PTL4 – Georesources, Risks, and Societies

• Olivier BARRETEAU (Co-coordinator, INRAE)
• Bénédicte CENKI (Co-coordinator, UM)
• Benoit ILDEFONSE (GM, UM)
• Patrick LACHASSAGNE (HSM, UM)
• Jean-Stéphane BAILLY (LISAH, UM)
• Frédéric FEDER (Recycling and Risks, CIRAD)
• Stéphane GHIOTTI (rep) (Art-DEV, UM)
• Katrin ERDLENBRUCH (rep) (CEE-M, INRAE)
• Alex MILCU (Ecotron, CNRS)
• Renaud HOSTACHE (rep) (Espace-Dev, IRD)
• Julie MENDRET (rep) (IEM, UM)
• Eleonore LOISEAU (rep) (ITAP, INRAE)
• Ronan LE VELLY (DU), Laure HOSSARD (rep) (Innovation, SUPAGRO)
• Jérôme HARMAND (rep) (LBE, INRAE)
• Céline CASENAVE (MISTEA, INRAE)
• Julien MARY (rep) (MSH-Sud, CNRS)
• William DARE and Chloé NICOLA-ARTERO (reps) (SENS, CIRAD)
• Flavie CERNESSON (rep) (TETIS, remote sensing)
• Marcel KUPER (G-EAU, CIRAD)

Main:

• ECOTRON
• SENS
• GECO
• OREME
• TETIS
• ChimEco
• HSM
• LISAH
• GM
• LBE
• G-WATER
• IATE
• INNOVATION
• ITAP
• Recycling & Risk
• VASSAL

Secondary:

• EEC-M
• MISTEA
• MSH SOUTH

Call for ideas for the co-construction of PTL4 Structuring Projects

The PTL4 scientific community shares the ambition of placing georesources (water, soil, minerals) at the heart of our transitioning societies, understanding and anticipating hazards in the context of global change impacts, and anticipating their sustainable management in the face of environmental risks. This involves exploring the links between natural resources, geological and climatic hazards, and the adaptation of societies to ensure more resilient land management. To do this, we need to analyze resource cycles and their uses (formation, renewal, circulation), understand and monitor the determinants of exposure to hazards, and finally integrate this knowledge to design appropriate governance trajectories. The aim is to propose solutions for the sustainable management of natural resources, reduce vulnerabilities to risks, and fully integrate the humanities and social sciences into environmental management.

One of the PTL4's flagship initiatives is to support three to four interdisciplinary structural projects (lasting three to four years, with the possibility of a thesis, approximately €250k each for a total of €750k) that must meet the above ambition. These projects will be jointly developed by the PTL4 units (and possibly other units from the AEB Cluster and I-Site) and supported by the PTL4 CoPil, according to the following process:

Focus of the first call for proposals for PTL4 – Long-Term Thematic Projects 4: Georesources, Risks, and Societies

Submission deadline: April 7, 2025, 5:00 PM

Long-term thematic projects (2025–2029) are the new tools for funding and structuring scientific research at UM, in line with Labex.
PTL 4 addresses the theme of georesources (i.e., water, soil, and all mineral and energy resources except fossil fuels) and their uses, which are essential to the sustainability of socio-ecosystems.
changes in lifestyles and population growth are increasing societies' sensitivity to the availability of these resources in the right place, at the right time, and in the right quantity and quality. It is essential to better understand the complex processes that determine the evolution of these resources, their availability and uses, but also the risks faced by the societies that depend on them, as well as the institutional and technical modalities of their governance that promote their adaptation and resilience. Global changes therefore require us to review our knowledge of the processes driving the evolution of territories in their social, geological, pedological, and hydrological components in order to propose robust and relevant adaptation trajectories. The PTL Georesources, Risks and Societies aims to produce knowledge by combining three areas—georesources, risks, and societies—to understand the determinants of territorial dynamics linked to the availability of georesources and their exposure to risks, and to develop robust trajectories.