OPEN COMPETITIONS CR-2025-PHASE-2
Junior research scientist in conception of dairy cattle system
35590 SAINT GILLES
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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
The Physiology, Environment and Genetics for Animals and Farming Systems (PEGASE) joint research unit, based in St-Gilles near Rennes, conducts research aimed at gaining a better understanding of the interactions between animals, farming practices and the environment in order to improve the sustainability of food systems. Within this unit, you will join the 'SYSTELL' team, made up of sixteen permanent staff, including twelve scientists from INRAE and the Institut Agro Rennes-Angers, which has in-depth expertise in characterising the multi-performance of dairy systems and the impacts and benefits of various management methods.
Your research project will aim to develop, validate and promote the most appropriate management strategies for low-cost, sustainable dairy systems that are adapted to their environment. The originality of the project lies in the combination of approaches: database analyses, system experiments and multi-criteria assessments of production systems. Your aim will be to understand how to combine the most parsimonious use of resources in the broadest sense (inputs, energy, water, labour, etc.) to achieve sobriety, a key element in agro-ecological transitions.
To carry out your project, you will have access to two decades' worth of data collected as part of trials carried out within various INRAE grassland dairy experimental systems, which will enable you to assess the sobriety criteria of these systems, in combination with other performance criteria at farm level. You will analyse the synergies and antagonisms of the various levers with a view to the overall objective of sobriety, taking into account different time scales. You will also draw on existing long-term zootechnical trials and/or design new ones, analysing the levers that you have identified as meeting the challenges of sobriety, to identify the determinants of their sustainability. The aim will be for you to put forward concrete recommendations for management strategies that are adapted to different contexts, easy to implement, and using agro-ecological levers. Your aim will be to inform the choices made by those involved in the industry and public policy to support the transition of dairy systems in a socio-economic context.
Training and skills
A background in agronomy or livestock science is required.
Ability to integrate knowledge in order to analyse, design and evaluate livestock systems on a global basis is required.
Ability to work in a team is essential.
Fluency in English is highly desirable, as is long-term international experience: successful candidates who have not already had such experience will be required to undertake a period of study abroad at the end of the placement 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
- I download the applicant guide Application guidelines CRCN 2025 pdf - 3.93 MB
- I write down the profile number CR-2025-PHASE-2
- I apply GO
All persons employed by or hosted at INRAE, a public research establishment, are subject to the Civil Service Code, particularly with regard to the obligation of neutrality and respect for the principle of secularism. In carrying out their functions, whether or not they are in contact with the public, they must not express their religious, philosophical or political convictions through their behaviour or by what they wear. > Find out more: fonction publique.gouv.fr website (in French)