Presentation of the PIRVE programme

Scientific focus

The Interdisciplinary Research Programme ‘City and Environment’ (PIRVE) positions itself in the global context of massive urbanisation and concern for ecological issues (depletion of key resources, climate change, declining biodiversity…). Within this general framework, the “city and environment” field fosters major collective stakes concerned the quality of life of citizens (residents, workers, visitors), the vulnerability of urban societies and spaces, the functioning and evolution (growth, sprawl…) of cities at the large metropolitan and urban-region scales, and their regional and global impacts. These issues demand the production of new knowledge that should result from a mutual integration of environmental and urban research: environmental research taking better into account urban issues and vice versa. In this context, the PIRVE aims to a better understanding of the co-evolution processes between urban societies and their natural and built environment. It seeks to highlight the processes that bring into play the complex interactions at different scales (spatial: local, regional, global and temporal: short, medium, long term), between the various dimensions (human, social, political and cultural, material, ecological…) of the functioning and evolution of urban systems.

The programme encourages scientific risk-taking, supporting interdisciplinary projects positioned at the interface of human and social sciences and other major disciplinary fields: environmental sciences, life sciences, engineering, earth sciences and astronomy. Beyond the production of new knowledge, the PIRVE’s ambition is threefold:

  • contribute to structuring a long-term interdisciplinary urban-environmental research milieu
  • foster the circulation and combination of scientific, expert and ordinary knowledge to support both knowledge and action concerning urban production, management and governance
  • support collective thinking on the production, implementation and evaluation of public policies in the programme thematic field

Calls for projects

After 3 calls for projects (2008, 2009 and 2010 – available here in French), the programme has funded 37 projects.

The 2008 and 2009 calls for proposals proposed 3 main themes:

  1. Urban metabolisms: the city as a social, technical and natural hybrid
  2. The urban environment as a living environment: resource, heritage, landscape, inequalities
  3. The futures of the city, between vulnerability and sustainability

The 2010 call for proposal reorganised these themes around a more focused presentation of these complementary issues :

  1. The city in the environment: metabolisms, fooprints, pathways
  2. The urban environment as a living environment: resource, heritage, landscape, inequalities, transformations

Programme organisation

Created in 2006 by the CNRS, the PIRVE programme started with a one-year conceptualisation phase. All institutional information concerning the creation of the programme is available on the CNRS Interdisciplinary programmes’ website. Information on the conceptualisation phase are accessible in the Archive section.

The operational phase of the programme started end of 2007. A partnership with the French Ministry of Ecology (MEDDTL) has been established. Two Ministry research offices, the National Plan “Urban Planning, Construction, Architecture” (PUCA) and the Research and Innovation Department (DRI) are involved in this institutional, intellectual and financial partnership. Besides a Scientific Committee, the programme also works with a Steering Committee composed of representatives from the MEDDTL, other Ministries, CNRS institutes (INSHS, INEE, INST2I, INP, INSB), local authorities, public and private sector stakeholders. Its mission is to provide insights on public policy issues and to encourage dissemination activies towards the scientific community and decision-makers.

Scientific and Steering Committees

Programme activities

The PIRVE programme organises regular seminars and conferences. The next PIRVE conference will take place on May 5 and 6, 2011 in Nantes (France). Check the news page for more information.

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