Careers
Whenever there are any new positions available at the ICOS or related communities we will announce it on this page.
If you have information about related open vacancies, please email ICOS Communications at icos-comms (at) icos-ri.eu
Open positions in the ICOS field
Doctoral student in physical geography and ecosystem science, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (MGeo), Lund University, Sweden (deadline 19th April 2026)
This PhD Project will work on the further development, testing and application of the LPJ-GUESS biosphere model for modelling tropical wetlands and estimating tropical methane emissions. The work is part of the EU-funded project IM4CA (https://im4ca.eu).
Work duties
The PhD student will carry out research related to the objectives of IM4CA. In particular, this project will employ a wetland CH4 emissions module for the African Tropics and provide bottom-up wetlands emission estimates. As a first step the tropical wetland CH4 emissions module will be developed based on the existing wetlands formulation in the global dynamic vegetation model LPJ-GUESS. As a next step, the process parameters of the improved module will be calibrated against local CH4 flux measurements representing tropical biomes. This calibration step will be based on a Bayesian optimisation approach that needs to be refined for this purpose here. The calibrated module will then be used to estimate pan-tropical wetlands CH4 emissions over the recent past.
The main duties of doctoral students are to devote themselves to their research studies which includes participating in research projects and third cycle courses. The work duties can also include teaching and other departmental duties (no more than 20%).
Admission requirements
A person meets the general admission requirements for third-cycle courses and study programmes if he or she:
- has been awarded a second-cycle qualification, or
- has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second cycle, or
- has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.
A person meets the specific admission requirements for third cycle studies in Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science if he or she has:
- at least 60 credits at Master’s level in Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science or comparable programme
Deadline for applications is 19th April 2026.
Post-doctoral fellow in CH4 modelling / data assimilation, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (MGeo), Lund University, Sweden (deadline 19th April 2026)
The Inverse Modelling group at the Department of Earth and Environmental Science (MGeo), Lund University, seeks to appoint a post-doctoral fellows to work on the quantification of boreal CH4 wetlands emissions based on assimilating relevant observational data.
Together with international collaborators the Inverse Modelling group develops and applies inverse modelling / data assimilation systems that employ a range of observations to constrain surface-atmosphere GhG (mainly CO2 and CH4) exchange fluxes. These systems are widely used in a variety of projects, in particular in the EU funded projects AVENGERS (which is coordinated by Lund University, https://avengers-project.eu) and IM4CA (https://im4ca.eu).
Work duties
The main duties involved in a post-doctoral position is to conduct research. Teaching may also be included, but up to no more than 20% of working hours. The position shall include the opportunity for three weeks of training in higher education teaching and learning.
The post-doctoral fellow shall perform the following duties:
- Carry out further development, testing and application of a methane data assimilation system (CH4DAS)
- Carry out further development, testing and application of our regional inverse modelling system LUMIA
- Conduct experiments to simultaneously assimilate atmospheric concentration and ecosystem flux observations of methane to reduce uncertainties in boreal wetland CH4 emissions with a focus on Europe.
The research will be conducted at MGeo, Lund University, with the possibility of international collaborations with research partners in IM4CA. Participation in international meetings and workshops and communication of the research work is expected.
Deadline for applications is 19th April 2026.
Postdoctoral researcher for DIV4DROUGHT - Tree diversity effects on forest resilience to drought, French Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB), Montpellier, France (deadline 17th May 2026)
Widespread global reports of drought and heat-induced tree mortality have raised questions about the long-term persistence of forests and associated ecosystem services. Therefore, developing management strategies to safeguard forest functioning in a changing world is crucial. One such strategy involves increasing the biological diversity of forests (i.e., species richness, functional diversity, phylogenetic diversity or tree structural diversity) (Messier et al., 2022). Yet, the effect of tree species diversity on a forest’s ability to cope with drought remains elusive, with previous studies reporting positive, neutral, and negative effects (Decarsin et al., 2024; Grossiord, 2019; Pardos et al., 2021; Serrano‐León et al., 2025). A better understanding of the ecological and biological mechanisms at play is necessary to reconcile these divergent observations.
As part of the DIV4DROUGHT project, you will conduct a meta-analysis of existing evidence for tree diversity effects on forest drought resilience and its components, resistance, and recovery. To this aim, you will carry out a data synthesis, based on combined primary datasets from different international research networks, complemented with a systematic literature review. Beyond characterizing how tree physiological responses are influenced by tree diversity, the analyses will aim to elucidate the underlying mechanisms driving these responses, with the goal of identifying general patterns. You will explore these aspects by leveraging functional trait databases compiled by the consortium and working closely with process-based forest modelers.
This postdoctoral position will benefit from the exceptional context of the DIV4DROUGHT project, which brings together an international team of recognized experts in tree ecophysiology, forest community ecology, and climate–biosphere interactions, with strong expertise in field measurements, statistical analysis, and process-based modelling. The Div4drought consortium already gathered major primary datasets from international networks (TreeDivNet, FunDivEUROPE, GMAP, REFORM, among others) that have never been jointly analysed.
