Research scientist at INRAE ISPA on remote sensing of forest health and risks

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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

• You will be welcomed in the Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Interactions unit (ISPA, 61 permanent staff), a joint research unit (UMR) involving INRAE and the Bordeaux Sciences Agro engineering school. Our research focuses on the effects of global change on agrosystems and forest ecosystems, focusing on matter and energy transfers between the soil, atmosphere and vegetation compartments. Our approach is naturally multidisciplinary, and the UMR brings together researchers and teacher-researchers with varied and complementary skills (agronomy, ecology, soil science, physics, chemistry, etc.). Combining observation, experimentation and modeling, our approach integrates different spatial and temporal scales to describe fundamental mechanisms and understand their impact from local to global scales, in the short and long term.

You will work in the framework of the FORSAID project aims to harness innovative technologies to ensure plant health in Europe's forests. FORSAID will introduce new technological horizons in the domain of forest pest control. By helping stakeholders ensure plant health in European forests, the project strengthens the continent’s green transition.

• You will be in charge of:

• Implementing tools to incorporate input data sources from multiple spaceborne and

  airborne platforms and other data sources as input or validation to AI models (ENVISAT ASAR, Sentinel-1, Palsar-1&2, Nisar, Icesat 2, orthophotos, airborne LiDAR, meteorological information, …) to map forest health and identify disease risks

• implementing a variety of methods to analyze phenology based on the seasonal variations of the optical/microwave vegetation indices in response to variable climate conditions, to differentiate between the healthy and non-healthy forests
• identifying risk factors on forest health from the above-mentioned information
• data processing , model design, training, inference, interpretation of results and publication in peer-reviewed journals:
• applying and improving existing deep-learning models of forest attributes,
• interacting with the scientists involved in the project in different European countries

Training and skills

• Recommended training: PhD in applied mathematics, remote sensing, physics of the environement
• Knowledge required: Big data, AI

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