Master’s/Engineering Internship Offer – X-RISKS Project

BETA is offering an internship in data analysis: Calibration of a forest dynamics and bark beetle infestation model in the context of climate change, as part of the INRAE X-RISKS project.

Context and general objectives: The ability of forests to provide a wide range of ecosystem services (wood production, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, recreational uses, etc.) is being undermined by climate change. The increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts, as well as rising temperatures, are making stands more vulnerable to attacks by pests, particularly spruce bark beetles.

In this context, a model of forest dynamics and bark beetle infestation has been developed at the forest plot level, based on agent-based modelling and climate and forest data. This model aims to provide a better understanding of the dynamics of spruce stands under different climate and management scenarios.

The aim of the proposed internship is to strengthen the statistical and data aspects of this work:

• Preparation and analysis of climate and forest data,
• Calibration and analysis of model parameters,
• Post-processing of simulations to produce indicators and visualisations useful for risk assessment and decision support.

Internship project: Based on the elements already developed as part of the project (existing data, multi-agent model under NetLogo, initial results), the internship work will consist in particular of:

• preparing climate and forest data (processing climate datasets, cleaning, formatting and aggregating data for use in the model, constructing synthetic datasets for testing);
• performing statistical analyses for model calibration (data analysis, implementation of statistical models, assistance with the calibration of certain model parameters);
• post-processing simulations (analysing model output files, producing visualisations).

Required profile: Given the interdisciplinary nature of the project, the recruitment profile (Master’s or Engineering degree) is open to all students working in a variety of disciplinary fields such as statistics, data science, applied mathematics, quantitative economics, or equivalent training with a strong component in data analysis, who are motivated to explore other disciplines.

Internship duration: 6 months

Internship start date: Spring 2026

Location: Bureau d’Économie Théorique et Appliquée (BETA), AgroParisTech Campus, 14 rue Girardet, Nancy

Supervision: The successful candidate will be supervised by Stéphane Krebs (BETA, INRAE) and Feras Kaokash (BETA, INRAE).

Contact: Feras Kaokash (feras.kaokash@inrae.fr)