Due to expectations of more ambitious GHG mitigation goals to be agreed on internationally in the future, climate policy will have to target households. Households in high-income-countries influence some 50 % of GHG emissions. Thus, targeting them in climate policies implies including emissions embedded in private consumption which so far has largely been outside the scope of current climate policies. The EU roadmap for a competitive low carbon economy calls for reducing GHG emissions by 80-95% until 2050. Thus, we apply a long-term goal of reducing household GHG emissions in the range of 50 % by 2050 compared with 1990, in which we will develop possible pathways for households to contribute to reach this goal. The HOPE project will generate new knowledge in three areas (1) the drivers behind current household emission (2) households choices to achieve imposed GHG reduction targets (3) economic costs amp; benefits as well as health co-benefits of each choice. The four study countries offer different contexts in climate policy, GHG-emission profiles and energy supply. We study a representative urban household sample in each country. The study comprises three stages: (1) A household interview survey including the assessment of the current household footprint of direct and indirect GHG emissions. (2) An on-site simulation, in which household will be guided through a GHG reduction simulation of 60 GHG saving options. For each behavioral change, the resulting savings (GHG reduction), costs and health co-benefits will be shown. (3) A semi-structured qualitative follow-up interview addressing household views on potential barriers and motivation for the measures chosen in stage 2 will be applied to a carefully chosen subsample based on the results of stages 1 and 2. Engaging with policy-makers from the start we will develop possible innovations in current climate policy regimes at EU, national and local level of governance to support households in their consumption choices.

Strengthening french participation in European or international calls is a major challenge. The MRSEI program aims to facilitate access by French scientists to these funding programs by supporting the creation of networks able of successfully responding such calls. The expected outcome is a reinforcement of the French scientists positioning, to increase their visibility to develop and coordinate ambitious international multidisciplinary projects. We identified two H2020 calls (SC1-BHC-03-2018 "Exploiting research results of the human microbiome for personalised prediction and prevention of disease" and SC2/SFS-02-2019 "Healthy livestock gut ecosystem for sustainable production") that INRA can coordinate. Research in metagenomics and epidemiology has delivered knowledge on associations between the microbiome and many diseases. This also allowed identifying host-microbe-interactions and microbiome-mediated potential causalities and disease mechanisms. The challenge of both calls is to define healthy conditions and predict and/or prevent diseases. The Pathom’NET project aims to cover the impacts expected by the selected calls. For SC1-BHC-03-2018, these are to i) develop personalised medicine approaches for the prediction/prevention of diseases through exploitation of existing microbiome and Omics data, ii) identify and validate microbial functionalities for robust healthy conditions, iii) define more valuable clinical tools to iv) predict and prevent diseases. For SFS-02-2019, the gut ecosystems of livestock should be characterized, their functions and interactions (with host, feed…) should be studied in order to improve production and/or health. The expected impacts are to i) improve resource use and environmental impact of livestock production and/or livestock health and ii) increase production efficiency, including reduced losses, and contribute to more resilient production systems. As such objectives cannot be accomplished on an individual country level, both calls expect intensive collaboration and synergies between scientists across disciplines. In accordance with this, we started to build our consortium to cover the aspects required by the calls and reach the expected impacts. The challenge of both calls being to define healthy conditions and predict/prevent diseases, we gather specialists of OMICs data analysis, statistical integration and modeling, together with biologists with specific model systems to validate the hypothesis that will be pinpointed by these approaches. For SC1-BHC-03-2018, the aim is (i) to build on existing high quality databases, and study endogenous and exogenous factors (lifestyle, ageing, diet, environment…) to accelerate the translation into novel and personalised approaches and clinical tools for disease prediction and prevention. These novel clinical means will need to be validated and efficiently integrated into personalised medicine, in line with expected impacts (iv & v). For these aspects, we include epidemiologists and teams involved in clinical approaches. In addition, to identify and validate microbial functionalities for robust healthy conditions (ii), we have partners involved in microbiome analysis, epidemiologists and specialists of the intestinal physiopathology. For SFS-02-2019, the gut ecosystems of livestock should be characterized (comparing species, breeds, production systems, evolution with age, transmission), their functions and interactions with host, feed and management should be studied to improve production and/or health. Again, in line with the expected impact, we gather specialists of multi-OMICs data analysis, statistical integration together with biologists to validate the biomarkers that will be identified. To conclude, our program will allow us to develop the international consortium needed to cover the aspects required by the selected calls and reach all the impacts expected. The pathom’NET project will end with the second H2020 application, April 2019.

