become a member

Would you like to join us and help shape organic agriculture in Luxembourg? Become a member and receive:

• Invitations to interesting seminars, workshops and field visits
• Annual activity reports
• Voting rights in the General Assembly

We should be pleased to receive from you, in this case, an application statement telling us more about who you are, and of course your principal motivation to become a member with IBLA.

Contact us:

IBLA - Institut fir Biologesch Landwirtschaft an Agrarökologie Luxemburg Wantergaass 1 L-7664 Medernach Phone: 26 15 13 -88 E-mail:

And we will immediately send you more information!

job vacancies

Master Student in Nutrition Sciences and agro-food systems
6 months paid internship
starting date: from now on or no later than October 2026
Dietary aspects of different future agro-food systems in 2050 in Luxembourg

• Dr. Torsten Bohn, Dr. Farhad Vahid, Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)
• Dr. Stéphanie Zimmer, Institute of Organic Agriculture and Agroecology (IBLA)
• Dr. Adrian Müller, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)

In the framework of the project VISION 2050, we will explore the dietary aspects of different future agro-food system in 2050 Luxembourg. The aim of the project VISION 2050 is to analyse a series of scenarios for the conversion of Luxembourg‘s agriculture up to 100% organic production, with the aim of designing an environmentally sustainable and resilient Luxembourgish agriculture and food system for the year 2050, taking into account changing climate and environmental conditions. In the framework of this project, the aim of the Master thesis is the analyse and assignment of the dietary output (macronutrients, selected micronutrients and non-nutrients such as dietary fiber) of the various scenarios and to compare these with the Luxemburgish and other dietary recommendations as well as with the planetary heath diet. We are offering a 6 months paid Master internship at the premises of LIH and IBLA.

Main activities

• Bibliographic research;
• Working on already established datasets to study dietary profiles/indices with respect to macronutrients (e.g. proteins, fibers and lipids) and micro-nutrients and judge their nutritional quality;
• Relation of dietary patterns and health outcomes;
• Writing an outline for a joint publication;
• Joining in meetings and related activities of the 3 groups.

Required profile
• Master in Nutrition sciences, Epidemiology or Bio-informatics with a focus on Diet & Health, or comparable;
• Good knowledge and hands-on experience working on large databases and dietary/health scenarios;
• Good writing skills in English;
• Excellent project and time management;
• Bring professionalism, discipline and proactivity to work in a multidisciplinary team.

What we offer
• Opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary scientific environment, benefitting from diverse exchanges with other students and scientists in and across the three institutes;

• An environment allowing further training in a variety of health-related domains, fostering the acquisition of horizontal skills around presentation & communication skills, protocol development, data evaluation and training in Nutrition and agricultural foodsystems.

Application

Further information on the VISION 2050 project:
Vision of 100% organic agriculture in Luxembourg in 2050: Resilience, environmental impacts and dietary change

Agriculture faces major environmental challenges on global, national and local levels. The environmental benefits of organic agriculture and its potential to deal with these challenges are scientifically recognized. The previous government's target of 100% organic farming by 2050, as well as the EU target of 25% organic farming by 2030, have laid the foundations for a strategy for a sustainable food system with the potential to adapt well to climate change. However, a vision how the transition towards this may be done and a thorough analysis of the related challenges is lacking.

The VISION 2050 project will model a series of scenarios for the conversion of Luxembourg's agriculture to different shares up to 100% organic production, with the aim of developing a sustainable Luxembourgish organic agriculture and food system in 2050, taking into account climate change and environmental conditions.

The starting point is the analysis of the base scenario of the current agricultural system in 2020. This is then extrapolated to the year 2050 considering climate change, thus providing a reference scenario for 2050. Subsequently, a number of scenarios with up to 100% conversion to organic agriculture, partly complemented with other strategies, such as circular food systems, reduced food wastage or reduced concentrate feed will be analysed. The scenario specifications will be done in close collaboration with key stakeholders and with the international scientific board of the project. For all scenarios, various sustainability indicators will be analyzed, with a focus on trade-offs and synergies among them. In close collaboration with the stakeholders, most promising scenarios for a future with higher shares of up to 100% organic farming in Luxembourg will be identified. To link this scenario analysis to the farm level, typical farms for the current baseline situation and the envisaged future with higher shares of organic agriculture will be identified, to illustrate what these changes may mean for the farms and the agricultural sector structure.

The output of the project will be a vision for a sustainable 100% organic farming system in Luxembourg for the year 2050. In this vision, climate change adaptation performance and climate change mitigation impacts will be addressed besides other sustainability aspects. These results will provide guidance to Luxembourg on how to design a future sustainable food system.

The project is being carried out with the help of our project partner, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland. Supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) [C23/SR/179444413], Oeuvre Nationale and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) [200021E_219627].

We are always looking for students for a summer job

As a student, are you interested in supporting our team during your vacation and gaining initial work experience?

Profile:

• At least 15 years old, max. 27 years old

• For students: must be enrolled at high school or a university

• Motivated to work on field trials

We are looking forward to your application!

Please apply by email or post:

or IBLA | Wantergaass 1 | L-7664 Medernach