Junior Research Scientist on Pesticide-free Cropping Systems

Research field: Agronomy, Silviculture and Animal Husbandry

Get to know us

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (INRAE) is a public research organisation. It is a community of 12,000 people with more than 200 research units and 42 experimental units located throughout France. As the first research institution in Europe for animal and plant sciences, INRAE carries out mission-oriented research for high-quality and healthy foods, competitive and sustainable agriculture and a preserved and valorised environment. 

What will be your mission?

The Agronomie joint research unit produces scientific methods and knowledge from local to global scale, which it combines with expert knowledge to assess environmental impacts and ecosystem services of current and alternative cropping systems. It supports stakeholders involved in changing agricultural practices. Its research contributes to the challenges of protecting biodiversity, regulating bioaggressors, reducing pesticide use and adapting farming systems to climate change. 

Within this research unit, your objective will be to analyze the functioning and co-design of prophylactic agroecological cropping systems that contribute to pesticide-free farming. These farming systems will need to be able to tolerate a range of pests and diseases, while at the same time favouring biological regulation. To this end, you will study the harmfulness of a range of pests in field crop systems, and characterize the effects of practices on the presence and functioning of their natural enemies. 

Your work will contribute to the design of prophylactic agroecological systems by producing knowledge within a framework of innovative, participative, and open co-design. It will concern more particularly designing indicators of harmfulness and biological regulation services.

To achieve this, you will be able to draw on the frameworks and methods of participatory experimentation and design, and of innovative design developed within the Agronomie joint research unit and at INRAE. Within the unit, you will have access to old data and long-term experimental systems trials (low-input or pesticide-free cropping systems), and to networks of farmer-experimenters. 

A valid driving licence is recommended to carry out agronomic monitoring in agricultural plots or farmer surveys. Frequent trips are to be expected, and experimental work outdoors accompanied by research technicians will also be frequent. 

What are the conditions for applying?

Competition open to candidates with a PhD (or equivalent). Systems agronomists or agroecologists with experience of participatory design and evaluation would be highly appreciated.

Candidates should have a good command of English (both written and spoken), and long-term international experience would also be desirable. Successful candidates who have not yet acquired this experience abroad will be required to do so after their probationary period (1st year).

Fluency in French is strongly recommended for surveys on agricultural plots. 

Location:

91123 PALAISEAU  (FRANCE)

https://agronomie.versailles-saclay.hub.inrae.fr 

Contact:

Muriel VALANTIN MORISON muriel.morison@inrae.fr

Antoine GARDARIN antoine.gardarin@inrae.fr 

How to apply

Join our research teams by sending in your application to our open competitions for research scientists until March 4, 2025

The selection process includes a pre-selection based on the scientific file in April 2025 (no physical presence required), followed by final selections through interview, scheduled from June 2 to 18, 2025. Appointments will start from September 1, 2025.

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