Offer reference
- Contract: Temporary mission
- Duration: 18 months
- Start of contract: 01/10/2025
- Remuneration: €2,244.79 to €2,815.83 gross monthly depending on experience
- Offer No.: OT-26084
- Deadline:Â 07/11/2025
INRAE ​​presentation
The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) is a public research institution bringing together a working community of 12,000 people, with 272 research, service and experimental units , located in 18 centers throughout France . INRAE ​​is positioned among the world leaders in agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences. Its research aims to build solutions for multi-performance agriculture, quality food and sustainable management of resources and ecosystems.
Work environment, missions and activities
You will be hosted by the REVERSAAL Research Unit (https://reversaal.inrae.fr/) of the INRAE ​​Lyon Grenoble Auvergne-RhĂ´ne-Alpes Center. This unit has 35 people (including temporary staff), including 12 permanent engineers/researchers. Its objective is to advance knowledge to develop relevant and innovative recommendations in terms of design, sizing, operation, and optimization of wastewater recovery and treatment facilities. It develops process engineering research with three main objectives that form three of the unit’s research axes: reducing emissions induced by effluents and their treatment/recovery, reusing treated effluents, and recovering energy and materials. The fourth, transversal axis concerns digital innovation.
As part of its work, REVERSAAL provides support to the Water and Biodiversity Directorate of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, the Sea and Fisheries in the context of the transposition into French law of the new directive on the treatment of urban wastewater (DERU), published in the Official Journal of the European Union on December 12, 2024. This involves (i) taking stock of the current operation of wastewater treatment plants and identifying the developments required to meet the obligations of the new directive; (ii) establishing a state of the art of suitable processes for the recovery of nutrients present in wastewater and sludge and (iii) establishing a state of the art of suitable processes for the treatment of micropollutants. The person recruited will be responsible for establishing these inventories, in collaboration with the DEB and drawing on the discussions which will take place within the framework of the national working groups set up in order to share the issues and progress in terms of transposition of the DERU.
You will be more specifically responsible for:
– Carry out an in-depth analysis of the wastewater treatment plant performance database with a focus on nitrogen and phosphorus treatment. Plants between 1000 and 2000 PE will be subject to a specific analysis;
– Identify plants requiring an upgrade to meet the obligations of the revised DERU and, where appropriate, the nature of the actions to be undertaken: minor modifications/adjustments to the plant, modification of operating procedures, redesign/reconstruction of the plant; – Analyze
national and international bibliographic data relating to processes for recovering and recovering nitrogen and/or phosphorus contained in wastewater and sludge and synthesize them;
– Analyze national and international bibliographic data relating to processes for removing micropollutants from wastewater and synthesize them
Special activity conditions:
– Summary work
– Prolonged work on screen
Training and skills sought
Bachelor’s/Master’s (Bac+3/5)
Recommended training: training in process engineering or data analysis, at engineer level
Desired knowledge: wastewater treatment; process engineering; data processing with R or Python
Experience appreciated: experience (internship, professional experience) in water treatment would be a plus
Skills sought: rigor, autonomy, writing skills
Your quality of life at INRAE
By joining INRAE, you benefit (depending on the type of contract and its duration):
– up to 30 days of leave + 15 RTT per year (for full-time work)
– parental support : CESU childcare, leisure benefits;
– skills development schemes: training , career guidance ;
– social support : advice and support, social assistance and loans;
– holiday and leisure benefits : holiday vouchers, preferential accommodation rates;
– sports and cultural activities ;
– collective catering.