ETABLISSEMENT D'ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR CONSULAIRE GRENOBLE ECOLE DE MANAGEMENT

Their core work

Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) is a leading French business school that brings management science, innovation policy, and socio-economic analysis to EU research consortia. Their core contribution lies in understanding how technologies get adopted by society — studying business models, social acceptance, entrepreneurial ecosystems, and policy frameworks that determine whether research breakthroughs actually reach markets and communities. They bridge the gap between technical R&D and real-world deployment by analyzing value chains, innovation clusters, and the human factors behind energy transitions and industrial change.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

GEM's early H2020 work (2016-2018) centered on economic analysis — global value chains, industrial clusters, smart specialization, and policy transfer — classic innovation economics topics. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward social dimensions of technology adoption: social innovation, co-creation, energy governance, and entrepreneurial management. This evolution shows a move from studying WHY regions innovate differently to studying HOW societies actually accept and integrate new technologies.

GEM is moving toward applied social science for energy and sustainability transitions — expect them to seek projects on citizen engagement, just transitions, and community-level energy governance.

How they like to work

GEM operates exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator — typical for a business school contributing specialized social science expertise to technically-led projects. With 57 unique partners across 27 countries from just 6 projects, they join large, diverse consortia rather than small focused teams. This signals they are comfortable integrating into complex multi-partner setups and can adapt their contribution to different project cultures and research traditions.

Remarkably wide network for a modest project count: 57 unique partners across 27 countries, indicating participation in large pan-European consortia with global reach (CatChain and EM4FIT as MSCA-RISE projects likely include non-EU partners). Strong European base with connections extending beyond the EU through researcher mobility schemes.

What sets them apart

GEM brings management school rigor to technical R&D projects — they don't build the technology, they analyze whether anyone will actually use it and how to make adoption work. This makes them a valuable work package partner for any consortium that needs social acceptance studies, business model validation, or innovation policy analysis. Based in Grenoble, France's premier technology hub (home to CEA, CNRS labs, and STMicroelectronics), they sit at the intersection of deep-tech research and business strategy.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SONNET
  Largest funding (EUR 439K) and most representative of GEM's core identity — studying social innovation and co-creation in energy transitions across European cities.
• CatChain
  MSCA-RISE project running until 2024, focused on global value chain analysis and smart specialization — positions GEM in international innovation policy research networks.
• STREAM
  Unexpected topic for a business school — railway safety with exoskeletons and robotics — shows GEM can contribute human factors and adoption expertise in industrial domains.