Are you a modeller who wants to contribute to the circular economy for the management of bio-waste at the territorial level? And do you want to innovate how to simulate socio-technical changes? Then apply to this unique position at Inrae, Laboratory of Engineering for Complex Systems (LISC)

The LISC (Inrae) is looking for a PhD candidate in modelling on biowaste management and circular economy. The candidate will be appointed for 3-years to research how to better understand and accelerate the transition toward circular economy for the management of bio-waste at the territorial level, through innovative modelling approaches.

The carbon neutrality in 2050 and the energy transition requires the development of circular economies. This is particularly true for the management of waste at the territorial level. It challenges many actors and functions such as the collection and the transformation of the waste, as well as the decreasing of the consumption since the best waste is the one that is not produced. The student will take part in a project aiming to assist territories in the identification and co-construction of their transition trajectories towards a circular economy for the management of bio-waste through the analysis of territorial flows and territorial drivers of their management, while limiting environmental impacts.

The methodological focus is both:

• on developing a dynamic model, coupling an agent-based modelling approach (to represent the production of biowaste of households as well as their decision to reduce, recycle or sort their biowaste), to a metabolism approach to follow the flows of biowaste in the infrastructure in charge of collecting and transforming them;
• on the extraction and the comparison of transition pathways toward a better circularity.

Different urban and periurban regions will be studied and investigated through simulations.

You will work with Dr. Sylvie Huet within the Laboratory of Engineering for Complex Systems of Inrae (Clermont-Ferrand, France).

Requirements

We are looking for a candidate with an MSc in systems engineering, (technological) innovation management, computer science, or an adjacent field. Affinity with simulation modelling or programming is required; experience with agent-based or ODE modelling is an asset. An interest in social science would be appreciated. The candidate should enjoy working in multidisciplinary settings. The PhD candidate needs to be able to work independently and author research papers.

Conditions of employment

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 3-year period of employment. The job is located in Clermont-Ferrand (France) in the Auvergne-Rhône Alpes Inrae Center.

The gross salary is currently 1975 Euros/month and 2300 Euros/month from September, 1 st 2023 (included about 20% of taxes for social insurances). Complementary money can be given for covering transport or an additional social insurance.

Additional information

For more information about this vacancy, please contact Jean-Denis Mathias (jean-denis.mathias@inrae.fr) or Sylvie Huet (Sylvie.Huet@inrae.fr).

Application procedure

If you are interested, please apply before 31 December 2022 by emailing to Jean-Denis Mathias (jean-denis.mathias@inrae.fr) or Sylvie Huet (Sylvie.Huet@inrae.fr):

• Your CV
• Motivation Letter
• Official list of all courses followed during your BSc and MSc studies with grades;
• Abstract of your MSc. thesis or a paper that you have written, in which you demonstrate your writing (and scientific) skills.
• Names and contact details of 2 references who may be contacted at a later stage in the selection procedure