The Labex Innovations et transitions territoriales en montagne (ITTEM) federates a community of researchers in the human and social sciences working on mountain issues, and supports projects developed with local stakeholders faced with the impact of global change.
The link between research and territories, at the heart of the Labex ITTEM project
Winner of the “Laboratory of Excellence” call for projects in 2011, Labex ITTEM has been renewed for 8 years, from 2025 to 2032. It examines the future of mountain territories from the dual angle of innovation and social-ecological transition, and the responses to be provided to major contemporary issues, broken down on a local scale: climate change, increasing scarcity of resources, loss of biodiversity, management of mobility and migration, effects of tourism and prospects for habitability, modes of governance, etc.
Labex ITTEM brings together researchers from twelve laboratories at Grenoble Alpes and Savoie-Mont Blanc Universities and the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae), and contributes to dialogue between disciplines (history, geography, sociology, planning, economics, law, political science, management science, communication, etc.). It is part of a transdisciplinary approach, involving and supporting institutional, associative, civil and private players working in mountain areas.
Particularly affected by environmental upheavals, these areas are seen as leading “laboratories” and “demonstrators”. They offer a privileged space for observing and analyzing the dynamics of change underway, and for experimenting with solutions and proposals, with a view to sustainable development.
Labex ITTEM is one of the world’s leading resource centers for mountainstudies in the humanities and social sciences. Its links with numerous foreign organizations and researchers ensure its international influence, both within and beyond the Alpine arc.