Researcher in Socio-Ecological Modelling of Biodiversity Sensitive Farming (M/F)

Type: Chercheur
Type de contrat: CDD
Durée: 12 months
Lieu de travail: Belvaux

Contexte

 

Your work environment

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) active in the fields of materials, environment and IT. By transforming scientific knowledge into technologies, smart data and tools, LIST empowers citizens in their choices, public authorities in their decisions and businesses in their strategies.

https://www.list.lu/

You will be part of the LIST Environmental Research and Innovation department

The Environmental Research and Innovation (ERIN) department, made up of 200 life science, environmental science and information technology researchers and engineers, provides the interdisciplinary knowledge, expertise and technologies to lead solutions including the major environmental challenges facing society, such as climate change mitigation, ecosystem resilience, sustainable energy systems, efficient use of renewable resources, and environmental pollution prevention and control.

The department relies on two cutting-edge platforms, the Biotechnologies and Environmental Analytics Platform and the Observatory for the Climate and the Environment, and the GreenTech Innovation Centre (GTIC): a one-stop-shop for the complete development of bio-based products and processes.

The selected applicant will join ERIN's Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Circularity (SUSTAIN) Unit which is developing knowledge, transferable (software) technologies and practical methods for the integrative evaluation and management of the sustainability and toxicological risks of human driven systems. Its final purpose is to foster sustainable, technology driven eco-innovation in industry and to support sustainability-oriented policy-making. Within the SUSTAIN Unit, the applicant will be incorporated in the Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (LCSA) research group. The activities conducted within the LCSA group mainly consist in the development and application of methods, metrics and tools to assess the sustainability performance of products, technologies and policies for both industrial organisations and policy makers.

 

Description

 

The successful applicant will work as a postdoc for one year within the recently funded H2020 project FRAMEwork (Farmer clusters for Realising Agrobiodiversity Management across Ecosystems), supporting the LIST team with research activities aiming to explore the impact on natural assets of various agroecological systems, their sustainability and resilience to regional and global change. In particular, the applicant will work in the work package 7 of the project, which aims to synthesise data and knowledge from across FRAMEwork in an evaluation of the systemic performance of the Advanced Farmer Cluster approach and the FRAMEwork System for Biodiversity Sensitive Farming.

As part of the activities of the work package, the main tasks related to this position are:

• To perform a state-of-the-art analysis in support to the selection of pertinent indicators of social, economic and environmental sustainability of farming systems
• To design a modelling framework for developing socio-ecological networks representing European agricultural systems, incorporating social, economic and environmental factors that interact to regulate system function
• To create qualitative system dynamics models that include pertinent cause-effect relationships underpinning those socio-ecological networks, by identifying interactions between components of the system
• To prepare and submit a research manuscript on the above listed topics, taking one (or more) reference agroecological pilots from the FRAMEwork project as use case

In order to leverage these tasks, the applicant shall demonstrate proven knowledge and experience in the field of socio-ecological modelling and natural capital accounting, a fair track record of scientific publications in highly respected journals as well as previous experience working in international projects.

During the course of the project, you will have to:

• Work autonomously on the tasks cited above and report on due time to allow the different partners to use to results for other tasks
• Disseminate, valorise and transfer RDI results (patents, publications, technical reports, participation in conferences, etc.)
• Actively collaborate with other researchers in order to promote interdisciplinary activities internally and externally

 

Profil

 

Educational background

• PhD in Engineering, Architecture or Natural/Environmental Science
• Specialization in agro-ecology or landscape ecology is required

Required seniority

• The candidate is expected to have a PhD title (or expected to be awarded the PhD shortly)
• Experience in an RTO setting is considered an asset
• Working experience in international and interdisciplinary teams, such as within European projects (e.g. H2020 framework)

Technical skills

• Knowledge of biodiversity assessment indicators and tools is a strong asset
• Knowledge of system dynamics modelling, and related software tools is required
• Broad knowledge of environmental LCA, life cycle costing and/or LCSA is an asset

Language skills

• English mandatory
• Knowledge of French or German will be considered an asset