Territorial projects and contracts

Projet PALEOBUS Mobilité Massif Central – CIR2 ITPS / UCA
The PALEOBUS sustainable mobility project in the Massif Central is led by UCA – CIR-ITPS Cap2025 and the OrbiMob’ association. The PALEOBUS project involves piloting a zero-emission shuttle on public roads to serve the Paléopolis tourist site. This project brings together three research laboratories (Institut Pascal, LAPSCO, and CleRMa) and an association (OrbiMob’). Component 3 involves funding a postdoctoral researcher to assess the project's economic feasibility (CleRMa).

Scientific leads: Suzanne Apitsa and Alexandre Cabagnols

CIR2 ITPS - ACTION AVENTURE - 6-month research internship contract (M2 level, 2025–2026 academic year)
Supervision of a Master 2 research internship. The internship involves a study on the feasibility and acceptability of a sustainable mobility business model for rural areas utilizing autonomous smart transport. This multidisciplinary project is both ambitious and collaborative in nature. Above all, it seeks to create a space for exchange and cooperation, fostering shared ideas and initiatives that revitalize rural areas and drive responsible innovation. The work will entail developing various scenarios to ensure the business model for an autonomous smart vehicle is acceptable.

Scientific Supervisor: Suzanne APITSA

Water Cluster – Water, Environment, and Territory Research Federation (FR EAU)
CleRMa played a key role in driving the interdisciplinary RESEAUX project, which focused on the reuse of treated wastewater in Clermont-Ferrand by integrating cultural and socio-economic approaches. Coordinated by several researchers (Prof. Christine Lambey-Checchin, Christophe Déprés, and VetAgro Sup/UMR Territoires), this collaborative project involved three faculty-researchers, a research engineer, a master’s intern, and four engineering students. With a budget of €10,000, the project generated scientific dissemination and public outreach activities, notably through the JRSS 2024 symposium, the Jacques Cartier Conference 2024, and thematic workshops. The project is now continuing within the Water, Environment, and Territory Research Federation (FR EAU).

The water research cluster aims to structure and expand all water-related research conducted in the Clermont-Ferrand area and to unite researchers around the subject of water. CleRMa helps coordinate one of the cluster’s three thematic areas—"Representations of Water Uses" (led and coordinated by Prof. Corinne Rochette)—and spearheaded the CAPRE project (Characterization and Analysis of Perceptions of Water Resources). This theme aligns perfectly with CleRMa’s "sustainable management" focus and the work of the Health and Territories Chair regarding thermal water and thermal healthcare services. CAPRE brings together six faculty-researchers (specializing in economics, information and communication sciences, management sciences, and engineering sciences), hosted a research engineer for five months, and funded two research internships for Master 2 students. It also resulted in four scientific workshops. During the 2023–2024 period, it produced four research reports—covering water resources in the media (Comsoc laboratory), water governance and stakeholders (UMR Territoire), the representation of water resources (CleRMa), and an assessment of the effectiveness of a "water nudge" applied to consumer goods (CleRMa)—and led to a PhD thesis in environmental sciences (UMR Territoires). The budget allocated to this theme was €25,000. The Water Cluster paved the way for the Water, Environment, and Territory Research Federation (FR EAU), established in 2025.

Scientific Leads: Corinne ROCHETTE, Christine LAMBEY-CHECCHIN
Contract with national and international public bodies

ADI Africa Development and Innovation Project
Launched in 2022, the Africa Development and Innovation (ADI) project is a "France-Africa" ​​collaborative initiative funded by the SEFACIL Foundation. It was hosted at the CEREGE laboratory (IAE, University of Poitiers) until July 2024, when it was transferred to the CleRMa laboratory following the project leader's appointment to the University of Clermont Auvergne.

