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Contemporary societies face numerous, complex, and cross-cutting challenges that call into question the longevity of our development model, its sustainability, and our ability to function as a society. Whether these changes are environmental, climate-related, demographic, political, or technological (particularly in the digital sphere), they challenge our ways of life, as well as our models of development, production, consumption, work organization, education, healthcare, urban planning, and mobility. These changes present opportunities but also generate risks, particularly for the most vulnerable populations. They thus pose risks of social, political, and economic disruption that directly challenge the governance of our societies. Facilitating the transition to new, more sustainable and equitable development models has become a challenge for public actors. To address this challenge, the Montpellier campus offers a dynamic, high-level social science research environment across various disciplinary fields: economics, law, political science, geography, education and training sciences, management, and sociology. The goal of the Key Initiative on Transition Public Policies (KIPPT) is to enhance visibility and foster local, national, and international interactions among researchers at the Montpellier campus whose work in the social sciences relates to transition public policies. On the one hand, this involves bringing researchers together and establishing a sustainable network among them. The KIPPT will thus help to drive and stimulate exchanges and synergies and to highlight the collective expertise of the Montpellier campus on transitional public policies. On this basis, the KIPPT also aims to foster a “science/society” relationship by serving as a bridge between researchers working on transitional policies and public and civil society actors. To this end, various partners—such as local governments (notably the Occitanie Region and Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole), businesses, and nonprofit organizations—are involved in the project. A Broad and Multidisciplinary Definition of Public Transition Policies KIPPT advocates for a broad definition of public transition policies, centered on the three pillars of the I-Site—feeding, protecting, and caring—and beyond. It approaches public policies, public action, and governance from a multidisciplinary perspective. It brings together numerous laboratories within the I-Site’s Social Sciences cluster around three main areas of focus: Area 1: fostering exchanges between laboratories and disciplines on key sector-specific themes at the site, such as climate and energy transition, ecological transition, digital transition, agricultural and food transition, mobility and transportation, and health… Axis 2: To foster reflection on the coherence and articulation between public transition policies and integration issues. Particular attention is paid, on the one hand, to the cross-cutting issue of inequalities and, on the other hand, to territorial projects as vectors of integration—specifically to address tensions between sectoral and territorial logics. Axis 3: Address cross-cutting challenges related to the governance of transitions. Challenges related to the design of public transition policies (PTPs), their public debate, and their evaluation. Challenges related to the implementation of PTPs: cooperation among stakeholders, sectors, and levels of government; financing; and citizen/civil society participation, etc. Issues of conflict and acceptability of transition policies Issues related to the methods and instruments employed: cost-benefit analyses, multi-criteria approaches, incentives, regulations, pricing, planning, trajectories, etc. Issues related to changing perceptions, opinions, and behaviors of stakeholders regarding transitions Initiatives to foster the creation of a scientific community A call for multidisciplinary and multi-laboratory research projects “Structuring” projects “Impulse” projects A platform dedicated to KIPPT [link] Project monitoring and promotion Resource center for the community Three scientific conferences

A researcher at the Laboratory of Mechanics and Civil Engineering (LMGC) in Montpellier, Katerina Ioannidou was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2024 for her work in statistical physics on porous concrete. Her research contributes to the development of materials capable of storing energy and sequestering carbon.