the required profiles arise.

For more information and details about how to apply visit:

https://jobs.fao.org/careersection/fao_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=2202715&tz=GMT%2B02%3A00&tzname=Europe%2FBerlin.