Job Offer, Offre d'emploi, Offre de thèse

Would you like to join a human-sized organization with a dynamic, supportive team that values collaboration and innovation for the energy transition? France Energies Marines offers high-level scientific career opportunities where your expertise will be recognized by your peers. You will have the opportunity to conduct applied research serving a rapidly growing industrial sector. Together, let us help shape the world of tomorrow.

France Energies Marines is a research and innovation centre dedicated to offshore wind energy, whose industrial, economic and societal impact is recognized in France and internationally.

Its mission? To overcome the barriers facing the offshore wind sector. Supported by the French State, driven by a multidisciplinary team of more than 90 staff members, a network of international experts and unique infrastructures, the Institute conducts multi-partner research projects guided by excellence. The resulting outputs are transferred to the sector in the form of research and expert services, operating licences, know-how transfer, as well as participation in expert committees and networks.

These activities are structured around four complementary departments: Wind and Ocean Dynamics, Systems and Performance, Biodiversity and Interactions, and Ecosystem and Society. Cross-functional services support these activities.

Offshore wind energy involves the introduction of new artificial structures into the marine environment, which create new habitats that are rapidly colonised by various marine organisms and lead to local changes. This biocolonisation and the associated habitat modifications have been identified as one of the main pressures associated with the development of offshore wind energy (France Energies Marines, 2023). Biocolonisation refers here to: i) the development of epibenthic communities, i.e. biofouling, directly on artificial substrates, but also ii) the aggregation of various species of mobile fauna, particularly teleost fishes and decapods (Taormina et al., 2022).

From an environmental perspective, the biocolonisation of offshore wind farm structures, also referred to as the “reef effect”, is often considered, from an anthropocentric point of view, to be an environmental benefit (Copping et al., 2016; Inger et al., 2009; Langhamer, 2012; Lemasson et al., 2024). This hypothesis partly stems from the increase in local diversity associated with the arrival of previously absent species, whose colonisation is facilitated by the increased structural complexity of the habitat created by the installation of offshore wind farms on soft-bottom substrates (De Mesel et al., 2015). In contrast, these epibenthic communities generally exhibit a higher density of non-indigenous species compared with natural hard substrates (Airoldi et al., 2015; Mineur et al., 2012; Vivier et al., 2021; Taormina et al., 2024).

Several French projects have aimed to improve the understanding of the reef effect associated with offshore wind farms (e.g. SPECIES 2016–2020, ABIOP+ 2019–2022, MARINEFF 2018–2023, VELELLA 2023–2027, FISHOWF 2022–2025, BIODHYL 2023–2026 and FISHOWF+ 2025–2028). At the European scale, research efforts have existed for a longer period, such as in Belgium where ecological succession on turbine foundations was monitored over an 11-year period (Zupan et al., 2023).

Nevertheless, a significant lack of knowledge remains regarding the characterisation of biocolonisation on offshore wind farms, largely because existing studies have generally been conducted at limited spatial and temporal scales (Dannheim et al., 2025). This is notably explained by the fact that most of these studies rely on the use of divers, a restrictive method due to its high costs, limited underwater working time, restricted working depth, high sensitivity to weather conditions, HSE risks, and extensive administrative procedures. Furthermore, as offshore wind farms expand farther offshore and into deeper waters, the use of divers will become even more difficult to implement.

There is therefore a strong need to develop alternative monitoring methods—including video-based approaches and environmental DNA (eDNA)—while clearly identifying their advantages and limitations relative to diver-based observations and sampling. Among these methods, underwater imaging is increasingly being used, notably because data collection is rapid, non-invasive, and feasible at sites that are difficult to access (Taormina et al., 2020). In addition, imaging is widely used by offshore industries for maintenance and inspection purposes, which represents an important opportunity to make use of these data, which remain largely underexploited, for scientific purposes (McLean et al., 2020).

Furthermore, in order to enhance this reef effect, increasing interest is being directed towards ecological engineering methods that provide stakeholders with design options for marine structures that are favourable to biodiversity and/or reduce their overall environmental impact while preserving their primary function (O’Shaughnessy et al., 2020), often referred to as “Nature Inclusive Designs” or NIDs (Hermans et al., 2020).