Core Focus: Studying innovation as a driver of business development—acting as a source of both competitive advantage and non-market benefits through its contribution to individual and collective well-being. The primary field of study for this innovation is logistics and transport. The project comprises four main pillars plus one sub-pillar: (1) governance, (2) strategic and network integration, (3) digital and ecological transition (also termed technological innovation and sustainable development), (4) management, and finally (the sub-pillar) the logistics and transport ecosystem, which fosters cross-cutting collaboration among the other four pillars. The study covers twenty African countries. Eleven multidisciplinary researchers from universities and *Grandes Écoles* in France and abroad are involved in the project. An international online forum (attracting 300 participants from four continents) facilitated round-table discussions among some forty expert practitioners and academics, including faculty-researchers, senior executives, experts advising international institutions, NGO leaders, consultants, and journalists.

Partners: SEFACIL Foundation
Budget: €10k in 2024 (also €10k in 2025)
Scientific Lead: Suzanne APITSA

Research contracts with public and private organizations
Research contract: Céreq / Commissariat Général au Développement Durable (General Commission for Sustainable Development)
Focus: New professional practices and skills related to sustainable development within target sectors/industries
Partners: Céreq and the Commissariat Général au Développement Durable
Budget: €2,000 (per year)
Scientific leads: Brigitte NIVET, Marina BOURGAIN, Eléonore MARBOT

TETRA Project: Ecological Transition and Actor Networks
Focus: This project builds upon work by Chabaud & Ngijol (2005), Fayolle et al. (2016), and Lamine et al. (2019), which examines the dynamics of start-up business networks. These studies employ a process-oriented approach that combines network theory with translation theory. Effectuation theory offers a similar dynamic analytical framework, wherein the entrepreneurial project is progressively co-constructed through successive interactions with stakeholders (Kerr & Coviello, 2020; Chang et al., 2024). Given the high cost of collecting and processing longitudinal relational data, most research in this field relies on in-depth case studies rather than broader statistical analyses. To circumvent this data gap, some researchers utilize content available on the internet and social media (Guéneau et al., 2023). This allows them to reconstruct large-scale networks at a lower cost and generate meaningful quantitative analyses (Berkowitz & Dumez, 2016). However, a limitation of these methods is that the collected data lack the precision needed to shed light on the specific dynamics linking the development of each actor's relational capital to the evolution of their business model.

The aim of this project is to develop a data collection and analysis methodology focused on microeconomic actors in order to provide a solution. Budget: €370,000 (approx.)
Scientific leads: Alexandre Cabagnols & Yassine Louzzani
 
National research projects

ANACT (National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions)
Issue: While the Anthropocene context redefines the general framework of human life, production systems and companies represent a dimension of social life that must rapidly initiate a shift in direction. This is essential to address the new constraints imposed by planetary boundaries, ecological disasters, structural climate disruptions, and—more broadly—transformations in the human species' living environment. Some companies recognize the need for this ecological shift to ensure their organization's survival and align their activities with a perspective of "strong sustainability." This imperative is reinforced by evolving national and international regulatory frameworks—such as the Paris Agreement—as well as by activist movements targeting companies and their operations.

The Anthropocene context necessitates strategic and organizational shifts of unprecedented scale and nature. Companies must fundamentally rethink their relationship with the natural environment and anticipate future human needs by reconceptualizing their business models, work organization, governance, and skill sets. Some companies find themselves on the front lines because their operations are already being undermined by climate change (e.g., ski resorts or certain vineyards). Others (such as those in the textile or extractive industries) are aware of the glaring unsustainability of their activities and the negative externalities they generate, which exacerbate the trend of exceeding planetary boundaries. While the need to transform in order to reduce the impact of operations on the Earth system is understood, operationalizing these strategic and organizational shifts remains complex and difficult to implement. Companies often view this transition primarily through the lens of risks and regulatory constraints.

Against this backdrop, the aim of this research is to conduct a series of surveys to understand and document how a vanguard group of companies manages to transform itself. We document the strategic and organizational aspects of ecological shifts and provide insights into the *modus operandi* of such transformations.

Partner: ANACT
Budget: €56,000
Principal Investigator: Emilie BOURLIER-BARGUES

The digital deliverable can be viewed below and downloaded via the following link: "Companies in the Anthropocene" Deliverable