Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France and Fédération Universitaire Pluridisciplinaire de Lille were selected for this project based on transition objects towards a more sustainable society.
The Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF) and the Fédération Universitaire Pluridisciplinaire de Lille (FUPL), with the support of the EUNICE partner universities, have been selected for their EURO-TELL project in the framework of the ‘ExellenceS in all its forms’ call for projects, which is funded via France 2030, a French 800-million-euro inititative for technological innovation to tackle current sustainability challenges. The EURO-TELL project (new EUROpean Experiential and Transition based Learning ModEL) is based on transition objects towards a more sustainable way of living.
The 2020s have indeed witnessed the transition accelerate in many forms, and our societies enter an uncertain context. All stakeholders (local authorities, companies and citizens) must deal with long-term issues, with less and less short-term visibility and an increasing difficulty in assessing the impacts of their choices. Such context has led the UPHF, the FUPL and EUNICE European University partners to provide a global response to develop new skills, techniques and social and economic positioning in the service of a more sustainable society. This is the core of the proposed strategy of excellence.
EURO-TELL project: a coherent and interrelated system in the form of an ecosystem
Therefore, in order to act in the transition towards a sustainable world, with ethics and responsibility, agility and efficiency, EURO-TELL project offers a coherent and interrelated system in the form of an ecosystem. Based on the consortium’s strengths, it is made of three thematic transition Hubs (Silver society and disability – Humanly smart city, territories and mobility – Industry of the future for a positive impact on the environment and humanity), alongside meaningful factors (ethics, speech, meaning – heritage, territory, space – uses, standards, risks): to these three Hubs are attached three interdisciplinary European Graduate Schools and a Think-to-Do-Lab inspired by the Think Tanks model. This ecosystem will thus involve the various actors of the territory (companies, local and regional authorities, associations…).
The level of expertise in training, innovation, and research on strategic themes will make it possible to gradually move towards a field of application and reflexion based on the resolution of problems relating to transition objects. The latter are physical or symbolic artefacts which call for a complex problem. Co-developed by the stakeholders, in connexion with the theme of the hubs, they will be the subject of the students’ research and innovation project, of complementary object-oriented teaching, and they will form the basis of interdisciplinary research initiatives entitled “DC3T” (Dynamic Cross-Topic Teams for Transition). To underpin these news types of GS, EURO-TELL develops three types of GS Master’s degree: a European Research Masters (MER), a European Master’s in Personal and Professional Projects (ME3P), and a Master’s in Awareness and Certification (MSC), as well as two doctorates: a European Doctorate of Research and a European Professional Doctorate. The training offer and the associated research are intended to be agile and evolving, based on a novel conceptual pairing: “Sustain” / “Expand”. This not only allows for rapid adaptation to changes, but also for the support of researchers, teachers and lecturers: the “Sustain” concept ensures and even strengthens the disciplinary base, while the “Expand” concept favours an adjustment of training and research according to the defined transitional objects.
A “glocal” perspective
Resolutely oriented towards Europe, the EURO-TELL model aims at the recognition of European diplomas, micro-credits and lifelong learning. The construction of this differentiating ecosystem is particularly demanding and is only possible in a “glocal” perspective (Think globally, act locally), with university resolutely open to the world, while playing an active role in the development of their territory. EURO-TELL project therefore proposes a model for the future, on the one hand, to build the UPHF-FUPL site alliance and, on the other hand, to allow medium-sized universities to promote their scientific excellence and their pedagogical innovations in order to act with the territories at the heart of the transitions for a sustainable world.
The “ExcellenceS in all its forms” call
The “ExcellenceS in all its forms” call for projects aims to recognise excellence in its diversity and to support higher education and research institutions with an ambitious transformation project on the scale of their site, in the implementation of their own strategy, based on their territorial dynamics and their specific needs.
