Research Assistant

Research Assistant

Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT) based in Boston is currently implementing a mini-research project in Madi, Chitwanentitled “Solar Fish Drying”. The main objective of the project is to assist the existing fish cooperatives in Madi to enhance product diversification and sales through the use of sustainable renewable technology. The project is running in joint collaboration with Johns Hopkins University where the Environmental Sciences and Policy (ESP) students that visited Nepal in January 2020 assisted in conceptualizing and managing the project. There is a group based in Kathmandu (represented by Friends of Prakriti-FoP) that will manage the overall execution of the survey. Students from WIT are currently working to design a prototype of the solar drying scheme. In order to support the team, vital data from Nepal needs to be collected for future planning and use.

In this backdrop, WIT is conducting a reconnaissance survey to identify various dimensions of the project with main focus on market analysis, fish varieties documentation, identification of drying practices/technologies, identifying palatability features, solar power vendor assessment, technical feasibility assessment among others.

The project is currently aiming to recruit one research assistant to assist in this survey. The main roles of the research assistant will be to (a) assist in collecting, cleaning and tabulating the data (b) participate in field level work and data collection (c) work under the supervision of FoP to undertake the required tasks (d) collaborate with the COP within WIT and ESP students to share and analyze collected data (e) undertake other assigned tasks by the project team that are within the scope of this work. 

Minimum qualification:

• Candidate should be either an existing college student in the final year of their degree or should be someone who has recently completed their bachelor’s degree.
• Candidate should be willing to travel to study sites (such as Pokhara, Chitwan, Kathmandu) with the project team representative/s.
• Candidate should have fluency in Nepali language. Fluency in spoken and written english would be an added advantage.

Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and a CV.

Please send your cover letter and CV as a single document. First page should be the signed cover letter and next three pages should be the CV. Please send the file at madifishproject@gmail.com