Tempory position research officer on multicriteria decision analysis for the management of forest-ungulate dynamics

Back to jobs listing

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.

The French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) is a public administrative institution created by Law No. 2019-773 of 24 July 2019 under the joint supervision of the Ministries of the Environment and Agriculture. The OFB was created to protect and restore biodiversity. On 1 January 2020, all the assets, rights and obligations of the French Agency for Biodiversity and the National Hunting and Wildlife Office were transferred to the OFB. The OFB provides knowledge and expertise on all aspects of nature. It contributes to the enforcement of administrative and judicial policies relating to water, natural areas, flora and fauna, hunting and fishing. The OFB assists and supports public actors in the design, implementation and evaluation of their policies, and socio-economic actors in the exercise of their activities in favour of biodiversity. It also manages and restores protected areas, marine areas and terrestrial protected areas.

Work environment, missions and activities

He/she will work at the Forest Ecosystems Research Unit (EFNO) of the INRAE Val de Loire Research Centre in Nogent-sur-Vernisson (Loiret), comprising 34 researchers, engineers, and technicians, in close collaboration with the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Exploited Species Department (SGEEX) of the French Biodiversity Agency (Haute-Marne). You will participate in the development of Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) or multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to be integrated in a web-based decision tool that takes the form of an R Shiny application and that is currently being developed by INRAE and OFB with two ecological engineering companies (AnteaGroup and Dryas Statistics, 2021-2026). The project mobilizes stakeholder expertise from both the forest (National Forests Office - ONF, National Forest Property Centre - CNPF, National Institute of Geographic and Forestry Information - IGN, Federation of Private Forestry Unions - FRANSYLVA) and hunting sector (National Hunting Federation - FNC, National Association of Big Game Hunters - ANCGG), and is supported by the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture. The postdoctoral position will be supervised by Anders Mårell (UR EFNO, INRAE) and Maryline Pellerin (SGEEX, OFB). You will also benefit from advice from collaborating researchers, including Frédéric Gosselin (UR EFNO, INRAE) and Nigel Gilles Yoccoz (University of Tromsø).

The objective is to develop, in collaboration with INRAE and OFB, functionalities for multi-criteria decision analysis based on hunting, forestry, and Ecological Change (IECs) indicators for an interactive dashboard (R Shiny application) currently being developed by the same team. The purpose of this interactive dashboard is to help stakeholders implement sustainable management of the forest-ungulate dynamics based on the temporal trends of indicators. The approach is part of an adaptive management strategy, based in particular on the concept of ICE (jointly developed by OFB, INRAE, and CNRS). The idea is to supplement the ICEs with other indicators (hunting, forestry, description of management units, etc.) and to bring together all this data, which is hosted by the various stakeholders in more or less structured and accessible (national/regional) databases, in order to analyse them jointly and establish a diagnosis of the state in order to reconcile forest and ungulate populations issues. The application provides indicators at the level of hunting management units and will be monitored over time and space. Managers and decision-makers will be able to consult the dashboard to analyse the data and produce materials for informed decision-making support.

You will be in charge of :

• Elaborating Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) or multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) of time series of several indicators used in adaptive wildlife management of forest-ungulate dynamics.
• Implementing the statistical analyses in the R Shiny application and the creation of an R package, including the necessary technical documentation.
• Performing some preliminary demonstrations and tests with real data from the case studies already implemented in the R Shiny application.

 

The application should include the following documents, written in English: 1) a personal letter in which you describe yourself and how your abilities match the project mentioned above; 2) a CV that describes your education, publications and relevant working experiences, and 3) names and contact information for three referees.

Travel between the INRAE team in Nogent-sur-Vernisson (Loirte) and the OFB team in Chateauvillain (Haute-Marne).

Training and skills

Recommended training : She/he holds a PhD in multicriteria analyses of sociological or ecological data.

Knowledge required : She/he is expected to have a good knowledge in Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) or multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). A robust scientific background in environmental management. Excellent ability to communicate in both written and spoken English. A basic level of French would be appreciated for communicating with French managers.

Appreciated experience : Familiar with programming in R and the elaboration of R Shiny applications. We expect a candidate with a solid track record of publications in relevant journals. We also appreciate candidates that have experience in adaptive management or structured decision making.

Skills sought : Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work in teams.

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