COFUND programme
École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées is coordinating a doctoral program entitled “MISCEA” (Modelling and Interdisciplinary SCience for the Ecological TrAnsition). The project will officially start in January 2024 and run for five years.
The COFUND action (MSCA COFUND) co-finances new and existing doctoral and post-doctoral programs, with the aim of spreading the best practices of M.S.C. Actions, including international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary training through research, as well as international and intersectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their careers.
MISCEA doctoral program
Humanity is facing critical challenges as a result of climate change, and the absolute necessity of rapid ecological and energy transitions is uncontested. To meet these challenges, new knowledge is needed to produce cleaner energy, build and adapt our environment sustainably, and assess the consequences of extreme weather events on populations and structures. The societal impact of these transitions cannot be neglected or studied separately from these technological issues.
The objectives of the MISCEA program are twofold. Firstly, to contribute to these transitions through research and innovation in various fields and using interdisciplinary approaches. Secondly, to train future scientific leaders and decision-makers in an interdisciplinary way in order to achieve excellence in implementing these ecological and energy transitions. To achieve these objectives, the program will draw on the excellence of the research carried out in the 12 laboratories supervised by the Beneficiary, the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.
The institution will also build on its strong interactions with the private sector to provide the 18 PhD students with an environment propitious to the development of their employability skills. The significant involvement of industrial partners, as associate partners, in this program of training for and through research, and in related activities, is central to the development of the MISCEA program, and is set to intensify over the course of the project.
Implementation of the program will be based on best practice in open and fair recruitment, with a strong emphasis on diversity and excellence in the cohorts recruited. The program will also strive to foster group cohesion among MISCEA PhD students. École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées’ membership of the European University Alliance EELISA will be an asset for the implementation of the program, in terms of information dissemination, recruitment and opportunities for short and medium-term stays in laboratories outside France.
École des Ponts is the coordinator of the MISCEA program, making it the direct beneficiary of the European funds (“mono-beneficiary” project). MISCEA also benefits from a number of associated partners from the private sector, who have expressed an interest in co-financing a thesis in the MISCEA program: EGIS Structures & Environnement, Vinci, SETEC TPI, Tractebel Engineering, EDF and Meridiam Endowment Fund.