Research assistant API-SMAL

Research assistant position (Engineer) - “Meta-analysis of numerical models for agroecology”

Applications are invited for a research assistant / engineer position at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA).

The successful candidate will be part of an interdisciplinary research project on the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services across spatial scales (“Agroecology and policy instruments for sustainable multifunctional agricultural landscapes”), financed by the Labex BASC (www.inra.fr/basc). He/She will be supervised by Francesco Accatino (INRA-AgroParisTech, SAD-APT, Paris) and Simon Labarthe (INRA, MaIAGE, Jouy-en-Josas).

The objective of the position is to explore the trade-offs among different ecosystem services (including food production) at multiple spatial scales through a meta-analysis and exploration of existing numerical models dedicated to different fields of agroecology (e.g., land use optimization, epidemiology, population ecology, agronomy, economics). The tasks devoted to the successful candidate are: 1) To study and understand the different numerical models of the project, in dialogue with the researchers that developed them, 2) to formalize a set of exploratory scenarios defined with the partners of the project, 3) to develop input/output interfaces to adapt the scenarios to the models and implement the meta-analysis, 4) to develop post processing tools to aggregate, analyze and visualize the model outputs, 5) to perform a sensitivity analysis of the different models to enhance the discussion of the meta-analysis.

Keywords : Interfacing heterogeneous models, script (python, R,...), interdisciplinary modeling (agroecology), decision support.

Required expertise: The successful candidate should have a Master degree (or engineer degree) in informatics, or a research experience (PhD, engineering) based on applied informatics to a relevant field (e.g., environmental or natural resource modeling). A strong expertise in one particular discipline is not required; rather the candidate should be open to integrate relevant issues of different disciplines in a common framework. The candidate is expected to have good programming skills (in particular on script programming to interface different models), as well as a strong interest and skill in applying modelling in a multidisciplinary context.

Salary: The position is funded for 18 months, with a gross monthly salary varying from 2300 to 2500€ (depending on experience). The position could start as soon as the 1st of July, 2018.

Contact details: Applications, including a CV, a cover letter and a list of references with contact details, should be sent by email (subject: "API-SMAL research engineer application") to Vincent Martinet (vincent.martinet@inra.fr), Francesco Accatino (francesco.accatino@inra.fr) and Simon Labarthe (simon.labarthe@inra.fr) before the 1st of May, 2018. Auditions will take place between May 14 and May 16, with a decision on May 20. Later applications may be considered if the position is not filled.

Date de modification : 14 septembre 2023 | Date de création : 10 avril 2018 | Rédaction : BASC