A postdoctoral position is currently available in the Agronomy and Field Crops group, Department of Sustainable Crop Production (DI.PRO.VE.S.), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Northern Italy.

 

The position is primarily funded within the Horizon Europe project LILAS4SOILS – Fostering Carbon Farming Practices through Living Labs in the Mediterranean and Southern EU for the healthy future of European soils (HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-09: Carbon farming in living labs), and will offer opportunities for interaction with other ongoing European projects involving our group, including SOILBIOMASS+ (HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-07: Supporting the implementation of the Soil Deal for Europe Mission) and FARMLOOP (HORIZON-CL6-2026-02-FARM2FORK-05: Boosting circularity and diversification strategies of terrestrial livestock production systems).

 

The research will focus on the integration of remote sensing, machine learning and crop-system modelling to assess the agronomic and environmental performance of agricultural management practices across spatial scales. In particular, the successful candidate will work on combining field and farm-level ground-truth data with Earth Observation information and process-based modelling to investigate and upscale the effects of agricultural practices on:

  • crop growth and yield;
  • nutrient use and nutrient balances;
  • soil organic carbon dynamics and carbon sequestration;
  • greenhouse-gas emissions, with particular emphasis on N₂O.

 

The work will involve the analysis of multi-source spatial and temporal datasets, the development and application of machine-learning approaches, and their integration with crop and soil models to move from field- and farm-scale observations towards larger-scale assessments.

 

We are looking for a motivated researcher with a PhD in Agronomy, Crop Science, Agricultural/Environmental Sciences, Remote Sensing or a related field. Experience in one or more of the following areas would be particularly valuable: remote sensing and Earth Observation, GIS and spatial analysis, machine learning/data science, crop or agroecosystem modelling, and programming/data analysis in R and/or Python. Good English communication skills and willingness to work in an international and multidisciplinary research environment are expected.

 

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Location: Piacenza, Italy
Contract: 1 year, with the possibility of extension up to a total of 3 years

 

For further information and informal enquiries, please contact:

Andrea Fiorini – andrea.fiorini@unicatt.it
Michele Croci – michele.croci@unicatt.it

Modifié le: mercredi 23 septembre 2026, 11:14