Although increasingly implemented, the effectiveness of these ecological engineering measures remains poorly demonstrated, particularly over the long term (Taormina et al., 2022), even though some unintended negative effects have been reported (R. Gauff et al., 2023; R. P. M. Gauff et al., 2025). Moreover, the assessment of NIDs is predominantly based on structural indicators such as species richness, abundance, or biomass of colonising organisms (Taormina et al., 2022). However, structures exhibiting comparable levels of biodiversity may support very different ecosystem functioning. It therefore appears necessary to evaluate the functional consequences of the different ecological designs proposed.

In particular, NIDs may steer colonisation trajectories towards contrasting assemblages, dominated either by benthic producers or by consumer organisms such as suspension feeders and filter feeders (Vivier, 2022). These differences in composition may profoundly alter the overall metabolism of communities, carbon transfer pathways between biological compartments, as well as carbon retention and export capacities within coastal ecosystems.

A better understanding of these processes is now essential in order to assess the actual ecological benefits of NIDs and to develop design criteria that integrate not only biodiversity, but also ecosystem functions associated with biogeochemical cycles.

 

The PhD Project:

This PhD project is part of the QUANTUM project (2026–2029), which addresses major issues related to the biocolonisation of artificial structures, from both engineering and environmental perspectives.

The PhD project is structured around three main themes:

• Underwater imaging: Develop and optimise an image analysis method for monitoring biocolonisation and apply it to existing datasets.

• Monitoring methods: Compare different biocolonisation monitoring protocols (e.g. sampling and imaging by divers and ROVs, underwater imaging, environmental DNA) in order to identify their performance, limitations, and complementarities.

• Ecological engineering: Assess the ecological effectiveness of ecological engineering devices on biocolonisation.

Expected Duties

• Review the current literature in the field of underwater image analysis and propose and test optimised underwater image annotation protocols based on an existing underwater image database made available by project partners.

• Extract biological data from these underwater image databases in order to study and analyse biocolonisation patterns across broad spatial and temporal scales (e.g. to identify their specificities across different biogeographical provinces).

• Organise, prepare, and participate in offshore field campaigns in order to deploy different biocolonisation monitoring methods at two study sites: the export cable protection structure of an offshore wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean and the met mast of the Fécamp offshore wind farm in Normandy.

• Process samples collected during the different field campaigns, e.g. benthic macrofauna identification, image analysis, and preparation of samples for DNA sequencing.

• Statistically analyse and compare biodiversity data obtained using the different monitoring methods.

• Organise, prepare, and participate in twice-yearly offshore field campaigns to study the biocolonisation of eco-designed and conventionally designed artificial structures deployed in situ.

• Measure oxygen and carbon fluxes (CO₂ and organic carbon) in order to characterise the metabolism of communities associated with eco-designed artificial structures.

• Statistically analyse and interpret ecological succession patterns of biocolonisation.

• Present the results obtained at international conferences and disseminate them through scientific publications.

 

Profile and Skills

Master’s degree (Master 2) in Marine Ecology, Marine Biology, or an equivalent engineering degree.

Professional Experience : Initial experience in image analysis.

Specific Knowledge and Skills

• Knowledge of marine ecosystems, particularly benthic ecosystems.

• Skills in data processing and statistical analyses using R.

• Skills in database management and handling.

• Interest in environmental issues and marine renewable energies.

Professional Qualities

• Interest in fieldwork and initiative.

• Team spirit.

• Scientific writing skills.

• Proficiency in written and spoken English.

Additional Assets

• Interest in image processing and computer vision tools.

• Good ability to work at sea.

• Interest in applied science.

 

 

In accordance with current regulations, candidates with disabilities will be given priority where qualifications are equal.

 

 

Workplace

France Energies Marines
525 Avenue Alexis de Rochon
29280 Plouzané, France

Part of the PhD project may be carried out at the University of Caen (to be specified with the selected candidate).

 

Practical Information

Starting date: 15/11/2026 (flexible)

Deadline: 10/08/2026

Pascal Claquin
PhD Supervisor (University of Caen; MERSEA Laboratory)
Pascal.Claquin@unicaen.fr

Antoine Carlier
PhD Co-supervisor (IFREMER – Plouzané; DYNECO Unit)
Antoine.Carlier@ifremer.fr

Bastien Taormina
PhD Co-supervisor (France Energies Marines – Plouzané)
Bastien.Taormina@france-energies-marines.org

 

Candidates are required to submit a CV and a cover letter

Please visit the France Energies Marines website and go to the “Join Us” section.

Reference: FEM-SAS-2026-189

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