The postdoctoral researcher will interact closely with the DIV4DROUGHT consortium and actively participate in four in-person workshops held in Montpellier throughout the project.
You will be responsible for:
- Conducting a systematic, quantitative literature review
- Analysing the primary datasets collected by the Div4Drought consortium
- Engaging with the DIV4DROUGHT consortium and other collaborators to strengthen your mechanistic understanding of tree diversity effects on drought responses
- Leading the writing of scientific manuscripts
Deadline for applications is 17th May 2026.
Ecophysiologist researching water use efficiency in terrestrial ecosystems, French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), Montpellier, France (deadline 13th April 2026)
You will be based at the UMR Eco&Sols, located in Montpellier, France, which comprises 70 permanent staff and brings together INRAE, IRD, Institut Agro Montpellier (formerly SupAgro) and CIRAD. The overall aim of the UMR’s work is to improve our understanding of soil and plant functions, particularly biogeochemical cycles within soils and agro-ecosystems. Our main areas of study are low-input agro-ecosystems comprising perennial, annual, or both types of plants, in tropical and Mediterranean climates.
Scientific context:
Water use efficiency (WUE) represents the ratio between carbon flux and water flux. This metric varies depending on the scale of observation, the numerator considered (leaf photosynthesis, gross primary production via eddy covariance, net primary production NPP/ANPP, growth) and the denominator (leaf transpiration, evapotranspiration ET, transpiration T via sap flow, plot-catchment-regional hydrology).
Understanding variations in WUE according to ecosystem type (forests, plantations, agroforestry systems, savannahs, pastures, crops), climate, phenology, allocation, edaphic factors (soil texture, water and mineral availability) and their interactions is a major challenge for production and adaptation to climatic constraints.
Main tasks:
You will carry out analytical work on water use efficiency (WUE), involving the collection, database entry, diagnosis and analysis of data from experimental sites equipped with measurements of C and H₂O fluxes via eddy covariance (flux towers), net primary productivity (NPP), evaporation and transpiration at various scales. The targeted sites include those of the PEPR FairCarboN/PC3-RIFT project, other volunteer sites within the PEPR FairCarboN project, as well as sites identified in international databases (FLUXNET, AMMA-CATCH, SOERE, ICOS).
You will analyse the diversity of WUE in relation to NPP and its distribution across various ecosystems, focusing in particular on:
- The variability of WUE across different ecosystems and their seasonal and interannual fluctuations
- The main determinants of WUE
- The impact of phenology and aboveground-belowground partitioning on water use efficiency
- The links between C allocation, growth, C storage and WUE
You will organise seminars, webinars and field trips to collect data, in collaboration with the postdoctoral researcher working in parallel on carbon allocation. You will develop a tool for assessing data quality and diversity, enabling the filtering and sorting of data from field sites using eddy covariance, NPP and hydrology. Finally, you will conduct a comparative analysis of the sites
Deadline for applications is 13th April 2026.
Researcher in ecophysiology, primary productivity and carbon allocation in terrestrial ecosystems, French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), Montpellier, France (deadline 13th April 2026)
You will be based at the UMR Eco&Sols, located in Montpellier, France, which comprises 70 permanent staff and brings together INRAE, IRD, Institut Agro Montpellier (formerly SupAgro) and CIRAD. The overall aim of the UMR’s work is to improve our understanding of soil and plant functions, particularly biogeochemical cycles within soils and agro-ecosystems. Our main areas of study are low-input agro-ecosystems comprising perennial, annual, or both types of plants, in tropical and Mediterranean climates.
Scientific context:
The distribution of net primary productivity (NPP) varies considerably across terrestrial ecosystems. For example, in intensive Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, NPP favours stem growth, with exports concentrated at the end of the rotation. Conversely, coconut plantations in Oceania allocate a significant proportion of NPP to rapidly turning over parts (fruits, leaves, inflorescences, fine roots), with continuous exports and regular incorporation of organic matter into the soil.
These differences in carbon allocation raise key questions: what are the impacts on the residence time of carbon in plant compartments, dead biomass and soil? Do systems that prioritise litter store more carbon in the soil, and is this storage more long-lasting?
Main tasks:
You will conduct a comparative analysis of carbon fluxes and partitioning in different ecosystems (forests, plantations, agroforestry systems, savannahs, pastures, croplands) equipped with eddy covariance measurements and compartment-specific NPP monitoring.
Your activities will include:
- Collecting and organising data from PEPR FairCarboN/PC3-RIFT workshop sites and other voluntary networks, as well as international databases (FLUXNET, AMMA-CATCH, SOERE, ICOS)
- Developing a tool to assess the quality and diversity of available data, enabling the filtering of datasets
- Analysis of short-term effects (intra-rotation dynamics, age effects) and long-term effects (inter-rotation dynamics, impacts of exports) on the productivity and sustainability of the systems
- Organisation of seminars and webinars to facilitate data sharing with partner sites
- Close collaboration with the postdoctoral researcher working on water use efficiency (WUE)
Deadline for applications is 13th April 2026.