PhD Candidate in Wheat Agronomy and Breeding Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries in Spain

IRTA is recruiting a PhD Candidate in wheat agronomy and breeding to join the Sustainable Field Crops Program in Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. The position is part of the REWHEAT project, a nationally funded research project supported by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) and connected to project PID2025-171995OR-I00. The project aims to develop climate-resilient, high-yielding wheat with stable and superior grain and gluten quality, combining Mediterranean landrace diversity, advanced breeding, predictive modelling, and optimized agronomic management.

The successful candidate will work on introducing key quality and adaptation traits into elite wheat material, forecasting grain quality and yield from genetic, phenological, soil, and climate data, and designing nitrogen and irrigation strategies that preserve quality under warmer and more variable conditions while reducing resource use and environmental impact. The research is highly interdisciplinary and combines breeding, agronomy, crop physiology, modelling, and grain-quality assessment.

Key tasks include characterizing and selecting Mediterranean wheat landraces and breeding lines for gluten quality, yield, climate resilience, and adaptation traits; developing and managing MAGIC and backcross populations under field and controlled conditions; applying marker-assisted selection and allele pyramiding; conducting field, greenhouse, and laboratory trials; collecting and integrating genetic and environmental data; building predictive models for yield and quality; and designing and validating fertilization and irrigation strategies aligned with crop phenology.

The position is based within a collaborative research environment and is supervised by Dr. Marta da Silva and Dr. Adrian Gracia Romero. Candidates should hold a Master’s degree or equivalent in plant breeding, genetics, agronomy, crop science, plant biology, or a closely related field, and should have experience with cereal crop experiments, preferably wheat. Familiarity with plant breeding, quantitative genetics, crop physiology, grain-quality assessment, and statistical software such as R or Python is strongly valued. Good English is required, while Catalan and Spanish are considered an asset.

Employment is offered on a 4-year contract with a gross annual salary of 23,322.09 EUR for years 1–3 and 26,325.47 EUR for year 4, plus up to 7,000 EUR in additional doctoral grant funding for research stays and tuition fees across the PhD programme. The role also includes full-time work, flexible scheduling, remote work days, vacation and personal time allowances, and professional development opportunities. Applicants must not already hold a PhD and must be able to provide proof of admission to, or enrolment in, a doctoral programme at the time of contract signing.

The application deadline is 15 September 2026 at 23:15 (Europe/Madrid). Interested candidates should apply via the IRTA recruitment portal using the official job posting link.