Call for Communications

FUTURE Days 2020
Science and public policy support for urban territories

1 | 3 December 2020
Université Gustave Eiffel, Marne-la-Vallée

Global research and higher education systems are questioned by a rising number of flagship reports and cross-disciplinary initiatives showcasing the lack of relevant urban science to meet the 2030 Agenda in times of urbanization, resources limitation and global warming : "Science and the Future of cities", Nature Sustainability, 2018; "Global Research and Action Agenda on Cities and Climate Change Sciences", 2018; "The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development", UNO, 2019, etc. These reports strengthen the necessity to enhance to science-policy interface to link the knowledge base to inform action.

Systemic changes in the production of knowledge are key to address digital, energy and environmental transitions while developing new skills and strengthening social capital. Navigating uncertain futures require ever expanded abilities to innovate, to understand and meet disruptions, and for the academia, to bring along public, private, civil society partners to foster much needed paradigm shifts.

Under the supervision of Université Gustave Eiffel, the FUTURE Days 2020 will take place the 1st and 3rd of December 2020. This event will bring together world-class experts, researchers from various disciplines, practitioners, public and private leaders, members of the civil society in order to share and learn from experiences coming from all over the world. The aim is to share their knowledges, solutions, questions, choices relevance and operational implementations modalities. It will focus on actionable policy making recommendations at local and global scales, as well as in a European perspective including the implementation of Horizon Europe programs and the development of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. The Future Days 2020 will confront the new research and innovation results and knowledges to the technical, paradigmatic or political choices made in urban public policies intervention.

A part of the FUTURE Days 2020 will be organised around sessions built on the selected proposed communications. Urban public policies cover a wide areas like transportation and mobility, building and housing, urban planning and architecture, resources management and associated services (wates, water, energy, materials...), health and well-being, culture, education, business development and social progress. This event will highlight the potential of a renewed dialogue among disciplines to shape the future : material sciences, civil engineering , geosciences, ecology, digital sciences, mathematics, logistics, psychology, sociology, political sciences, arts, history, litterature, etc...

Communications will be organized around three main topics: 

Technical, paradigmatic and political debates on urban public policies

in order to face climatic, energetic and societal urban challenges, sectorial urban policies have to deal with a great number of technical or methodological choices on construction materials, design, operation, building, infrastructures and networks maintenance while taking into account economical, environmental, security, resilience and circular urban issues. New knowledges, tools, methods are consequently needed and must be shared.

These sectorial urban policies are also guided by paradigmatic choices and development models. What are the main debates on these technical choices? What are the main disruptive innovations in progress? What type of knowledges are needed to progress to a new type of "urbanity"?

Implementation of urban public policies

The second area deals with debates on the implementation of sectorial urban public policies:

How effective are the various policy levers? What is the reality and what are the modes of cooperation between players? What changes are under way with regard to means of implementation, in view of the growing diversity of players involved, of this increase in both number and in type? What can we learn from the so-called "hybrid" governance schemes? What is the actual situation regarding citizen participation: what are the key issues and methods? What role should be given to "data" in governance? What are the challenges with regard to skills and budget? Levels of intervention are also a key matter for consideration, from the local to the national and even international level. Lastly, the fact that urban policies remain fragmented should not discourage reflection on how to address the issues at stake and reinvent ways of decompartmentalising our approach.

Urban public policies assessment

Urban policies have undergone many sectorial evaluations over the last decade. What lessons can be learnt, not only regarding economical, social and environmental impacts, but also regarding the safety and security of the choices made? What tools and methods can be developed for evaluation purposes? How can digital advances improve the processes of information and data collection? How should the matter of levels be approached in these evaluation exercises (spatial levels, temporal levels)? How should the notions of risk and uncertainty be incorporated?

Communication proposals can be submitted in English (or French) (1500 words maximum) before 17th April 2020.

Proposals will be selected by the FUTURE Days scientific committee (see the composition bellow). The selection will be based on:

• The relevance of the proposal to the main topic of the FUTURE Days
• The relevance of the proposal to the three axis
• The innovative and disruptive approach proposed
• The diversity of cities contexts presented

 Download the call for communications

 Download the template

 Submit a proposal

• Bruno Barroca, Senior Lecturer, Architecture, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Tarik Bourouina, Professor, nanosensors, ESIEE Paris Paris, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Morgane Colombert, Researcher, Smart and sustainable city - EFFICACITY
• Marie Delaplace, Professor,  Spatial and Urban planning, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Mathieu Delorme, Landscape engineer, Senior lecturer (EAV&T), Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Yoann Haettich, Project manager - I-SITE FUTURE research programmes, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Pierre-Benoît Joly, Senior researcher, Sociology of innovation, INRA, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Vincent Lemire, Professor, History, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Dominique Mignot, Senior researcher, Transportation , Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Denis Morand, Professor, Urban Planning, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Valérie November, Senior Researcher, Geographer, CNRS, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Virginie Tahar, Lecturer, 20^th and 21^st century literature, Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Philippe Tchamitchian, President, Université Paris-Est
• Antoine Allard, Communications director, Cap Digital
• François Dapilly, Innovation and Sustainable Development project manager, EIFFAGE group
• Cécile Delolme, Vice-president of Université Paris-Est in charge of the FUTURE project
• Jean-Bernard Kovarik, Deputy Managing Director at Univ Gustave Eiffel
• Sandrine Larbre, Event Project Manager in charge of The FUTURE Days, Université Paris-Est
• Pierre Perrin, Project manager, Université Paris-Est
• Flora Sanchez, Chief of Staff and Communications director, Université Paris-Est
• Stéphane Singier, Sustainable Media and City Advisor, Cap Digital