Background

The Institut Méditerranéen pour la Transition Environnementale (ITEM) is one of the institutes associating high-level teaching and research, created by Aix-Marseille University in 2020. Its mission is to generate and disseminate new knowledge on the major contemporary socio-environmental issues surrounding environmental transition, to bring out talents and to attract the best researchers.

ITEM thus finances innovative projects, in line with one of its 3 research axes (Analysis of socio-environmental changes, Resource management, Resilience of societies to risks).

The first call for proposals was a great success, with almost 20 projects submitted, including 9 under the "transition in action" strand. The ITEM Institute Council has selected three of them, which will be funded for a period of up to 36 months. These are collaborative research projects that respond through interdisciplinarity to strategic societal issues of a strategic nature in relation to environmental transition. The "transition schools" section finances 4 field or thematic schools that have been rewarded for the quality of their interdisciplinary approaches, pedagogical innovation, the added value brought to the curriculum, and their international outlook.

Winning projects - AAP 2020 edition "la transition en action".

• ALCOVE: AgricuLture bioControl biOfertilizer Viticols: evaluation of biocontrol products and a biofertilizer in viticultural systems.

The ALCOVE project "AgricuLture bioControl biOfertilizer ViticolEs" aims to develop new agricultural practices that respect human health and the biodiversity of agrosystems and are based on a circular economy and involve stakeholders in changing practices. In this sense, it is part of the environmental transition approach: the need for a paradigm shift and the development of innovative integrative solutions for our society. This project will focus on optimizing the production and testing the efficacy and safety of a cocktail of biocontrol products (PBC) and a biofertilizer designed using known know-how based on solid-state fermentation (FMS) of agricultural by-products. It will thus contribute to a crucial theme of environmental transition: the development of innovative practices that increase the sustainability of agrosystems through strategies that combine consideration of human and environmental health, consultation of socio-economic stakeholders, and the circular economy".

More information on the ALCOVE project

• RAPMED: Automated Plankton Recognition to identify Ecological Transitions and Shifts in the Mediterranean.

The RapMed project aims to study the effects of recent environmental changes over the last two decades on planktonic communities in the sentinel region of the Gulf of Lion. A recent transition of planktonic communities, with a decrease in plankton size, is synchronous with a drastic decrease in fisheries. To understand the processes involved, the project will explore the dynamics of planktonic communities at all size scales at high resolution, based on the application and standardization of high-speed image processing methods. RapMed will set up an innovative processing chain based on machine learning approaches (convolutional neural networks). The results of RapMed will provide a better understanding of the variability of planktonic communities and their resilience to environmental changes.

• POP Transition: From regulatory pollutants to emerging pollutants - Impact of management policies on ecological transition in Mediterranean coastal areas.

Among global changes, the increasing, multiple and evolving input of anthropogenic contaminants in coastal zones implies that scientists need to effectively develop sentinel tools and methods to respond to biodiversity loss and environmental health risks. The POP Transition project focuses on the contamination of the Mediterranean coastline by brominated flame retardants (BFRs), listed as priority hazardous substances known as orphans or belonging to the group of emerging pollutants. The development of sampling tools, multi-scale sampling stations, biological indices and field surveys will make it possible to assess their impacts on the chemical quality of the environment, the coastal habitat, the benthic ecosystem and the fisheries resource, as well as their consequences on fishing. These monitoring tools will help qualify the effect of water resource management policies, to improve industrial and societal support for the ecological transition.

Doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships

The selected projects allow the funding of 2 thesis scholarships of 36 months and 4 post-doctoral fellowships of 18 months.

Access to job offers

Winning projects - AAP 2020 edition "transition schools".

For more details, see our section "OUR TRAINING".

• BIODIV: Urban and peri-urban wastelands: what is at stake for a new biodiversity trajectory?

• ECOCOMPLEX :Complex systems and global ecology: from fundamental to operational.

• POLEMIL : Pollutions and environments - two themes: "Soil-Water" and "ATMO" (Atmosphere-Plant Interaction).

• VIPERES : Vulnerability of the Interaction networks of the Alpine PElouses to the evolution of pastoralism: an interdisciplinary field school for learning by research of the scientific approach.