Junior research scientist in economics on ecosystem services associated to livestock farming

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INRAE presentation

INRAE, the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment, is a public research organization bringing together 12,000 employees across 272 units in 18 centers across France. As the world’s leading institute specializing in agriculture, food, and the environment, INRAE plays a key role in supporting the necessary transitions to address global challenges.

Faced with population growth, food security challenges, climate change, resource depletion, and biodiversity loss, INRAE is committed to developing scientific solutions and supporting the evolution of agricultural, food, and environmental practices.

INRAE is recruiting researchers by open competition and offering permanent position.

Work environment, missions and activities

You will work in the Herbivores joint research unit (UMR Herbivores), located on the Theix site in Saint-Genès-Champanelle in the Volcans d'Auvergne regional nature park, near Clermont-Ferrand. This unit conducts research for sustainable herbivore farming systems that provides a range of ecosystem services. Within this unit, you will join the multi-disciplinary Comete team (Design, Modeling, and Evaluation of Livestock Systems), comprising around twenty INRAE and VetAgro Sup staff, with the following skills: economy, zootechnics, and statistics. The “Comete” team works with a systems approach to understand, analyze, and evaluate the multi-performance of grassland and mixed-crop-livestock farms, as well as the provision of ecosystem services in the context of agroecology.

Within this team, and by developing your network in France, Europe, and worldwide, you will be responsible for proposing approaches/methods for quantifying and valuing the multiple ecosystem services associated to livestock farming, at the farm and regional levels. Your theoretical frameworks will be those of production and environmental economics, and you will work on joint production including livestock products and ecosystem services. This research will be carried out in multidisciplinary project, aimed at characterizing the interactions (synergies and antagonisms) between ecosystem services and examining their combinations making it possible to minimize or counterbalance the negative effects of livestock farming. You will have the opportunities to discuss the results from your research with livestock farming professionals and public decision-makers. Your work and results will contribute to the debate on the restructuring of the herbivore farming sector and the generational renewal.

Training and skills

PhD level or equivalent. 
The project requires skills in economics, with an emphasis on agricultural, environmental and natural resource economics. Skills in the monetary valuation of non-market goods will also be required. The ability to work as part of a team and interact with modelers, agronomists, animal and environmental scientists will be appreciated; to this end, knowledge of the functioning of livestock systems can be acquired within the host team.
Fluency in written and spoken English is a must, as is long-term international experience: those who have not already done so will be required to spend a year abroad at the end of the probationary year.

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INRAE's life quality

By joining our teams, you benefit from:

- 30 days of annual leave + 15 days "Reduction of Working Time" (for a full time);
- parenting support: CESU childcare, leisure services;
- skills development systems: training, career advise;
- social support: advice and listening, social assistance and loans;
- holiday and leisure services: holiday vouchers, accommodation at preferential rates;
- sports and cultural activities;
- collective catering.

For international scientists: please visit your guide to facilitate your arrival and stay at INRAE. 

How to apply

1. I download the applicant guide Application guidelines CRCN 2025 pdf - 3.93 MB
2. I write down the profile number CR-2025-ECOSOCIO-2
3. I apply GO