SET-Transfert - A transfer unit in human and social sciences
For the last year the SET research centre has had a skill transfer unit bringing together geographers, town and country planners and sociologists.
UPPA has always been at the forefront of partnership-based research and innovation. In partnership with ADERA, which runs 30 or so technology transfer units in Aquitaine, UPPA has recently created SET-Transfert, linked to the SET (Society Environment Territory) research centre, one of only two units falling within the scope of human and social sciences. “We were often called upon to carry out studies or assessments but we didn’t have the legal structure to be able to respond”, explains Xavier Arnauld de Sartre, CNRS researcher in the SET research centre. “The establishment of the unit means that henceforth we can respond positively to our partners.”
Officially created in March 2014, the unit has already taken on more than 10 contracts for associations and local authorities such as the ADEME and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Council. The unit has skills in three fields: identification, collection and synthesis of sociological and geographical data; spatial analysis, statistical evaluation, cartographical treatment; advice, expertise, critical analysis and training.
“As well as carrying out inquiries”, says Aude Pottier, doctor in geography responsible for studies, “we are also called in as consultants, particularly for setting up experiments in the social field.”
The fields in which they intervene are based on the research centre’s know-how: environment and sustainable development of course, town and country planning, social stakeholders and problems, but also risk perception and management, cultural identity and heritage, and land use for recreation and tourism. For example, the unit has worked for Fondation de France and the University of Aix-Marseille on people’s perception of coastal regions. It has also carried out, for Lacq Odyssée, a qualitative survey of wine-producers from the Jurançon area on the perception of the wine-growing region.
Contact: Xavier Arnauld de Sartre, xavier.arnauld @ univ-pau.fr
