REVES – Renaissance Ecologique des VillES
Presentation
The REVES Partnership Chair: an open collaborative space for working on the major issues of urban transformation
Our territories are the scene of profound changes. They are characterized in particular by the energy transition, the influence of the urban on the rural, our increasingly mobile lifestyles, and even the necessary conversion of wastelands (industrial, mining, military, etc.). This urban transformation poses a number of challenges to prepare and support territories and above all to move from an “anthropocentric” development model to a development model for humans in harmony with nature. In an attitude that aims to combine economic development, respect for the environment, social and cultural balance, it is necessary to have an approach that crosses the multitude of knowledge, knowledge, and know-how held by Humanity.
Sharing this observation, the Greater Nancy, the University of Lorraine (UL) and the company ENEDIS have regularly associated themselves around educational projects (e.g. Urban Innovation Workshops / Ingexys Workshops), research (e.g. “La Fabrique Nancy Grand Cœur” demonstrator) or even territorial and economic development (e. g. Partnership Charter). Since 2005, more than a dozen innovative projects have been implemented between these entities. These “open” projects have systematically involved economic and institutional partners. They have also mobilized citizens. Hundreds of people were involved. Continuing this dynamic, Greater Nancy, UL and ENEDIS wish to strengthen and expand their collaboration by investing in the creation of a partnership chair entitled REVES - Renaissance Ecologique des VillES. This Friday, October 4 in Nancy, the three partners - represented by the President of Greater Nancy, UL President Pierre Mutzenhardt and ENEDIS Regional Director Olivier Compes - met to sign a joint charter of intent.
The REVES Partnership Chair is above all a “collaborative space” where the university and its founding partners come together to jointly develop research and training activities around the major challenges of urban transformation, including:
- chosen and responsible mobility,
- the overall energy performance,
- well-being, resilience, human adaptation to urban transformations.
On these issues, the REVES Partnership Chair will draw on UL’s expertise with a particular focus on application and experimentation. The major objects of experimentation will be “demonstrators” or pilot projects on a scale of 1 to study, simulate and adjust urban transformation facilities, equipment and services, and to observe their uses. This “collaborative space” is intended to open up and work with all the actors in Lorraine. To this end, each of the partners will contribute their own skills and resources, the complementarity of which will serve original and shared scientific objects.
UL will mobilize its human resources for research and training, its methodologies around project management and collaborative innovation and tools. Several laboratories or research teams will participate in the work, with the main link to the ERPI laboratory (Research Team on Innovative Processes - EA 3767) whose research activities on uses and innovation are at the heart of this project. The teacher-researchers of these laboratories will make their scientific and pedagogical contribution (supervision of thesis, master’s or engineering school work, post-doctoral studies, workshops). ENEDIS is continuing to modernize the electricity distribution networks and has chosen to invest even more in research and innovation alongside local authorities and universities to preserve and improve safety and quality of service. National and Community environmental and energy efficiency objectives, the development of renewable energies and new needs (including that of the electric vehicle) introduce great complexity into the operation of networks. In this context, the need to maintain or even improve the quality and security of these networks requires the intensive use of information and communication technologies. ENEDIS will mobilize the skills of its employees and its technological resources for the implementation of the experiments.
Le Grand Nancy is part of the emergence of the Renaissance Technopôle in Nancy. This territorial space of collaboration and cross-fertilization will provide a relevant environment for the deployment of the work and research of a Partnership Chair on the major issues of urban transformation and sustainable development.
For further refrences: Dupont, L., Morel, L., Guidat, C. (2015) Innovative Public-Private Partnership to Support Smart City: the Case of “Chaire REVES”. Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 8 Issue: 3, pp.245-265, https://doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-03-2015-0027