Research Engineer: analysing trade-offs in the territories of the European Living Labs involved in the UNMEASURED project using a serious game

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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

mainly geography and economics), the use of diverse methodologies (quantitative and qualitative), and a pioneering approach to the use of ‘serious games’ and participatory practices, it stands as a committed contributor to the development of a collective understanding of transition challenges at all levels. The Unit has 66 permanent staff and welcomes 50 non-permanent staff each year. It is organised into four thematic groups, a platform, a management team and a support team. You will work within the GAMAE platform, which focuses on serious games addressing agri-environmental and food-related themes in local areas. 

Your role will form part of the European UNMEASURED project (UNderstood, Measured, and Enabled: Assessing Sustainability beyond the Usual, through Reflexive, Embedded, and Democratic tools), funded by the Agroecology partnership. This 36-month project involves 10 partners across 8 European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain). It aims to develop qualitative and participatory methodologies to assess the hard-to-measure dimensions of agroecology (social cohesion, cultural resilience, care relationships, knowledge sovereignty) by drawing on territorial Living Labs (LLs). 

You will carry out your role within WP3. This work package, co-led by INRAE (Bertrand Dumont, UMR Herbivores) and Wageningen University & Research (WUR), focuses on decision support regarding trade-offs and value conflicts in agroecological transitions. In particular, it utilises the serious game La Grange®, developed by INRAE (Sylvain Dernat, UMR Terrritoires), which represents an agricultural area as a socio-ecological system and helps to highlight trade-offs, hidden values and externalities within a framework of non-confrontational dialogue between stakeholders.

You will be specifically responsible for:

1.   developing protocols for the roll-out of the serious game La Grange®: formalising facilitation protocols, teaching materials, observation grids and data collection tools, whilst incorporating the hard-to-measure aspects of agroecology identified in the project;

2.   adapting the protocols to the different contexts of the European Living Labs: working with partners in each country (Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain) to contextualise the game according to the territorial, socio-economic and cultural specificities of each LL;

3.    train the coordinators and facilitators of each Living Lab in the deployment of the game: design and run training sessions (in-person and/or remote) for the local teams responsible for implementing La Grange® in their area;

4.   monitor the roll-out of sessions across the various Living Labs: support the initial game sessions, provide remote monitoring, identify difficulties and propose ongoing methodological adjustments;

5.   organise the collection, storage and management of data from the game sessions: establish harmonised data collection procedures (ethnographic, participatory, game-based) in accordance with the project’s data management plan (GDPR, FAIR and SAFE principles), and contribute to the drafting of a scientific article;

Travel may be required to the various European project sites.

Training and skills

Recommended qualifications: PhD in agronomy, sustainability sciences, rural sociology, geography, environmental sciences or a related discipline. An interdisciplinary background is particularly welcome.

Desired knowledge: knowledge of agroecology and/or agricultural transition issues;

Desirable experience: experience in participatory research or in facilitating serious games and multi-stakeholder workshops; proficiency in qualitative methods (interviews, observation, discourse analysis); international or intercultural experience would be an advantage.

Desired skills: excellent interpersonal and intercultural communication skills; autonomy and organisational skills in a multi-partner context; fluency in English essential (project working language); fluency in French desirable; a passion for fieldwork and facilitating collective processes.

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.

The Cézeaux site is served by subway line A, and is also equipped with parking facilities and services dedicated to cycling.

 

How to apply

I send my CV and my motivation letter