Research news - January / February 2025
| EUR Implanteus & SFR Tersys | Portraits |
| Scientific and technical culture | Research projects |
| Partnership chairs | Open science |
| International | Doctoral Schools |
Headline news - The Geodata, Real Estate and Land Partnership Chair (GIF) puts a simulator online dedicated to the territorialisation of the "zero net artificialisation" (ZAN) objective
The Geodata Immobilier Foncier (GIF) partnership chair is pleased to announce the launch of its simulator dedicated to the territorialisation of the Zero Net Artificialisation objective. This tool, which can be accessed online free of charge, shows that the territorialisation of efforts to reduce the consumption of space is essential if we are to achieve the targets set by the Climate and Resilience Act. The tool answers the following question: what would happen if local authorities with large reserves of hectares to build on were to cede them to those for whom the ZAN is particularly restrictive?
The simulator was developed in response to the growing complexity of the territorialisation mechanism as set out in the various legislative texts. At a time when the metropolitan regions are drawing up their respective territorialisation proposals, this simulator is a tool for reflecting on the possibilities offered by the territorialisation mechanism. The simulator is based on a calculation, for each municipality in mainland France, of the difference between the number of hectares of buildable land it has for the decade and the number of hectares it could be required to consume if it continued to develop in the same way as it did in the previous decade. The simulator then redistributes the hectares according to criteria chosen by the users. Developed between October 2023 and March 2024, this theoretical simulator for territorialising the ZAN objective was designed for research purposes by Arthur Delaborde, a research engineer at the GIF (Geodata Immobilier Foncier) Chair, and Rémi Delattre, a doctoral student at Avignon University (UMR CNRS 7300 ESPACE) and a member of the GIF Chair. It uses data supplied by the national artificialisation observatory. The calculation of future land consumption is based on a model developed in Rémi Delattre's doctoral thesis.
>> Read the press release and discover the simulator
EUR Implanteus & SFR TERSYS
TISS4: 2 and 3 July 2025 - Call for papers
The SFR Tersys Management Committee and the IMPLANTEUS Executive Committee are organising the fourth TERSYS-IMPLANTEUS Summer School "TISS 4", which will take place from 2 to 4 July 2025.
The theme of the event for this 4th edition will be :
Weaving multidisciplinarity to meet the challenges of agriculture, food, health and sustainability
As a reminder, the aim of the SFR and the EUR is to bring together research units from Avignon University and the INRAE centre in Avignon in a cross-disciplinary manner in order to build a coherent and effective research offering, capable of addressing the main scientific questions of the SFR and EUR in a complementary and coordinated manner.
This call is open to doctoral students, post-doctoral students and researchers to present their work in the form of a 15-minute oral presentation on 2 or 3 July. (please reply by 24 March to the following address sfr-tersys@univ-avignon.fr copy to mireille.rozier@univ-avignon.fr and sylvie.fayard@univ-avignon.fr).
The portraits
February 2025 - thibault Lecourt, PhD student in geography and planning (UMR ESPACE)
Thibault Lecourt is a temporary teaching and research assistant (ATER) and a doctoral student in geography and planning at Avignon University, within the UMR ESPACE. His research focuses on land ownership by municipalities in France, analysing how local authorities use land ownership to guide their development, particularly in a context of budgetary austerity. He is a member of the Geodata Immobilier Foncier (GIF) partnership chair.
January 2025 - Raphaël Minguet, Doctoral student in ecology, ecoacoustics and agroecology
Raphaël Minguet is a doctoral student in ecology, specialising in ecoacoustics and agroecology at Avignon University, within the IMBE (EECAR team) and INRAE (PSH).. His research focuses on the impact of agricultural practices in apple orchards on bird populations and their vocal characteristics, using sound recorders to study these avian communities. He also applies artificial intelligence to the recognition of bird songs, thereby contributing to a better understanding of biodiversity in agricultural environments.
Don't miss it on 8 March,
don't miss out on our research portraits!
Scientific and Technical Culture
Midisciences
Midisciences 2025 runs until 15 May.
The Midisciences are short popular science lectures for the general public, held on Thursdays between 1pm and 2pm from January to mid-May. Their aim is to convey the essentials of science and share questions and thoughts on emerging knowledge in a lively discussion.
The upcoming Midisciences programme
On the Hannah Arendt campus - 2E01from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
On the Jean-Henri Fabre campus - Bâtiment A, Amphi Agrosciencesfrom 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
- 13 MARCH : "Carbon accounting: how the French could save the world". by Christophe Devaux - President of the Colibri association, supervisor of shared student gardens
- 20 MARCH : "Plant law and biodiversity by Frédéric Pautz - Director of the Nancy Botanical Gardens, head of the Biodiversity Commission, and COP16.
- 27 MARCH : "Ants - From an essential link in ecosystems to biological invasions by Romane Blaya - Senior Lecturer at the Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Ecology (UMR IMBE) / Avignon University.
- APRIL 3 : "When tomato genetics tell us about human history". by Laurent Legendre - Professor at the Horticultural Crops Plants and Systems Laboratory (PSH) INRAE / Avignon University.
- 24 APRIL : "Can generative AI be ecologically responsible?" by Pierre Jourlin - Lecturer at the Avignon Computing Laboratory (UPR LIA) - Avignon University.
