COMMUNE DE GRENOBLE

Their core work

The City of Grenoble participates in EU research as a municipal living lab — providing direct access to urban governance structures, local policy levers, and city residents as research participants. Their contribution is not scientific in the traditional sense: they bring the city itself as a testbed where energy transition and climate action research can be piloted, co-designed with citizens, and evaluated against real policy outcomes. In both projects, Grenoble plays the role of a local authority anchor that legitimises research with a real deployment context. This positions them as a bridge between theoretical research and on-the-ground urban implementation.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 engagement (SONNET, 2019), Grenoble's focus was firmly on the governance and social dimensions of energy transitions: co-creation processes, social acceptance, business models for cities, and the political economy of energy policy. By their second project (CAMPAIGNers, 2021), the emphasis had shifted to measurable individual behaviour — lifestyle transformation, behavioural modelling, climate pathway modelling, and digital tools like smartphone apps for citizen engagement. This shift suggests the city moved from designing participation frameworks to deploying and measuring them at scale, with a growing interest in data-driven citizen science methods.

Grenoble is moving from soft co-creation methodology toward digitally-enabled, measurable citizen engagement — making them an increasingly useful partner for projects that need both municipal buy-in and a population willing to participate in behavioural research.

How they like to work

Grenoble has participated exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, across both projects. Despite this, their network is broad — 39 unique partners across 19 countries from just 2 projects implies active participation in large, multi-stakeholder consortia typical of RIA calls. As a public authority, they likely serve as the "city validation partner" that research consortia need to demonstrate real-world applicability and policy relevance rather than driving the scientific agenda.

With 39 unique consortium partners across 19 countries from only 2 projects, Grenoble has a surprisingly wide European network for a municipality — averaging roughly 20 partners per project. This reflects the large, multi-city consortium structures common in EU urban energy research, where multiple cities participate alongside universities and research institutes.

What sets them apart

Unlike university or research institute partners, Grenoble brings something most academic partners cannot provide: a functioning city with real residents, real policy levers, and the institutional authority to pilot and scale new approaches. Grenoble is also embedded in one of France's most innovation-dense ecosystems — home to CEA, CNRS, and a large tech corridor — which makes the city unusually capable of bridging municipal governance with deep scientific capacity nearby. For consortium builders who need a credible city partner with demonstrated commitment to energy and climate transitions, Grenoble offers both legitimacy and access.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SONNET
  The larger of Grenoble's two projects (EUR 100,000 in EC funding), focused on mapping social innovation diversity across European cities in energy transitions — a direct fit for Grenoble's role as a progressive municipal authority.
• CAMPAIGNers
  Marks a clear evolution in Grenoble's engagement: a smartphone-app-driven citizen science project targeting active climate mitigation behaviour, blending digital tools with municipal reach.