The AGAP “Genetic Improvement and Adaptation of Mediterranean and Tropical Plants” Joint Research Unit”, comprising over 280 permanent staff organised into research teams and technical platforms based in mainland France and the French overseas territories, conducts research into plant improvement in a variety of agrosystems. The unit is seeking a researcher in plant ecophysiology. You will join the “PHENOtyping and Modelling of plants in their agro-climatic ENvironment” group (PhenoMEn), whose main objective is to evaluate and predict optimal combinations of crop traits and cropping practices in current or future agro-climatic scenarios. Your role will be to mobilise knowledge of plant ecophysiology and innovative multi-scale phenotyping approaches to identify new adaptive traits involved in rice’s resilience to stressful environmental conditions and to participate in the design of varietal ideotypes tailored to these constraints. The position focuses on the need to increase rice production in diversified (i.e. including intra- and/or inter-specific diversity and agricultural practices), sustainable cropping systems. You will coordinate experimental activities with international and national partners, with the aim of i) understanding Genotype X Environment X Cultural Practices (GxExP) interactions and identifying adaptive traits, ii) phenotyping diversity panels and defined populations for genetic and/or functional studies of these adaptive traits.

You will interact with PhenoMEn ecophysiologists in order to mobilise the knowledge acquired about cereals, in particular with respect to the plasticity of plant physiology and development, source-sink relationships and structure-function relationships. You will also work with colleagues specialising in computational mathematics so as to incorporate into your approach the use of i) innovative phenotyping methods based on spectral signal processing (NIRS, image analysis), and ii) functional-structural crop models to explore hypotheses and predict the effect of one or more, interacting, traits, on plant population performance. You will expect to interact with the AGAP Institute’s ecophysiology platform in order to co-construct complementary trials between controlled fields and environments. You will also work with the unit’s geneticists and rice breeders. You will play a key role in supervising and teaching students (PhD, Master’s) and partner researchers in a context of learning through research and academic learning. You will also be expected to help with setting up and managing/coordinating projects, and may be required to take on responsibilities in this context.

Doctorate in plant ecophysiology or agronomy
· Proven experience in plant phenotyping
· Basic knowledge of genetics
· Experience in working in research teams
· Experience in designing and monitoring field trials
· Fluency in French and very good command of written and spoken English
· Ability to write scientific texts in English
· A liking for working in collaboration with other disciplines (genetics, plant breeding, developmental biology, etc.)
· Ability to manage technical teams in the field
· Ability and interest in working in the Global South, in intercultural, multi-stakeholder contexts
Strong motivation to work abroad
After an integration period of at least 12 months at the Montpellier site, you will be posted to a partner institute in Africa