Excellence and multi-disciplinary research

Research projects supported by FUTURE: 2020 results

In terms of research, 2020 saw the launch of a new call for ‘exploratory’ projects. The specific orientation of the call for project framework in 2020 is support for young researchers and Support for Public Policies. 10 projects were selected out of the 24 submitted.

Furthermore, in the framework of the follow-up of research projects supported by I-SITE FUTURE and in order to promote the results and momentum, several scientific seminars were held on the supported projects, in particular Impulsion and Exploratory. An initial event day was held in June 2020, and a second in January 2021. The aim of these days was to share the knowledge obtained to date with the scientific community and I-Site’s socio-economic partners.

The virtual Urban20 Summit brought together the mayors of the major metropolises of the G20 countries

Urban20: Université Gustave Eiffel makes its expertise available to the mayors of the world's major metropolises

From 30 September to 2 October, the Urban20 virtual summit brought together the mayors of the main metropolises of the countries in the G20. The aim of this international meeting was to develop and share solutions to address the urban challenges of tomorrow, especially carbon neutrality and the circular construction economy, two subjects that are the subject of recommendations submitted by Université Gustave Eiffel.

Improving the carbon neutrality of buildings and the recycling of building materials, on a global scale. The white paper seeks to address this major challenge, and was coordinated by Jean-Bernard Kovarik the Vice-President for Public Policy Support at Université Gustave Eiffel, in collaboration with cities in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Entitled Carbon-neutral Buildings and Recycled Materials: How Cities Want to Solve the Challenge, this 40-page document is one of the 15 position papers produced by some hundred experts, representatives of local and regional authorities, international associations and economic players involved in the international Urban20 (U20) initiative. Their work is now in the hands of the mayors of the world's major cities in order to help them put forward concrete policy recommendations to the G20 leaders and heads of state who are to hold their 15th summit in Saudi Arabia at the end of November.

Press release

Energy transition on a regional scale: the ANR VITE! project

At the heart of the ANR VITE! project (Cities and Energy Transitions) 2015-2020, some twenty researchers from 7 member laboratories of the Urban Futures Labex (LATTS, LVMT, CIRED, SPLOTT, LAB’URBA and the AUSSER joint research unit) are exploring the progression of energy transition on the scale of the Île-de-France region.
By combining stakeholder surveys with the modelling/simulation of the impacts of planned measures, their research confirms the discrepancy between the targets set by public authorities and the observed regional energy path.

There are multiple explanations for this; the lack of active means available to local public players in terms of energy, overregulation which inhibits stakeholders and reins in their ability to innovate, the debatable effectiveness of property development measures, or the difficulties experienced by public authorities in approaching, let alone guiding, the inevitable change in social practices.

Cities and Energy Transitions - ANR

Taking into account the vulnerability of urban networks to flooding: the H2020 RESCCUE project

Lab’urba is a partner in the H2020 RESCCUE project (RESilience to cope with Climate Change in Urban arEas – a multi-sectorial approach focusing on water). Led by the company Aquatec (Suez Spain), this project seeks to understand more fully how players on the ground could improve their resilience to climate change, by taking into account the direct and indirect vulnerabilities to flooding of their socio-technical networks. In a drive to optimise their local public action, the cities of Bristol, Barcelona and Lisbon took part in the project as ‘active stakeholders’, thus going a step further than simply providing areas for field research.

RESCCUE project - Cordis