Post-doctoral position: development of an sustainability assessment method of crop rotations for an rotation explorer tool

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INRAE presentation

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is a major player in research and innovation. It is a community of 12,000 people with 272 research, experimental research, and support units located in 18 regional centres throughout France. Internationally, INRAE is among the top research organisations in the agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences, as well as in ecology and environmental science. It is the world’s leading research organisation specialising in agriculture, food and the environment. INRAE’s goal is to be a key player in the transitions necessary to address major global challenges. Faced with a growing world population, climate change, resource scarcity, and declining biodiversity, the Institute has a major role to play in building solutions and supporting the necessary acceleration of agricultural, food and environmental transitions.

Work environment, missions and activities

ou will be based at the UMR LAE (Laboratory Agronomy and Environment) at the INRAE Grand-Est
Colmar center. You will conduct your research in the third research axis of LAE. Researchers in this axis
are working on the agroecological transition of agricultural systems by characterizing, modelling,
evaluating and studying tradeoff between bioeconomic and agroecological goals.
The research work will be carried out as part of the TRANSFORM project (2024-2029), funded by
Horizon Innovations Action Europe. TRANSFORM proposes that innovating new crop rotations – the
sequences of crops that farmers use to achieve their farming goals – will deliver nature-based solutions
for sustainable and resilient climate change adaptation in arable and mixed farming. Based on an
explicitly multi-actor approach in which stakeholders are in charge of the innovation. TRANSFORM will
co-create with stakeholders tools and methods: for Regional-level Roadmaps that describe the needs
for adaptation of local people in agriculture; for farmers to innovate crop rotations for their region
using the Future Rotations Explorer tool; and, a Toolbox of spatio-temporal methods and tools for
stakeholders to explore and evaluate the societal, economic and environmental indicators of impact
of rotations.
To this end, workpackages 3 and 4 (WP3 and WP4) aim respectively to modell the ecological and
economic impacts of rotational systems at multiple scales, and evaluate social, environmental and
economic impacts of crop rotation with farmers and other stakeholders. The work of the person
recruited will be a keystone in the sustainability assessment of rotations in WP3 and WP4. He or she
will (i) establish a database of current sustainability indicators for rotations from different sources
(existing literature; INDIC, a sustainability indicators database containing almost 5000 indicators
developed at INRAE); (ii) develop an innovative assessment method of ecosystem services provided by
cropping systems, including rotation based on previous work in the research axis; (iii) select a list of
key performance indicators assessing rotation sustainability regarding climate change, environmental
impacts, economic performances and social aspects with respect to scientific soundness, and their
feasibility of measurement and utility for the regional partners iv) organize the implementation of
those indicators: writing factsheet, interact with modelers or with other data providers for their
calculation; v) develop a multicriteria assessment method using fuzzy decision tree (CONTRA method).
This will require discussion with stakeholders on themes covered by the indicators, their metrics, the
reference values and the potential weightings methodologies in regionals workshops. The aim is to
adapt and to refine the generic assessment framework developed by scientists to the expectations of
stakeholders in the regions of the regions. These belong to the Atlantic Biogeographic Region,
including: the Basque Country (Spain), Occitanie (France), Noord-Brabant (The Netherlands), Thames
River Basin District (United Kingdom) and West
Jutland (Denmark)
The ultimate aim of the research work is to provide to the Future Rotations Explorer tool with a set of
key sustainability indicators and multicriteria assessment method to provide a global assessment,
adapted to each regions of the project.
You will be in charge of:
- the scientific work of collating indicators, developing the assessment method of ecosystem
service, multicriteria assessment
- the organization of workshops with regional partners (in collaboration with regional
representatives of the project) to collate feedback from stakeholders in order to match the
assessment methods to their expectations.
- the presentation of the results within and outside the project and their publications

Training and skills

▪ Recommended training: PhD in agronomic and/or environmental sciences
▪ Knowledge required: Agroecology, Sustainability indicators, Fluency in English
▪ Appreciated experience: if possible, experience in environmental assessment.
▪ Skills sought: Ability to manage different tasks in parallel; Autonomy; Curiosity; Proposals; Scientific
writing; Team interaction; Thoroughness and respect for deadlines

INRAE's life quality

By joining our teams, you benefit from (depending on the type of contract and its duration):

- up to 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.

How to apply

I send my CV and my motivation letter