Designing an operational framework for the environmental assessment of territorialised livestock farming systems

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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

The position is shared between two research units, and the successful candidate may choose their preferred base location. Travel to the other site will be required during the appointment.
Montpellier: You will be based within the ITAP research unit (a joint INRAE–Institute Agro research unit), at the Institute Agro Montpellier located on the Gaillarde campus (10 minutes by bike from the city centre and railway station).
Rennes: You will be based within the SAS research unit (a joint INRAE–Institute Agro Rennes-Angers research unit), at the Institute Agro Rennes-Angers located on the Rennes campus (15 minutes by bike from the city centre and railway station).
Remote working is possible for up to three days per week.
You will work closely with Aurélie Wilfart (UMR SAS) and Eléonore Loiseau (UMR ITAP), both experts in environmental assessment, particularly in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), as applied to territories and agricultural production systems;

Your work will be carried out within the CEDRE project, funded by the Priority Research Programme and Equipment for Sustainable Livestock Farming (2026–2031).
The CEDRE project aims to design, model, and assess crop–livestock systems that address the challenges of absolute environmental sustainability, while respecting local and global carrying capacities. The underlying hypothesis is that strengthening the complementarity between animal and crops at the territorial level could reduce the pressure exerted by livestock farming activities on resources, as well as their environmental impacts, through optimized circularity and the recycling of resources and nutrients.
The “design–modelling–assessment” approach developed within the project will be applied to seven case studies in France. These case studies represent a diversity of animal species, farming systems, and soil and climatic conditions.
You will be responsible for developing a generic and operational environmental assessment framework adapted to territorialised livestock farming systems.
More specifically, your main objectives will be to:
-Select, together with the project partners, the environmental indicators to be quantified, based on recognised environmental assessment methods (e.g., Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Planetary Boundaries, and Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment (AESA)).
-Propose a methodology for quantifying these indicators in connection with the modelling approaches implemented in the project and with existing databases such as Agribalyse.
-Translate this methodology into an operational assessment tool that can be adapted to different livestock farming systems and contexts.
-Test the tool on two contrasting case studies.
-Publish the results of this work in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Training and skills

Postdoctoral researcher specialising in environmental sciences, with expertise in modelling and programming tools (Python or R), or in the development of environmental assessment tools. Knowledge of environmental assessment methods such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) or multi-criteria analysis would be an advantage. An interest in agriculture, territorial metabolism and livestock farming would be desirable. The position also requires a strong interest in interdisciplinary and collaborative work, as well as excellent oral and written communication skills.

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