Do you share the values of interculturality, knowledge-sharing and environmental protection? Then come and join us at CIRAD!

The Recycling and Risk research unit – which will shortly be building a new joint research unit with the Eco&Sols joint research unit – is developing research into the closure of biogeochemical cycles at a local level as a means of intensifying agro-ecosystems or increasing their resilience.

Adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, and the increasing scarcity of mineral resources for agriculture, make improving the efficiency of biogeochemical cycles a priority for climate-smart agroecology. The aim is to avoid excessive amounts of nutrients migrating to different compartments of the ecosystem & at the same time to reduce the major deficits in certain elements in agrosystems in tropical zones. The greatest potential for improving the closure of biogeochemical cycles lies at the “meso” level of the region, in particular through concerted and coordinated action between players in industries and sectors that produce, consume or lose nutrient-rich materials. Modelling the territorial and environmental fate of mineral elements is crucial to selecting and implementing agro-ecological levers, in particular in terms of replacing imported synthetic fertilisers with locally-produced fertilisers derived from residues (known in French as MAFOR). You will be working on this issue as part of an interdisciplinary team comprising biogeochemists, agronomists and specialists in soil science, environmental assessment and territorial ecology. Your scientific contribution will focus on territorial biogeochemistry, i.e. dynamic modelling of the industrial metabolism connected with the territorial system for managing MAFOR and, more broadly, the biomasses produced.

Your aim will be to conceptualise and then implement innovative modelling based on 3 scientific approaches: substance flow analysis, multimedia modelling and spatial modelling. In the first phase, your research will focus on (i) 3 major elements (C, N and P), for which your work can be based on a number of existing models, and (ii) 2 trace elements that are either micronutrients or contaminants (i.e. Cu and Zn), for which knowledge is already available in the unit, but ad hoc modelling tools have yet to be developed. The aim is to represent the fate of these elements jointly, also taking into account – in the long term – any possible interactions between them. Ultimately, this will enable us to use simulations to identify possible emerging properties of the territorial metabolisms under study & to identify management practices that might a priori be pertinent to agricultural production & beneficial for the environment in tropical conditions.

You have a PhD in biogeochemistry applied to agronomy or environmental sciences, with skills in mechanistic modelling of biophysical flows, ideally on a supra-plot level.

You also enjoy working as part of a team.

You will have the benefit of the biogeochemists’ knowledge of the biophysical mechanisms at work in agroecosystems, and you in turn will provide them with a critical view of the most pertinent mechanisms to study from the point of view of biogeochemical efficiency at territorial level. You will also be able to use the ideas, indicators and tools developed by environmental assessment specialists, and you in turn will be able to contribute your own work to the process. In collaboration with the researchers developing the simulation of territorial management (on the MAELIA platform, in collaboration with INRAE), you will ensure scientific consistency between your own compartmental conceptualisation and the one used to represent the management of biomasses and recycled waste in agriculture and agro-ecological practices. You have proven skills in scientific publishing.

You have an excellent command of French and English.

On a technical level, knowledge of an interpreted programming language such as Python is desirable, otherwise you will be asked to learn one.

Knowledge of the GAMA platform and the ability to understand Java will be a plus.

Implementing the modelling as part of projects in Africa and South-East Asia will require short-term deployment to countries in the Global South. In the medium term, you might possibly work abroad.

Please include in your CV references from previous managers whom we may choose to contact.

Benefits: you will receive a 13th month’s salary plus, if you are working abroad, specific allowances depending on your location and family circumstances. You’ll also have comprehensive social insurance cover, regardless of your location