Post-doctoral position in Environmental Sciences

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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

Work environment, missions and activities

You will be based at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (https://www.inrae.fr); and hosted at INRAE's premises in Orléans within the UR Info&Sols. You will be supervised by Antonio Bispo, research engineer at INRAE in soil science who coordinates the research unit and with the support of Maria Fantappiè (CREA), Fenny van Egmon (ISRIC), Nicolas Saby (INRAE). You will have the possibility to telework up to 2 days/week.

You will be part of the project team made up of several researchers located in Europe previously in charge of the Work Package 6 of the European Joint Project SOIL (EJP SOIL, https://ejpsoil.eu/). This project finished in 2025 and contributed to key societal challenges including climate change, water and future food security. It involved 26 partners from 24 countries. The objective of the Work Package 6 was the development of an agreed knowledge base and database to improve the European contribution towards international reporting on soils, and the accuracy of European agricultural policies.

You will be in charge of finalizing and publishing the results from 2 main actions already started: (i) develop transfer functions for different countries based on a double sampling exercise undertook during EJP SOIL and (ii) test scoring functions to support the harmonisation of soil statistics and soil maps. In collaboration with European teams, you will coordinate the development and testing of common agreed procedures for soil data treatment and mapping, 

Training and skills

We are searching for a highly motivated candidate who has:

• A PhD in geography, geology, biology, agricultural sciences, natural resources management or similar
• Flair for statistics and GIS
• Knowledge about soil mapping and monitoring
• Knowledge of programming languages
• Collaborative skills
• A fondness of taking the initiative and the ambition to pursue a scientific career
• Documented experience in scientific writing and publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals
• Good English communication skills

Further, we will prefer candidates with some of the following qualifications:

• Knowledge of digital soil mapping technics
• Knowledge about soil processes
• Knowledge of R programming  

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