Innovation & foresight
VINCI implements a policy of innovation, research, development and foresight thinking that connects its teams with academics and startups for close collaboration. With this policy, the Group is working on two time horizons: it is stimulating innovations that redefine the Group’s businesses as of now, and it is also exploring future long-term opportunities, especially for the environmental transition. All VINCI business lines participate in cross-business structures that span the Group, while pursuing innovation initiatives specific to their fields of expertise.
LEONARD
The Group’s innovation and foresight platform, Leonard, continues to encourage entrepreneurial innovation among startups (through its Seed and Catalyst programmes), VINCI entities (the Artificial Intelligence programme) and employees (the Intrapreneurs programme). With 44 projects supported in 2022, the number of initiatives sponsored since Leonard was created in 2017 now exceeds 150. Sixteen new VINCI activities or entities have resulted from the Intrapreneurs programme, while the startup programmes have enhanced business lines’ fluency with the most innovative technologies. Thanks to the Artificial Intelligence programme, a large number of use cases in Group companies were identified and around 150 employees were trained in this field. True to its open innovation approach, Leonard has also welcomed new partners. With award-winning urban architect and engineer Franck Boutté (2022 Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme), it co-developed a guide to help cities adapt their streets to modern challenges. The methodology, called La Rue Commune, supported by Ademe, the French environment and energy agency. Leonard has also continued its long-term foresight work, exploring hydrogen power, for example, as well as electric, connected and autonomous forms of mobility. It has expanded its scope of study to include future workplace safety issues in VINCI’s businesses. Leonard has coordinated four learning expeditions, which covered construction tech, digital innovation and other topics. It has held some 50 public events at Leonard:Paris and online, focusing on issues such as sustainable outlooks for ocean and coastal economies; applications of the metaverse, blockchain and other emerging technologies in urban and regional development; and the challenges of low-carbon reindustrialisation. Leonard’s Building Beyond festival in 2022 centred on “the visible and the invisible in cities”, bringing together 2,500-plus participants and 70 speakers to its 25 events.
LA FABRIQUE DE LA CITÉ
La Fabrique de la Cité is a think tank founded and supported by VINCI, whose mission is to stimulate public debate on major challenges in the transformation and development of cities and regions. In 2022, it hosted its third Medium-Sized Cities Meeting, in Saint-Dizier (north-east France), where 30 local officials and policymakers convened to discuss development opportunities for their regions in the context of reindustrialisation. At the event, it also launched the new edition of its opinion survey on mid-size cities. In another initiative, the think tank invited the mayors and presidents of the Nice, Toulouse and Tours metropolitan areas to share their ideas about urban mobility, in light of the findings from surveys conducted in their cities.
La Fabrique de la Cité also co-published a book about how developing public road transport could impact the decarbonisation of everyday mobility. The think tank’s third focus was the “no net land take” target – a core part of VINCI Immobilier’s environmental strategy. Several public meetings were held on the topic and the Land Take Fresk was developed with the input of scientific experts as an educational workshop modelled after the Climate Fresk, which teaches people about climate change. Lastly, La Fabrique de la Cité and Leonard co-hosted a trip to study timber and underground construction in Finland, where these two techniques of significant environmental value are extremely advanced.
LAB RECHERCHE ENVIRONNEMENT
A research programme that emerged from a partnership begun in 2008 by VINCI and three ParisTech schools (Mines, École des Ponts and Agro), lab recherche environnement supported 19 PhD, post-doctoral and other research projects in 2022 relating to VINCI’s business activities in four areas of expertise: nature in the city, neighbourhood-wide life cycle analysis, energy efficiency of buildings and sustainable mobility. Some of its work is conducted as part of the Research & Solutions programme and introduces new research topics relating to VINCI’s green solutions. “Mirror groups” of VINCI employees work alongside researchers to identify potential demonstrators among the Group’s building and infrastructure projects, adding a strong applied component to their scientific research. In addition, lab recherche environnement regularly shares its research, including through conferences, which were attended by a total of 2,700 participants in 2022.