1 - Leonard has incubated or accelerated some 200 projects since 2017.
2 - VINCI renewed the partnership behind the VINCI-ParisTech lab recherche environnement for another five years.
3 - In 2023, La Fabrique de la Cité launched a new cycle of research into urban waterways.
VINCI implements a policy of innovation, research, development and foresight thinking that connects its teams with academics and startups for close collaboration. All VINCI business lines participate in cross-business structures that span the Group, while pursuing innovation initiatives specific to their fields of expertise.
Leonard’s foresight work in 2023 focused on emerging risks in the Group’s various businesses, climate change adaptation and the transformations in the mobility sector between now and 2050. Its research into mobility issues prompted the allocation of public funding to experiment with autonomous public transport solutions and dynamic charging of heavy vehicles on motorways (see the VINCI Autoroutes section). Through its entrepreneurial innovation programmes, Leonard supported the incubation and development of 45 projects put forward either by a startup or by a Group entity or employee in 2023 (it has sponsored some 200 initiatives in total since its inception in 2017). The creativity of the Group’s teams was showcased in the applications they submitted to the artificial intelligence programme, for example, in generative design and predictive maintenance. Also as part of the programme, several hundred employees completed training courses in artificial intelligence.
The transformations taking place in VINCI’s markets and businesses were explored in about 40 public events. These included a series on industry and the energy transition, conferences on the circular economy in construction, and the fifth Building Beyond festival, which brought together more than 2,500 attendees around the theme “the future is already here”. Leonard coordinated learning expeditions to international conferences
– Hello Tomorrow, on deep tech, in Paris, and Slush, on digital and entrepreneurial innovation, in Finland and to China to meet with some 20 stakeholders in electric, connected and autonomous forms of mobility.
Lastly, Leonard helped to create the Bruno Latour Fund set up by Sciences Po, which is supporting 10 research projects on environmental transitions. With a public interest group called “L’Europe des projets architecturaux et urbains”, Leonard also co founded the new Arpenter research chair focusing on urban and regional dynamics at a time of major economic, social and environmental change. The Group is sponsoring 10 PhD positions for researchers exploring these topics.
In 2023, VINCI renewed its partnership with the schools AgroParisTech, Mines -Paris PSL and École des Ponts ParisTech for another five years, extending the collaboration that created the lab recherche environnement research programme in 2008 and contributing €6 million in funding. It supported 16 PhD, post-doctoral and other research projects in 2023 relating to VINCI’s businesses. Some of its work is conducted as part of the Research & Solutions programme, which introduces new research topics emerging from VINCI’s environmental 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 makes sure to share its research, made possible through scientific philanthropy. For example, it disseminated its findings through conferences attended by close to 3,000 participants in 2023.
Three goals have been set for this new partnership cycle: to consider planetary boundaries in reducing the environmental impact of building and infrastructure projects; to develop artificial intelligence solutions to decarbonise buildings and mobility; and to improve the health and well being of users by reducing urban heat island effects and impacts on the water cycle.
La Fabrique de la Cité, a think tank on urban transitions founded and supported by VINCI, hosted its fourth Medium-Sized Cities Meeting. Taking place in two municipalities Roanne and Montbrison (east-central France) , the event attracted 160 participants, including 35 local officials and policymakers. Two regional workshops were also held: one in Épinal (eastern France) on wood construction and rehabilitation of city centres, and the other in Bourges (central France) on promoting cultural and natural heritage.
The think tank continued its work on efficient land use, in light of the need to unseal land while also addressing the housing shortage. It launched a new cycle of research into urban waterways, as a partner of the first Assises nationales du fleuve conference in Rouen (northern France), and coordinated an international expedition to Lisbon to examine the relationship between the Portuguese capital and its river, the Tagus.
La Fabrique de la Cité collaborated with essayist David Djaïz to give five seminars on governing transitions. It took part in two symposiums on the decarbonisation of transport and roads, organised with the support of VINCI Autoroutes, and in seminars on the topic of roads, at the Colloques de Cerisy in Normandy, of which it was a main partner.