About the job
About The Broad

Job Description

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is one of the world’s leading biomedical research institutes. It is dedicated to using the power of genomics to transform our understanding and treatment of disease. The Broad Institute seeks to discover the molecular basis of major human diseases, develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics, and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods, and data openly to the entire scientific community. Founded in 2004 by Eric Lander and philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, the Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff, and students from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities, with collaborations spanning more than a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries.

Viral genomics group led by Pardis Sabeti at the Broad Institute develops and uses cutting-edge experimental techniques to study viral evolution and diagnose viral infections. We develop and use computational techniques to scan the human genome for regions under natural selection. We apply these techniques to global health research and are currently examining host/pathogen co-evolution of infectious diseases including malaria, cholera, and Lassa fever. This is a large, dynamic lab with projects funded by multiple U.S. government agencies (including NIH and DARPA) and various philanthropic donors.

Overall Responsibility/Characteristics

The Scientific Writer will support the team in writing scientific papers and grant applications for submission. Working with team members including the Principal Investigator and other researchers, the Writer will write, revise, and see to completion, varied grant applications, news and other outreach pieces, and scientific manuscripts. This individual may work with members of our team on multiple projects simultaneously. We seek an individual who can absorb and synthesize large amounts of experimental information, help organize it, and present it in a clear and comprehensive form. This position requires excellent research, writing, and technical skills for effective communication.

Principal Duties And Responsibilities

All Broad employees, regardless of work location, must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Tuesday, October 12, 2021 . Requests for exemption for medical or sincerely held religious beliefs will be considered.

Scientific and Grant Writing

• Collaborate in planning, writing, editing, and submission of proposals and progress reports for federal, industrial, and philanthropic funding
• Analyze and interpret research results and the scientific literature in connection with writing or editing high-quality grant proposal narratives, grant reports, letters of recommendation, fellowship applications, etc.
• Revise journal manuscripts and grant applications in conjunction with team members.
• Act as a resource to colleagues in the development of narrative, tables, graphs, and other material for incorporation into manuscripts and grant applications.
• Conduct data analysis for inclusion in scientific papers, grants, and other forms of communication.
• Follow schedule for documentation and outreach projects, ensuring document creation and updates adhere to the wider project scheduling goals.
• Create or revise technical or scientific documentation and support materials.

Scientific Education and Communication

• Write stories as needed about news, research, and events related to the Broad and the Sabeti Lab
• Produce multimedia content in support of communications campaigns and drive dissemination of content across media platforms.
• Analyze and interpret scientific papers and write clear, compelling, and accurate content (meeting specified deadlines) for multiple audiences, for use in print, web, video, social media, and multimedia.
• Manage scientific communications with co-authors, collaborators, journal editors, graphic designers, and other Broad Institute communications professionals to ensure quality and scientific accuracy of written documents
• Assist in developing community outreach and education events such as workshops, both local to Broad and in other locations.
• Ensure that work products conform to formatting and internal/external policy/regulatory requirements, are free of errors, and that scientific ideas are presented clearly, accurately, and persuasively
• Other communications duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years experience supporting scientific communication and master’s degree in biology, computational biology, genomics, medicine, chemistry, or other related fields including communications/journalism. PhD and postgraduate research experience preferred.
• Ability to understand and synthesize large amounts of clinical, genomic, computational, and biological narrative in order to summarize the salient points.
• Ability to translate difficult science concepts for multiple audiences.
• Excellent writing, editing, proofreading, and verbal communications skills.
• Must be adept at gathering information through interviews and consultations.
• Must be flexible and able to drive deadline-driven projects to completion.
• Must be able to work independently and as part of a team.
• Capable of coordinating work by numerous contributors and managing complex processes to on-deadline delivery
• Excellent problem-solving, organizational, and people skills.
• Self starter, able to set priorities, and work independently.
• Must be able to deal with a rapidly-changing and high-demand environment.

Preferred Additional Skills

• A track record of original research publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals desirable
• Ability to research, report, and write science stories, social media posts, and other communications about the Broad’s scientific research, staff, news and events, for diverse audiences. Work with video production staff, graphics specialists, and web teams to produce multimedia content, and help strategize and implement dissemination of multimedia and science news across traditional, social, and emerging media platforms. Represents the Broad at internal and external functions as assigned.
• Comfort with existing digital and social media platforms and willingness to learn, adapt to new media.
• Experience working with film or video preferred, either in a scriptwriting or production capacity.
• Editing experience at a scientific journal a plus

The Broad will not offer visa sponsorship for this opportunity.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

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