- 15 MAY : "Science discovering tradition and alcohol: the case of mezcal". by Joyce Alvarez - Post-doctoral researcher in metabolomics and ATER UMR SQPOV SporAlim - INRAE / Avignon University.
lecture on 20 march at 6pm: "hot-spots: the plant odyssey" by frédéric pautz
The AgES Institute and the Avignon University Research and Innovation Support Department are pleased to invite you to a lecture by Frédéric Pautz, Director of the Botanical Gardens of Greater Nancy and the University of Lorraine.on the theme :
"Hot-spots: A plant odyssey
A veritable jewel of our planet, and the legacy of millions of years of evolution, the world's plant biodiversity is being eroded everywhere, in the face of multiple threats. With the support of the Rustica endowment, Frédéric Pautz travels to the main pockets of biodiversity to take stock of its current state and the action being taken to protect it.
Thursday 20 March 2025 at 6pmat Avignon Université, Campus Hannah Arendt, bâtiment sud, amphi AT06, 74 rue Louis Pasteur 84000 Avignon.
Free admission, registration essential before 18 March 2025 at the following address: midisciences@univ-avignon.fr
read: a new article on "Ant waste to the rescue of degraded grasslands" published by IMBE researchers
A team of researchers from the Institut Méditerranéen de Biologie et Ecologie (IME) has published evidence in the journal Land and Degradation, that spreading the nest dumps of a local harvester ant produces better results than using commercial seed mixtures to restore a Mediterranean dry grassland. The waste products of certain animal species, as in this case those of social insects, could therefore be a key solution for restoring ecosystems at a lower environmental and financial cost.
Publication reference
Saby, L., Vidaller, C., Ramone, H., & Dutoit, T. Nature-Based Solutions Increase Sowing Success for Mediterranean Grassland Restoration: A First Short-Term In Situ and Ex Situ Comparison. Land Degradation And Development. Published on 12 February 2025.
Research projects
nrna pepr iccare calls for projects now online
The ANR PEPR ICCARE calls for projects are now online.
The submission deadline is 15/07/2025.
>> Discover the calls for projects
Contact: aap-recherche@univ-avignon.fr
Partnership chairs
Chaire LIAvignon - launch of the "small truck" research project
The Avignon computing laboratory (LIA) is proud to be contributing to the "Le Petit Camion" project, an ambitious initiative combining artificial intelligence and emergency services to help operators at the emergency call centre (CTA) manage emergency calls.
The project is supported by the partners and founding members of the LIAvignon chair Orange, Airbus, Flandrin IT by ChapsVision, LNE, ValidSoft, Orkis, Cerco IA and Inria Défense&Sécurité, associate member. The LIAvignon Chair initiated the project and carried out a prefiguration study to ensure that it got off to the best possible start.
GeEAUde Chair - Coastal and underwater springs: a global database open to scientific contributions
Coastal and submarine resurgences are a natural hydrogeological phenomenon whose understanding is crucial to the study of exchanges between continental and oceanic waters and the dynamics of coastal marine ecosystems.
As part of the partnership chair, the GeEAUde team has published a first scientific paper in December 2024 on the spatial distribution, control factors and probability of occurrence on a global scale. In January 2025, the researchers published the associated database with a call for contributions to the international scientific community.
The aim of this unique database is to centralise the information available on coastal and underwater resurgences worldwide, promote active exchanges between different disciplines (e.g. hydrogeology, coastal geomorphology, marine ecology, palaeoclimatology and archaeology) and facilitate access to data for researchers while sharing knowledge with the socio-economic world.
Understanding how coastal and underwater springs work will help to sustainable management and protection of groundwater in coastal areas, increasingly vulnerable to environmental change.
open science
The replay of Sciente Ouverte day is online
(Re)discover the presentations by Marin Dacos, Zoé Ancion and Françoise Rousseau-Hans, at the conference-debate on "Open Science at university" on 6 June 2024.
Listen to the podcast "The juicy business of scientific publications" - France Culture
Out of 11,000 scientific publishers, 6 international groups account for 40% of a worldwide turnover of 26 billion dollars and have a profitability rate of 40%, i.e. more than the Apple brand. This business, which has become increasingly lucrative over the last 20 years, is now being called into question.
With Cécile de Kervasdoué, journalist with France Culture.
international
The Centre Norbert Elias (CNE) welcomes Nicolas Navarro
Doctor in museology, mediation and heritage (École du Louvre - Avignon University - Université du Québec à Montréal, 2015) and head of the museology department at the University of Liège, Nicolas Navarro was invited to the Centre Norbert Elias from 27 January to 14 February 2025.
Her research focuses on the political and social issues surrounding heritage institutions, in particular museums and the Towns and villages of art and history. During his stay, he worked with museology researchers to develop a project on micro-museology and strengthen academic partnerships. On 30 January, he also gave a talk on critical museology to master's and doctoral students.
Doctoral Schools
Thesis defences
- 24/02/2025 - Hugo Fontes Use of the reference ecosystem concept to assess the success of creating temporary ponds in the Camargue" (UMR IMBE)
- 25/02/2025 - Alix Dupont Stratégies des Opérateurs pour la Recharge des Véhicules Électriques en Espaces Publics avec un Comportement Piloté par l'Utilisateur" (Operators' strategies for charging electric vehicles in public spaces with user-driven behaviour) (UPR LIA)
The Research and Innovation Support Department (DARI)
The Research and Innovation Support Department (DARI) supports the research activities of its laboratories.
It participates in the implementation and operational management of the University's scientific policy and supports research players in their relations with the various partners in the socio-economic world.
Mis à jour le 28 February 2025