Do you share the values of interculturality, knowledge-sharing and environmental protection? Then come and join our team!

Intensifying agricultural systems by recycling organic waste is a major challenge if we are to increase soil fertility and the resulting crop production whilst at the same time preserving the environment.

This waste adds a wide range of elements and substances to the soil, not only nutrients and carbon but also various chemical contaminants. Amongst these, trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) are by far the most diverse in nature and behaviour. The lack of scientific knowledge about what happens to these contaminants after they have entered the soil, combined with their potential negative ecotoxicological impacts (e.g. endocrine disruptors, antibiotic resistance) and the weak regulatory constraints currently in place, together represent a crucial challenge for sustainability in terms of the agronomic recovery of organic waste. This problem is particularly acute in the Global South, where there is a need to improve our knowledge and ability to ascertain what happens to the TrOCs that this organic waste puts into tropical agroecosystems.

The ultimate aim is to be able to assess the risks to public health and the environment when waste is recycled in agriculture, particularly for market gardening in peri-urban areas.

You will be focusing on two types of major scientific question:

Firstly, you will need to quantify the amount, diversity and variability of TrOCs in the tropical agroecosystems where organic waste is used, and characterise the history of these inputs in order to assess their possible cumulative effect. You will set up a collaboration with competent laboratories to measure TrOCs. This question will involve consideration of the sensitivity of the analytical tools to be used to detect and quantify TrOCs in the various environmental matrices of interest (waste, soil, water and plants). You will also be required to classify the diversity of the properties of the TrOCs in question, which is of interest when studying their ecodynamics.

Secondly, you will characterise, and rank in order of priority, the major biogeochemical determinants of the ecodynamics of the TrOCs of greatest concern. This question will involve experimental work - under real-life, controlled conditions - with the aim of understanding the various processes/mechanisms (retention by organic waste and the soil, biotic and abiotic degradation, transfer to aquatic and biological compartments, etc.) that occur between the genesis of waste and its above-ground transformation and its application to the soil. Ultimately, the aim will be to characterise the specific dynamics involved in a number of tropical contexts and from this deduce suitable management practices for organic waste containing TrOCs.

-8 years’ higher education with a doctorate in biogeochemistry and a solid background in soil science.

 -Skills in environmental chemistry or trace organic contaminants. Modelling skills (in situ and in silico) or experience in using modelling tools would be appreciated.

 -An affinity for interdisciplinarity, enabling the use of concepts and methods from a variety of disciplines (e.g. geochemistry, ecology, agronomy, analytical chemistry).

 -Ability to establish scientific collaborations with international teams specialising in TrOCs (such as UMR Ecosys Paris-Saclay).

 -Ability to work in partnerships, in the South, with and for development partners. Experience in a country in the Global South would be an advantage.

Please include in your CV references from managers and supervisors whom we may like to contact.

 Benefits: You'll receive a 13th month's pay, and if you are working abroad in the Global South, you'll also get specific allowances depending on your location and family circumstances. You'll also have comprehensive social insurance cover, regardless of your location, as well as a package to cover your children's schooling.

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