Areas of expertise - Académie des technologies

#Energy

The Node Energy is the centre of the Academy's thinking on the energy transition, which is expected to result in several trillion dollars of investment by 2050: the scope that this Node is covering is therefore essential. This energy transition concerns energy production, but also its uses, and an equal interest is brought to these two aspects.

President : Dominique Vignon

Vice President : Isabelle Moretti, Bernard Tardieu

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#Education - Formation - Employment - Work

Skills are an essential lever for employment, for the modernisation of our economic fabric, especially in industry and technology-based services, but also an important lever for the modernisation of our administrations. However, economists of all schools, both Keynesian and liberal, are warning us about the significant skills gap in France. The Node’s "education, training, employment and work" theme is situated at the intersection of technological dimensions and those of the human and social sciences. The Node approaches this theme from different angles: initial and lifelong training policies, human resources policies in companies, and job and skills forecasting at the level of territories, sectors or industries. Its work is enriched by openness to Europe and the world.

President : Alain Cadix

Vice President : Alain Bernard, Jean-Pierre Chevalier

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#Digital

The Node Digital covers a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence and machine learning to data science and algorithms, the digital transformation of companies, and the social acceptability of new digital technologies. Issues related to data sharing or simulation for crisis management are recent examples illustrating the expertise of this Node. The Node is also a stakeholder in the governance of the Gaia-X European cloud initiative for the hosting and secure circulation of data.

President : Gérard Roucairol

Vice President : Jean-Claude André, Albert Benveniste

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#Environment and impacts of climate change

Technologies are developed in the service of the environment as well as within the environment and as such their development must integrate the objectives of sustainable development. Societies expect powerful technological aids, in particular to solve the major challenges of liquid, solid or gaseous waste management, to clean up water, air and soil, to better manage natural hazards, to fight against transmissible diseases, to guarantee food quality and of course to cope with climate change, either to mitigate its consequences or especially to adapt to it.

President : Pierre Toulhoat

Vice President : Yves Lévi

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#Culture/Leisure

How can we renew and update the "technical culture" developed in France in the 1970s? This is the challenge of the work of the Node Culture/Leisure, which scrutinises initiatives of technical culture on the web, more responsible practices of production and consumption and sustainable tourism. But the world of technical objects in terms of their materiality, ingenuity and future remains at the heart of the Node’s reflections.

President : Dominique Ferriot

Vice President : Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent

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#Industry and services

The share of industry in French GDP has been declining sharply for three decades, reflecting the de-industrialisation of our country, only partially offset by the growth of services. These developments reflect a profound change, both in industry, which has been severely destabilised by outdated equipment and relocation, and which is trying to revive itself thanks to the most innovative technologies: robotics, connectivity, data, networks (telecoms, energy, transport), materials, etc., as well as in services and their uses, which are now being forced to adapt rapidly to the revolution in digital platforms. In these vital transformations, industry and services are converging, coming together or merging in new economic models that are emerging or being explored and contributing to energy, environmental, demographic and digital transitions.

President : Dominique Vernay

Vice President : Victoire de Margerie, Alain Pouyat, Yves Ramette

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#Nutrition and Health

The centre of study and expertise of the Node Nutrition and Health is the analysis of the ongoing development of technologies at the service of health and nutrition. The technologies that are revolutionising these fields are, for example, artificial intelligence, functional imaging, genetics, data banks, platformisation, robotics... These developments bring great hopes but pose ethical, economic, ecological, political and social acceptance problems. The Nutrition and Health Node continues to question the proper use of these technological advances with the help of internal and external experts, based on scientifically validated data.

President : Louis Dubertret

Vice President : Bertrand Daugeras, François Képès, Jean de Kervasdoue, Gilles Trystram

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#Technologies, Economy and Societies

The Node Technologies, Economy and Societies is dedicated to reflecting on the characteristics of technical progress and its relationship with the economy and society. It is interested in issues such as the weakness of productivity gains and therefore of average increases in purchasing power; the widening of inequalities of all kinds and their link with the urgency of climate policy; society's reaction to rapid, sometimes spectacular, technological changes, sometimes with more consequences for society than for the economy. The Node is therefore looking into the modes of governance of technological development that will generate wealth, be accepted by society and contribute to the necessary transition due to climate change.

President : Christian de Boissieu

Vice President : Joëlle Toledano, Corinne Gendron, Olivier Appert

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#Habitat, Mobility and Cities

The Node Habitat and Mobility covers the domains: Cities, Habitat and Mobility - three areas that are deeply impacted by strong environmental constraints as well as significant technological innovations. The Node's scope of study aims to explore these disruptions from three angles:

Technological and environmental issues: green urbanism, urban mobility
Social and inclusion issues: housing, commerce, revitalisation of medium-sized cities and rural areas, access to energy in emerging countries.
Economic and industrial issues: low-carbon and modular construction, introduction of robots in the construction industry, etc.

President : François Bertière

Vice President : Christophe Midler

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