Convergence project – French national research project 10/2010-10/2013
Contact
Dr Peggy ZWOLINSKI / Prof Daniel BRISSAUD
Université de Grenoble, Laboratoire G-SCOP
46 avenue Félix Viallet, 38031 Grenoble, France
Tel : (33) 4 76 82 52 74 – (33) 4 76 82 70 06
E-mail : Peggy.Zwolinski@g-scop.inpg.fr, Daniel.Brissaud@g-scop.inpg.fr
Context
Consumerism is widely encouraged by the actual dominating model of economy. Consumers are incited to increase the frequency and the renewal of their purchases. However, the ecological constrains are pointing the unsustainability of this model. One solution is to consider the environmental issue as an economical motivation. This is what is suggested by the “economy of functionality” (also called “the economy of the performance”). While using the usage of the product as a central function, this new approach is able to satisfy customers’ needs while diminishing environmental impacts.
Considering those evolutions, the challenge is to generalize eco-design practices and particularly those relating to the economy of functionality. This is a collective process that engages multiple competencies. That is to say, it will be about modifying the attitudes, the responsibilities, the management practices, as well as the design process of the products and all the engineering methods. The industries would consequently have to adopt new tools to support the design activity and to help the emergence of new competencies in term of interface between technical and environmental quality. The integration of the environment in the design process is particularly complex. On one hand, a wide range of eco-design tools exists, but their actual utilization by the industrial stays limited. On the other hand, companies have to face more and more external pressure and their tendency is to develop partial eco-design strategies.
Resulting from those lacks, companies need a mechanism to pilot their design practices. This support would facilitate the integration of environmental information in the design process and bring a new way of thinking the innovation.
The Convergence project was launched with this objective. It is a French collaborative project of universities and companies of three years, from October 2010 to October 2013. The objective is to realize an industrial research to help the perennial integration of the environment in the design process. Various researchers working on complementary and multi-disciplinary domains (environment, design process, systemic innovation and science of economy) are involved in this project.
PhD works to be done
The aim of the Convergence project is to propose a piloting tool that will firstly help the given company to identify its appropriate eco-design strategy. This strategy will depend on the context of the company and will be based on the economy of functionality. The project integrator will spread step by step the strategy, following the operational lines recommended by the operational module. This operational module will be built to optimize the interface between the eco-designers and the other expertises. The methodological module will facilitate the environmental decision making and its execution in the design process. This module will contain the condition of use of methods and tools, in order to equip the eco-design experts with the suitable instrumentation related to the context.
The PhD student works will be related to the engineering methods and tools to support eco-design and economy of functionality deployment in companies. The researcher will have to develop propositions for specific actions related to the ecodesign strategies identified in the project (methodological module) and the engineering tools supporting them. He will define then the progress ways adapted for a specific firm and a guide to be used by firms. He will also have to explore the possible leads for the integration of new strategies as those related to the economy of functionality (usage selling or service selling instead of a product). This economy of functionality linked to ecodesigned product will contribute to decrease the environmental impacts while promoting the innovation.
The applicant should have good knowledge about design and industrial product development but also about ecodesign and economy of functionality. He will have to frequently interact with firms to help him for his theoretical reflection.
This 3-year work will be guided by the University of Grenoble (G-SCOP laboratory). The research officer will be employed full time on this project and should be registered as a PhD student at the University of Grenoble for the 3 years (the PhD degree is passed after 3 year work in France). During the three years, the researcher will have to visit the mebers of the project, industries and universities.
Grenoble is a city of about 400.000 inhabitants, situated in the Rhône-Alpes area which is the most important scientific area in France after Paris. It is located at the bottom of high mountains (the Alps). It is modern city with 4 universities and where lots of worldwide companies have based their European research and development centres. The G-SCOP research laboratory of the University of Grenoble is very well known in France and Europe. It is dedicated to research on innovation, design, production and logistics engineering and is composed of about 140 persons including 80 PhD students. Eco-design, Environmental impacts assessment and analysis, product-Service systems are one of the main topics studied alongside with collaborative engineering and production management and optimization. The laboratory was at the head of the European network of excellence VRL KCiP (now EMIRAcle), which grouped together 24 European laboratory from 16 countries on engineering design.
