PROJETS

BRAINPOoL – a project funded by the European Commission through its FP7 research programme – is one of several initiatives designed to advance this process. More specifically it is designed to work with two key groups. First, it will help the users of quantitative data – policymakers, journalists, NGOs, members of political parties and informal social networks - to specify what will best help them achieve their goals and then to use that effectively. Typically the data will be indicators, although sometimes users will create their own indicators from data raw material. Second, it will help the suppliers of these data meet the needs of users in the way they design, and communicate about, what they produce.

CEECEC représente un projet européen visant une collaboration active entre chercheurs et ONG à propos de thèmes touchant à la résolution de conflits environnementaux. Ainsi, au niveau international, six centres de recherche et huit ONG travaillent ensemble sur des études de cas pour mettre en place des méthodologies d’analyse des conflits liés aux ressources naturelles et d’aide à la médiation environnementale, à la lumière des théories de l’économie écologique.

Créée le 7 mai 1998 par le Gouvernement wallon, la Conférence Permanente du Développement Territorial (CPDT, http://cpdt.wallonie.be/) est une plate-forme multidisciplinaire de recherches, de formation et d’échanges qui rassemble une quarantaine de chercheurs issus de trois Académies universitaires (ULB-IGEAT ; UCLouvain-CREAT ; ULiège-Lepur). Les missions de la CPDT sont : 1. de constituer, par des recherches à long ou moyen terme et par des expertises à court terme, un outil d'aide à la décision pour le Gouvernement ; 2. d'organiser une Chaire interuniversitaire annuelle du développement territorial ; 3. d'assurer la formation continuée et la certification de cette formation à destination des conseillers en aménagement du territoire et en urbanisme auprès des communes ; 4. de procéder à divers modes de transmission et de vulgarisation des recherches et des résultats de recherche dans le domaine de l'aménagement du territoire, de l'urbanisme et du développement territorial.

Within the policy and science community concerned with sustainable development, it is widely accepted that the first decades of the 21st century are a crucial turning point for the world community. Widespread poverty, growing inequality between and within a lot of countries, increasing pressures on vital ecosystems and ecosystem services combined with an intensive process of economic and cultural globalisation present enormous challenges for a world which aims for some form of sustainable development. Policy-makers, civil society organisations and scientists alike are looking for tools, concepts, approaches, theories… which can help in orienting policy in a way that a more sustainable development would become possible. It could be that the challenges of sustainable development are translated into equally important challenges with regard to the governance of sustainable development. Transition approaches - and among them ‘Transition management’ (TM) - have been increasingly popular alternative ‘tools’ in Northern Europe to conceive such shift in the governance of sustainable development. CONSENTSUS (“CONstruction of ScENarios and exploration of Transition pathways for SUStainable consumption patterns”) focuses on 2 crucial aspects – and moments - of Transition Management approaches: - Phase 1 was dedicated to an exploration of the significance and the conduct of scenario constructions identifying and discussing alternatives to the current food consumption regime. Phase 1 allowed - via a case study in the realm of food consumption - to identify and order the avenues towards a sustainable consumption mode of our societies; - during Phase 2, we worked on one of these prospectively identified transition pathways and tried to understand the mechanics, dynamics and governance of a specific ‘niche’ of food consumption patterns. The objective was, once that a particular transition pathway was identified, to comprehend how alternative consumption behaviour could be “up-scaled” (i.e. generalized).

Le projet COSY-food se fixe deux objectifs pour répondre au constat précédent : Objectif n°1 : co-construire une vision fédératrice de l’alimentation durable à travers la co-production d’un outil d’évaluation multicritères des systèmes de production-distribution-consommation alimentaires Objectif n°2 : sur base de cette vison fédératrice et des résultats de l’évaluation, le projet vise à faire travailler ensemble les différents acteurs pour identifier les freins communs au développement du secteur tout en garantissant sa durabilité. Une innovation majeure sera produite, et son implication sur le système alimentaire durable (SAD) de la RBC discutée. Concrètement cela veut dire de co-créer un espace où les acteurs pourront travailler ensemble pour identifier les freins et leviers au développement de l’alimentation durable. L’outil d’évaluation permettra de mettre en évidence les forces et les faiblesses en termes de durabilité. Cet outil permettra aussi d’évaluer sur des critères objectifs si les nouvelles initiatives alimentaires qui se développent peuvent prétendre au label « alimentation durable ». Les espaces de co-création spécifiques serviront à adapter les grands types de système de distribution (du panier à la grande distribution) qu’ils représentent, ces deux innovations majeures.

Recherche qui vise à mieux connaître et appréhender les relations difficiles et complexes qui lient environnement et tourisme

The political world and public services are under pressure. Citizens increasingly reject traditional political actors, and new societal challenges arise. A prominent example of the latter is the transition to a sustainable economy. Various network governance constellations are being developed for the stimulation, co-creation and institutional anchorage of sustainability-oriented innovation and grassroots initiatives. Beyond this bright and mobilizing side of transitions governance, this project deliberately targets its crucial but hitherto relatively neglected counterpart of exnovation. Exnovation refers to the phasing out of outdated, redundant modes of production and consumption. Focusing on exnovation challenges, the project does not shy away from the politics of transitions: their winners and their losers, and their multiple (often unforeseen) socio-economic side-effects. Beyond the aforementioned cultivation of innovation, exnovation reminds of the challenge for current regulative frameworks and governance arrangements to create contexts and incentives in which the various sustainable innovations can thrive, and become mainstream. At the same time, it reminds of the importance to protect rights, to ensure continuity, and to guarantee a level and transparent economic playing field. This calls for forward-looking governance and institutional design – and the legitimacy for this needs to be actively gained. Our central research question is therefore: How can the existing governance arrangements and regulatory frameworks in the Brussels Capital Region be supported in dealing with the sustainable economy transition and its exnovation challenges? The project confronts this question through a quite unique interdisciplinary combination of expertise in transitions governance, sustainability assessment and legal studies. It is aimed to a) analyse the main exnovation challenges for BCR governance actors, assessing the portée and magnitude of the environmental, social and economic impacts involved; b) develop strategies and institutional design of adequate, forward looking responses in governance and regulatory frameworks and c) organize broad and inclusive societal debate on exnovation challenges.

KLIMOS aims at generating capacity to enable the necessary transition to a sustainable society. KLIMOS will contribute to this aim through a process of mutual learning with the Belgian Development Cooperation and its partners in the South. Research activities will focus on (1) management of natural resources for multiple ecosystem services, (2) development of sustainable energy systems and urban infrastructures, (3) innovations in governance and institutional reform, and (4) sustainability monitoring & evaluation. Research outcomes will feed into the KLIMOS Sustainability Toolkit for project design and evaluation, and will provide strategic policy support and tailor-made training and advice to the Belgian Development Cooperation.