Master’s Student in Nutrition Sciences and Agri-Food Systems

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) 

The aim of the project VISION 2050 is to analyse a series of scenarios for the conversion of Luxembourg’s agriculture to 100% organic production, with the objective of designing an environmentally sustainable and resilient Luxembourgish agriculture and food system by 2050, taking into account changing climate and environmental conditions.

Within the framework of this project, the aim of the Master’s thesis is to analyse and assess the dietary output (macronutrients, selected micronutrients, and non-nutrients such as dietary fibre) of the different scenarios and to compare these results with Luxembourgish and other dietary recommendations, as well as with the planetary health diet.

We are offering a 6-month Master’s internship at the premises of LIH and IBLA.

Key Accountabilities

• Bibliographic research;
• Working on already established datasets to study dietary profiles/indices with respect to macro-nutrients (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.

Key Skills, Experience and Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Nutrition Sciences, Epidemiology, or Bioinformatics with a focus on Diet and Health, or a comparable qualification;
• Good knowledge of and hands-on experience working with large databases and dietary/health scenarios;
• Strong scientific writing skills in English;
• Excellent project and time management skills;
• Professional, disciplined, and proactive, with the ability to work in a multidisciplinary team.

What we offer

• Opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary scientific environment, benefiting from exchanges with students and scientists within and across the three institutes;
• A stimulating environment offering further training in a variety of health-related domains, fostering the development of transversal skills in presentation and communication, protocol development, data analysis, as well as training in nutrition and agri-food systems.

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 de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotteand the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) [200021E_219627]. 

Gender Equality

The LIH is an equal opportunities employer.  We are fully committed to removing any discriminatory barrier related to gender, and not only, in recruitment and career progression of our staff.
The LIH is attentive to gender representation among its leadership staff and aims to eliminate obstacles to recruitment and promotion of female leaders and their career development.