TENURE-TRACK CPJ26-AGROECOSYSTEM-1
Resilient and High-Performing Arable Cropping Systems in the Face of Climate Change
31000 TOULOUSE
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INRAE presentation
INRAE, the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment, is a public research organization bringing together 12,000 employees across 272 units in 18 centers across France. As the world’s leading institute specializing in agriculture, food, and the environment, INRAE plays a key role in supporting the necessary transitions to address global challenges.
Faced with population growth, food security challenges, climate change, resource depletion, and biodiversity loss, INRAE is committed to developing scientific solutions and supporting the evolution of agricultural, food, and environmental practices.
Work environment, missions and activities
Context and partnerships
The AGIR Joint Research Unit (UMR) brings together biotechnology and the humanities and social sciences to generate knowledge designed to support the agroecological transition in a context dominated by the effects of climate change and resistance from the agricultural sector. You will contribute to this project by integrating three approaches to knowledge generation that coexist within the unit: modelling, experimentation and design. The challenge of this JP lies in its scientific nature, with a methodological challenge to be overcome, as well as its potential impact to provide solutions for highly vulnerable arable farming systems. Nature and purpose of the research project to be developed and related activities Climate change affects crops by causing more severe heat and water stress. It makes agricultural systems, particularly arable farming, more vulnerable. Improving the resilience of their performance in this context requires adapting farming systems, or even redesigning them, depending on the scale of the stresses to be overcome. Various agroecological innovations, some more disruptive than others (e.g. crop variety selection, reduced tillage, diversification across time and space, or the substitution of crop species), hold the promise of greater performance stability in the face of these stresses. Nevertheless, to date, almost all studies based on crop simulation models have assessed adaptation strategies by focusing on a few practices that are easy to simulate (sowing date, choice of cultivar, irrigation and nitrogen fertilisation) or by testing crop rotations limited to the main species grown as monocultures. The challenge now is to generate knowledge on the adaptive potential of systems based on a broader combination of agronomic levers that can be quickly put to use, and to analyse how these affect soil water availability, plant water requirements, and crop performance in more or less diversified cropping systems, whether or not they employ conservation agriculture, and for a range of water availability scenarios (soil, climate, irrigation). You will be able to combine experimental and modelling approaches when evaluating and designing agricultural systems. You will play a key role within the Agroecology and Transitions Campus by leading a critical and methodological examination of the relationship between digital agriculture and agroecology, which will serve as a foundation for the research and teaching. Your appointment will strengthen our visibility and reputation in supporting the agroecological transition, with a particular focus on climate-related issues. Initially, you will assess, for the near and distant future, the performance and impact on the water balance of various combinations of adaptation measures for cropping systems by integrating experimental data obtained at research stations or on farms with biophysical modelling. You will review the formal specifications of existing models where necessary. This work will be combined with a co-design initiative involving stakeholders from the agricultural sector to develop systems that can be tested across a variety of areas in the Occitania region – a region heavily affected by climate change and where access to water resources varies greatly.
Nature and purpose of the teaching project
You will lead a teaching project developed in partnership with INP-Agro Toulouse, contributing to the training of agricultural engineering students. This project will help to better integrate AGIR into the higher education landscape, in line with INRAE’s General Policy Guidelines and within the Agroecology and Transitions Campus (CAT). You will lead a thematic teaching module (UE) focusing on the adaptation of cropping systems to climate change, drawing in particular on a project-based learning approach. You may also participate in the modules ‘Modelling Agroecosystems in a Context of Global Change’, ‘Agronomy: Analysing to Propose Solutions’, ‘Environmental and Sustainability Issues’ and ‘Agricultural Sciences in a Context of Transition’ from the first and second years of the engineering programme. You will thus help to strengthen the teaching team for the third-year specialisation course ‘Agroecology: from production systems to the region.
Funding and related resources
ANR Package : €200 000
INRAE Package : €115 000
Others : €75 000
Total : €390 000
Training and skills
You hold a PhD in agronomy and have sound experience in the evaluation and/or design of agricultural systems. You have good command of combining experimental and modelling approaches for crop production systems. Experience in conducting research on resilient crops or cropping systems under conditions of severe water stress would be an advantage.
INRAE's life quality
By joining our teams, you benefit from:
- 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.
International scientists, please visit your guide to facilitate your arrival and stay at INRAE.
Type of contract
Tenure-Track Junior Professor Chair enables recruitment of scientists based on a research and teaching project that lasts three years. At the end of this period, and following an assessment of your scientific achievements and professional capabilities, you may obtain a full-tenure position as Research Director (DR2).
A research and teaching agreement will specify the path you will follow towards full-tenure and enable you to acquire the qualifications necessary to become a full-tenure Research Director in your field.
You have until June 22, 2026 to submit your application. Only candidates previously selected on file by the selection committee will be invited to the hearing.
How to apply
- I download the applicant guide Guide for applicants pdf - 5.06 MB
- I note the profile number CPJ26-AGROECOSYSTEM-1
- I apply GO
All persons employed by or hosted at INRAE, a public research establishment, are subject to the Civil Service Code, particularly with regard to the obligation of neutrality and respect for the principle of secularism. In carrying out their functions, whether or not they are in contact with the public, they must not express their religious, philosophical or political convictions through their behaviour or by what they wear. > Find out more: fonction publique.gouv.fr website (in French)