Stream-lake networks are an example of blue infrastructures that are fragmented by grey infrastructures in the form of dams, weirs, culverts, etc. Many man-made obstructions form absolute barriers, with dramatic effects on fish communities and ecosystem services. Restoring connectivity by removing dams and weirs are important means for improving the functioning of river-scapes, but may cause the spread of invasive species. This trade-off is not implemented in the national guidelines for the Water Framework Directive in most EU countries. Although many local managers are aware of the conflict, there is a lack of quantitative tools that managers can use when balancing conflicting goals. The overarching aim of this project is therefore to provide a decision support system for the management of connectivity in river-scapes networks. To establish an empirical base for the decision system we will: 1) Quantify the colonization rates for key fish species, 2) Quantify the relationship between fragment size and extinction rate, 3) Investigate how effects of fragmentation are modified by other stressors, and 4) Investigate how end-users value native and non-native species as well as the habitats affected by connectivity modifications. These results will be integrated into a decision support system, which will be developed in dialogue with local and regional managers, national authorities responsible for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, and other stakeholders. The most important part of the support system will be interactive maps that can be used to explore scenarios resulting from removing or adding barriers.

For ten years, the European Union considers the notion of gender equality through the lens of a liberal political mindset, aiming to rally an entire highly-skilled workforce to maintain the continent’s economic competitiveness internationally. Research and academia are at the same time dramatically evolving through the generalisation of competitive funding and the establishment of excellence policies. Observing that in this context, female researchers remain underrepresented, the RESET project (Rethinking gender Equality and Scientific Excellence Together) aims to address the following question: how, and to which extent, do scientific excellence norms have an impact on female researcher’s careers, with regard to the local academic and national labour markets? Supported by Equal Opportunities Officers from several European universities, most of whom are researchers involved in Social Sciences and Humanities, RESET brings research and political action together. It intends to make the most out of its practical and organisational dimension to address research areas currently ignored by SSH research on the obstacles to women’s career progression in academia. European literature traditionally analyses women’s position in academic careers in three categories: at micro (individuals), meso (organisations) or macro level (society) (Lefeuvre 2016). Corrective actions that form the GEP tie these three dimensions together. Through the questions we raise and the data we collect, the project intends firstly to provide answers to the “grey area” of comparative analysis at a European level identified by Nicky Lefeuvre. In the context of RESET, mechanisms of women’s inclusion/exclusion in scientific careers with regard to the national academic labour market will be compared on four criteria: duration and status of the granting of tenure after the PhD, methods of selection for professorial positions, distribution of positions between “local” and “national” candidates, decisions related to the allocation of resources (salaries). Beyond the use of qualitative and quantitative methods of survey, the definition and implementation of the GEPs shall collect information of the effects of the norm of scientific excellence on the gender of academic careers, depending on the state of the academic labour market for each university and of each national context. The guideline of the corrective actions of the GEPs is to act upon the academic career continuum (PhD enrolment, allocation of a tenured position, access to senior/higher positions; emeritus, honours and academic acknowledgements). The second major research guiding principle of the RESET project will consist in addressing the impact of the international norm of scientific excellence on gender-related career inequalities among the partner European universities. The most common analytical frame used to describe the evolution of the higher education and research landscape is the new public management (Musselin 2017). In an operational perspective, the implementation will be closest to the laboratories and involving its members and directions. It relies on interviews, which approach is twofold: practice- and research-oriented.