Researcher in Organic Agriculture (m/f)

IMPORTANT:  This Advertiser has requested that applicants MUST be National Residents / Valid Work Permit-holders.  Other applicants need not apply.

 

The Centre de Recherche Public - Gabriel Lippmann, a public establishment for applied scientific research and technology transfer, has an immediate opening on a 2-year fixed term contract within its internationally recognized department ‘Environment and agro-biotechnologies’ (EVA) : 

a researcher in organic agriculture (m/f) 

Duties and responsibilities: 

The researcher will participate in the collaborative research project “Reduced tillage and green manures for sustainable organic cropping systems – TILMAN-ORG” aiming at designing improved organic cropping systems with enhanced productivity and nutrient use efficiency, more efficient weed management and increased biodiversity, but lower carbon footprints. 

The TILMAN-ORG project is funded by the CORE Organic II Funding Bodies being partners of the FP7 ERA-Net project. The main roles of the CRP-GL in this European partnership are: (1) evaluation of the C-org content in the soils originating from the partners’ experimental sites and the CRP-GL sites and (2) monitoring the greenhouse gaz (GHG) emissions from the experimental plots in Luxembourg when assessing the influence of the tillage mode, the presence of cover crops, and the crop rotation system on the crop productivity and nutrient use efficiency. The field trials are conducted in collaboration with the Institut fir Biologesch Landwirtschaft an Agrarkultur Luxemburg (IBLA) and organic farmers in Luxembourg. The researcher will therefore be the main contact between the farmers, the CRP-GL and the IBLA. 

He/she will be responsible for the set-up, monitoring, and harvest of the field trials; will contribute to the soil analyses, the monitoring of GHG emissions, and, in collaboration with the project partners, to the writing of the annual and final reports of the project. He/she will contribute to the required statistical analysis and compile the data in view of comparing the three tillage modes, the impact of cover crops (legume versus non-legume and absence of cover), and the crop rotation system on the productivity and the nutrient use efficiency. 

He/she will participate to the TILMAN-ORG annual meetings and will thus be prone to travelling within Europe. 

Qualifications: 

- Diploma of Engineer/Master in Agronomy, possibly related to organic agriculture or else have a good experience in the domain of organic agriculture.

- Fluency in French (administrative official language) and Luxembourgish or German (discussion with farmers), as well as sufficient skills in English for scientific exchanges, gathering of scientific information from the literature, and contribution to the writing of the annual and final reports.

- Experience in handling field trials at the farm level and in collaborating with the organic farmer’s community will be considered as a strong advantage.