UNIVERSITE LUMIERE LYON 2

Their core work

Université Lumière Lyon 2 is a French social sciences and humanities university that brings deep expertise in cultural heritage, urban sociology, and digital humanities to EU research projects. Their contributions span from olfactory history of painting to analysing neighbourhood mobilisations against displacement, reflecting a strong focus on how culture, society, and technology intersect. They also contribute data science and quality-of-life monitoring capabilities, particularly in health contexts such as cancer immunotherapy follow-up. Their role frequently involves providing specialized social science research methods — including oral history and qualitative analysis — to technically-oriented consortia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Lyon 2's earliest H2020 involvement (2016-2018) centred on industrial digitisation and cultural heritage — participating in manufacturing platforms like vf-OS and contributing humanities expertise to SILKNOW's silk heritage digitisation. From 2019 onward, the university shifted decisively toward self-led social science research, coordinating projects on olfactory history (PaintOdor) and urban displacement (NOMAD-Outcome), while maintaining secondary involvement in security and health data. The trend is clear: moving from technical participant roles toward leading original humanities and social science research with real-world policy relevance.

Lyon 2 is consolidating around urban social research and policy-relevant humanities, making them an increasingly strong partner for projects needing social impact analysis or citizen engagement expertise.

How they like to work

Lyon 2 operates across all consortium roles — coordinator, participant, and third party in roughly equal measure — suggesting flexibility in how they engage. With 107 unique partners across 20 countries from just 8 projects, they plug into large, diverse consortia rather than leading massive networks. Their frequent third-party status (3 of 8 projects) indicates they are often brought in as a specialist contributing specific humanities or social science methods to technically-driven projects.

Despite a modest project portfolio, Lyon 2 has built a remarkably broad network of 107 partners across 20 countries, reflecting their ability to integrate into large European consortia. Their geographic reach spans most of the EU, with no visible concentration beyond France.

What sets them apart

Lyon 2's distinctive value lies at the intersection of social sciences and technology-driven EU projects — they are the partner you bring in when a technical consortium needs rigorous humanities methodology, citizen perspective analysis, or cultural context. Unlike technical universities, they offer deep qualitative research skills (oral history, social movement analysis, cultural heritage interpretation) that complement engineering-heavy teams. For consortium builders, they fill a gap that is often hard to fill: genuine social science expertise embedded in applied R&D projects.

Highlights from their portfolio

• NOMAD-Outcome
  Their most recent coordinated project, directly aligned with their emerging core identity in urban social movements and displacement research.
• vf-OS
  Their largest single EC contribution (EUR 521,250) and an unusual industrial manufacturing project for a humanities-focused university, showing early versatility.
• PaintOdor
  A highly original MSCA fellowship on olfactory history of painting — demonstrates the university's strength in unconventional, interdisciplinary humanities research.