The mission of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) as a nationally and internationally active research institute is to deliver solutions for an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable agriculture, together with society. ZALF is a member of the Leibniz Association and is located in Müncheberg (approx. 35 minutes by regional train from Berlin-Lichtenberg). Within ZALF, research Area 3 “Agricultural Landscape Systems” analyzes changes in agricultural landscapes, their value for people and their effects on sustainable development. The research group “Impact Assessment” is a team of interdisciplinary and international researchers developing and applying methods for the ex-ante sustainability assessment of land use changes with a special focus on soil.

According to the European Union, more than 60% of the European soils are considered degraded. The European project BENCHMARKS (https://soilhealthbenchmarks.eu/) tackles this challenge by defining soil health indicators and threshold values for agricultural, forestry and urban land use at local, regional, national, and European level. Within BENCHMARKS, ZALF is developing tailored solutions for monitoring reporting and verification (MRV), together with soil stakeholders operating at the national scale. These solutions need to be scientifically robust, transparent and reproducible, but also technically and economically feasible. As part of this work, we will investigate options for soil health monitoring with the French and German monitoring networks RMQS (Réseau de Mesures de la Qualité des Sols, coordinated by INRAE) and BZE-LW (Bodenzustandserhebung Landwirtschaft, coordinated by the Thünen Institute).

For this research we offer a part-time position (65%, 26 hours/week) limited for 3 years as

Researcher/ Ph D candidate (f/m/d)
92-2024

To assess:
Requirements, opportunities and challenges of Monitoring Reporting and Verification frameworks for soil health assessment

Your tasks:

• research at the crossroads of socio-economic and soil sciences
• closely cooperate with the institutions running the RMQS and BZE-LW (INRAE and Thünen Institute), including short research stays
• conduct interviews and systematic literature analyses
• assess demand, expectations and limitations of different stakeholder groups
• assess requirements, opportunities and barriers for adapting the soil monitoring networks for an assessment of soil health
• facilitate exchange of soil health indicators and threshold values between the soil monitoring networks and the BENCHMARKS team
• help to develop tailored solutions that are scientifically sound while technically and economically feasible

Your qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Environmental sciences, Agronomy, Geography or similar
• comprehensive expertise in soil science
• sound understanding of soil threats, soil functions and the interrelations between soil use and management and soil health
• strong interest in soil monitoring and interdisciplinary research
• experience in working with diverse stakeholders desirable
• fluency in English required
• fluency in German and/or French would be a great asset
• experience with socioeconomic analyses (e.g. SWOT) desirable
• experience in conducting literature review and scientific writing desirable

What we offer:

• an interdisciplinary working environment that encourages independence and self-reliance
• classification according to the collective agreement of the federal states (TV-L) up to EG13 (including special annual payment)
• a collegial and open-minded working atmosphere in a dynamic research institution
• company ticket
• on-site German language courses
• flexible working hours with up to 40% mobile work

Women are particularly encouraged to apply. Applications from severely disabled persons with equal qualifications are favored. The filling of the position in part-time is possible in principle. Please send your application preferably online (see button online application below). For e-mail applications, create a PDF document (one PDF file, max. 5 MB; packed PDF documents, archive files like zip, rar etc. Word documents cannot be processed and therefore cannot be considered!) with the usual documents, in particular CV, proof of qualification and certificates, stating the reference number 92-2024 until 03 November 2024 to (see button e-mail application below).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Camile Imbert, or Dr. Carsten Paul, .

For cost reasons, application documents or extensive publications can only be returned if an adequately stamped envelope is attached. If you apply, we collect and process your personal data in accordance with Articles 5 and 6 of the EU GDPR only for the processing of your application and for purposes that result from possible future employment with the ZALF. Your data will be deleted after six months.

Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF),

Eberswalder Straße 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany

Contact of Human resource management: