Co-Founder in Residence, AI/ML Expert Transforming Crop Improvement Full-time

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.

We seek entrepreneurial scientists eager to create the next generation of crops and technologies to enable food security, fight climate change, and increase profits to producers. The successful candidate will have access to DSV’s research and expertise to identify what novel approaches help us achieve the high-level outcome of halving the time necessary to identify commercially viable crop varieties.

References

[1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1116437108

[2] https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2020-02/apo-nid274256.pdf

[3] https://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6053187/cropland-map-food-fuel-animal-feed

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:

As the AI/ML Co-Founder in Residence, your core mission will be to develop and implement artificial intelligence frameworks that expedite rapid florogenesis leading to high-yielding and high-quality cultivars. You will be instrumental in designing innovative hardware systems for robotic plant manipulation and greenhouse automation that will be translated to field applications, employing advanced computer vision techniques to analyze and interpret complex image and video data that can inform the research and development pipeline in the venture. Your responsibilities extend to constructing a robust AI training pipeline tailored to the unique demands of agricultural data but also enabling the design of new tools to expedite faster cultivar development in collaboration with plant biology and crop commercialization experts. Your ability to bridge the gap between technology and biology will pave the way for paradigm shifts in how we approach plant science, food production, and sustainability.

Requirements:

1. An advanced degree, or substantial equivalent experience, in a related AI/ML field such as Computer Science, Robotics, or Electrical Engineering, with a special focus on agricultural applications.
2. A deep comprehension of AI and ML methodologies, underscored by a demonstrated track record in the development of agricultural technology solutions.
3. 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.
4. Technical prowess in computer vision, specifically regarding image and video data capture, analysis, and integration into AI training regimens, with an emphasis on agricultural applications.
5. 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.
6. An entrepreneurial spirit showcasing the ability to conceptualize, develop, and scale innovative scientific ideas into commercially viable products and services.
7. An innovative mindset, strong problem-solving, and the ability to work both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.
8. Exceptional communication skills accompanied by a facility for collaborating effectively across interdisciplinary teams and conveying complex technical information to a broad audience.
9. Experience working in a science startup environment is highly desired.
10. Fluency in English and Spanish is preferred.
11. 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 network of Partners and Advisors;
• We provide £250k investment governed by our Investment Committee to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data that’s needed to attract high profile non-venture studio VCs. This funding is also key to get grant funding, which most often needs to be matched with private investment;
• We provide guaranteed income of £4,166 per month paid to each Founder in Residence as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and the pre-seed investment is secured;
• You and your co-founders will own a majority equity stake in the company;
• We provide continuous support after post spin-out, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment and team-building (amongst other things); plus
• There are dozens of Founders currently at DSV across sectors working collaboratively and supporting one another – a unique resource to draw on.

ABOUT DSV

Deep Science Ventures is creating a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive.

We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out and invest into science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures.

We operate in 4 sectors: Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture and Computation, tackling the challenges defining those areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.