Join us! Academic research positions are available at LEM!

Our Microbial Ecology Laboratory (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Microbienne, LEM) is a mixed research unit (UMR). In a UMR, researchers from different scientific institutions work at the same location, and together build research projects that achieve common scientific goals. Being a UMR means that there can be different academic research positions available to LEM through each of its supporting scientific institutions. However, each institution has its own application and hiring process. At LEM, the major institutions that support academic research positions are the French National Research Center (CNRS), the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), and the National Research Institute for Food, Agriculture and the Environment (INRAE). 

Would you like to join LEM as a research technician?

Please visit the web page “Job offers” to learn whether a position will be available in the next recruitment campaign for a position with either the University, CNRS, or INRAE. These positions can be available for technicians, assistant engineer and research engineers with bachelor's or technical degrees, master’s degrees, or Ph.D’s.


 

Would you like to join LEM as a principal investigator (director of research /research fellow) or teacher-researcher (professor/lecturer)?

For individuals who hold a Ph.D. and have completed post-doctoral training, there are several pathways to join and synergize your research with LEM. 

When a teaching-research position becomes vacant, our University opens a competition; the job profile is published in the official journal and on this website (under Job Offers), along with the competition dates and application procedures. Teaching-research positions can be advertised at a professor or lecturer level (maître de conference), with professors having more experience than lecturers. 
 

To apply to become a CNRS researcher, please contact the LEM direction or the leaders of the targeted team to find the right CNRS section to apply to and the appropriate grade based on your experience (a research fellow typically has post-doctoral experience but has not yet held an independent position;  a research director has post-doctoral experience and previously has led an independent research program). A successful CNRS research project should synergize with the ongoing research at LEM and with the scientific strategy of the CNRS section. The 1st phase of the competition consists of applying (generally at the beginning of January) to a CNRS section; the members of the targeted section examine these applications, and some of them are selected for the second phase. The second stage of the competition consists of an audition (between March and May), at the end of which the candidates are ranked. For positions open at the research fellow grade, between 4 and 7 candidates (depending on the year and section) will be offered a position at the CNRS. CNRS researchers at the LEM are affiliated with CNRS section 30 (Continental surfaces and interfaces) or section 29 (Biodiversity, evolution and biological adaptations: from macromolecules to communities). It is also possible to apply to an interdisciplinary section.

There are two pathways to apply to become an INRAE researcher at LEM.  First, is it possible to be recruited directly as a research fellow based on pre-constructed profiles agreed upon between the host laboratories and the affiliated INRAE department? The LEM is attached to INRAE’s 'Ecology and Biodiversity' department. Second, applying for the research director (principal investigator) competition is possible if you have at least 8 years of research experience. Timetables vary according to the type of competition, please read more here.