OPEN COMPETITIONS CR26-AgroEcoSystem-1
Junior research scientist in landscape hydropedology
34060 MONTPELLIER
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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 aim of the Soil-Agrosystem-Hydrosystem Interactions Research Laboratory (LISAH) is to improve understanding of the interactions between natural resources (soil, water) and agroecological landscape management. The LISAH brings together skills in soil science, biogeochemistry, environmental physics, ecohydrology, agronomy, and spatialisation, which it uses in Mediterranean and intertropical agro-soil-climatic contexts. Within this unit, you will join the “Soil resources under global change” team.
Water is a major limiting factor of plant production in semi-arid and Mediterranean environments. As a result of climate change, the impact of water stress on agricultural production is spreading to numerous other soil-climate contexts due to an increase in the frequency and duration of edaphic droughts and the growing irregularity of rainfall. This challenges knowledge about the impact of the climate and the spatial and temporal dynamics of soil use on both hydric properties and functioning of agricultural soils, from plot level to the management of water resources. Your research will fall within the framework of these issues. You will study how, within cultivated landscapes, soil use and management practices (agricultural practices, landscape infrastructures), coupled with soil cover variability and meteorological forcing, affect the evolution of the transfer and retention capacities of water in soils, as well as hydrological functioning of soils.
You will model the spatio-temporal dynamics of the hydro-pedological properties from plot to landscape, and soil hydrology. You will participate in the assessment and design of cultivated landscapes adapted to water stress. To successfully carry out your research, you will be able to draw on the long-term agroenvironmental observation facilities of the LISAH, in France and abroad. You will also be able to draw on the landscape modelling approaches developed within the LISAH to design sustainable and multifunctional cultivated landscapes.
Field trips: driving licence recommended. Prolonged work on a computer.
Training and skills
Competition open to candidates with a PhD (or equivalent).
Sound skills in soil science and soil hydrodynamics are highly recommended.
Capabilities and an interest in mechanistic and spatial modelling would be desirable.
Knowledge in agronomy would also be appreciated.
You have good interpersonal skills and are open to multidisciplinarity.
Candidates should have a good command of English, and long-term international experience would also be desirable. Successful candidates who have not yet acquired this experience abroad will be required to do so after their probationary period (1st year).
Your future role explained in video
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 Guide for applicants 2026 pdf - 1.41 MB
- I write down the profile number CR26-AgroEcoSystem-1
- 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)