New forms of research and public action • La 27e Région

Background

With support from ADEME, between February and September 2026, the 27th Region is launching a small participatory investigation on new forms of research, innovation, and public action. The main objective is to shed light on the hybrid forms of cooperation between researchers and elected officials/local government staff—particularly regarding environmental issues—and to draw lessons from them to take things further. This preliminary exploration is intended to lay the groundwork for a longer-term, more experimental inter-municipal action research project..

Exchanges between the research community and the public sector have existed for a long time, but they seem to have regained new momentum in recent years. An increasing number of local governments, in particular, are developing relationships with researchers and academic laboratories on topics related to the ecological transition, social inclusion, digital transformations, and, more recently, the phenomenon of democratic erosion and post-truth.

While the will is there, the operational implementation of these collaborations proves more challenging. Between the scientific community and public decision-makers, each side ultimately remains somewhat entrenched in its own camp, and concrete results are difficult to come by. Cooperation is not merely collaboration: it requires a paradigm shift on both sides, particularly in how research and knowledge production are approached.

Approach

A first step toward a more ambitious program

This is not an academic study, but rather a small-scale investigation intended to yield initial actionable proposals (tools, guidelines, etc.) and lay the groundwork for a more ambitious, including several local governments research project.

A collaborative and learning-oriented investigation

The entire exploration is conducted in a participatory and learning-oriented manner, coordinated by the 27th Region. Specifically, each partner local governments provides one or two volunteers to participate in the investigation. These “researchers” are first involved in creating a research protocol, then implement it collectively: they divide up the interviews to be conducted, participate in literature reviews, workshops, testing, etc., in a spirit of cooperation and shared responsibility. The researchers are involved in decisions regarding the implementation of the study and the deliverables to be produced.