Job offer: Early Stage Researcher at INRAE (France)

How to mitigate fire propagation in wildland-urban Interface vegetation and its impact on buildings

10-month position

Do you have a genuine interest in landscape fires and resilience?

Are you up for an interdisciplinary challenge, looking and learning beyond your own field and assumptions?

With an international team that is inclusive, collaborative, creative and open minded?

Then, we are looking for you!

Background

The 2018 and the 2021 wildfire seasons were a glimpse of what to expect in the future: deadly mega-fires in Mediterranean regions and high fire activity in temperate and boreal areas outside the typical Spring fire season. We cannot solve this challenge with the old mono-disciplinary approach of fire suppression: there is a critical need to change fire management from fire resistance to landscape resilience: Living with Fire. This requires a new type of diverse experts, who not only understand fire, but who are also able to communicate risks, deal with uncertainty, and link scientific disciplines as well as science and practice.

The PyroLife Innovative Training Network is training the new generation of interdisciplinary experts in integrated fire management, acknowledging that 1) knowledge transfer from southern Europe (and worldwide) to temperate Europe can support the new generation of experts; and 2) fire risk planning, communication and management can learn from cross-risk lessons including temperate European expertise in water management. In doing so, this project combines how the North solves community problems with the fire knowledge of the European South.

Position

Given the increase in fire occurrence at the wildland-urban interfaces (WUI) expected with the global change, the objectives of this work are:

1. to better understand how the WUI vegetation can affect buildings during these fires studying the impact of WUI vegetation around homes in the fire propagation and impact on structures. To do so, it will be required to characterise the structure and spatial distribution of plant species used in NW European WUI, as well as of the other combustible materials (e.g. wood pile, gaz or oil tanks). Data obtained in NW Europe (The Netherlands) will be compared to those collected in southern Europe (SE France).
2. to provide guidelines to mitigate this risk in the study areas (SE France and the Netherlands).

The results will guide the design of defensible space in the European WUI, regarding species selection and distribution around buildings, and thereby help fire-resilient landscaping and decrease home vulnerability.

Most of the work will be carried out at INRAE Aix-en-Provence but several months of secondment will take place abroad (2.2 months at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands and possibly a week at NFPA in the USA).

We provide

• A position in the diverse PyroLife training network together with 14 other ESRs that study landscape fire using an integrated approach.
• A strong, engaging, collaborative and inclusive network of academics and practitioners.
• Team up with other ESRs in the network that work in other risk communication topics.
• Research including an applied traineeship that will provide hands-on experience to work with communities located in areas with a high and/or new risk of wildfires.
• Become part of a dynamic team that works with and for the fire community and society.

Skills desired

Specific

• Highly motivated and skilled candidate.
• Recent university MSc degree in environmental sciences or geography, preferentially with a fire risk background.
• Skills in using geographical information system tools (ArcGis or QGis).
• A skill in ecology/botany would be a plus.

General

• A genuine interest in landscape fire and resilience. Experience with (the management of) fire, forests, water, storms or other risks is appreciated.
• Good communication skills and good proficiency in English (both oral and written) and knowledge of the French language would be a plus.
• Willingness to (learn how to) communicate risk, make inter- and transdisciplinary linkages.
• Willingness to travel including moving to another country during the duration of the project, completing 2.2-month secondment in Europe or abroad, and travel to international training courses and any fieldwork.
• Ability to function as a team member, work independently and take responsibility for own research goals.
• Meet the mobility and early stage researcher requirements defined for the MSCA-ITN projects.

Mobility and early career requirements

Applicants should comply to the EU rules regarding ITN projects: the most important rules are that you should not have a doctoral degree, have obtained your Master degree within the last four years (full-time equivalent research experience) and should not have spent more than 12 months of your time during the last 3 years in France.

Employment conditions

We offer a full-time position for 10 months.

Gross salary per month is € 4300 for a fulltime appointment.

About the employer (beneficiary-specific)

The national research institute for agriculture, alimentation, and environment (INRAE) is a public research institute in France focusing on land management issues, water resources and agricultural technology. The Research Unit RECOVER is located in Aix-en-Provence (Southeastern France) and focuses on natural hazards and vulnerability. The team Mediterranean Ecosystems and risks investigates the following research areas: Mediterranean ecosystems functioning, impact of perturbation on (drought and fire) on ecosystems, fire risk analysis and impact of global change on fire risk. The research carried out by the team is multidisciplinary (forest ecology, fire ecology, remote sensing, risk analysis) and ranges from the laboratory scale (burning experiments) to the landscape (land management) via the field scale (field studies).

More information

For more information about this position, please contact Dr Anne Ganteaume: anne.ganteaume@inrae.fr
Telephone: + 33 4 42 66 69 79

How to apply

• Submit your motivation letter, CV and a letter of reference (mandatory).
• Use this template for the motivation letter that outlines four topics we expect you to cover, and that also includes a form to show your eligibility for the programme in terms of early stage researcher and mobility requirements.
• Job announcement open for 30 days – deadline: December 15, 2023.