Research at Lyon 2

 

Innovative, international, diverse and advanced research

Being the first establishment in the Social Sciences branch of PRES (Education and Research Centre) "Université de Lyon" and of the Rhône-Alpes region, and being one of the first few established institutions on the national scene, Université Lumière Lyon 2 boasts of a compelling research policy guided by three priorities:

• Innovation
• Partnership and Interdisciplinarity
• Internationalization

Extensive fields of expertise

Riding high on its diverse span of research domains, that covers the whole of the Social Sciences field — literature and arts, linguistics and modern languages, economics and management, history, archaeology, geography, sociology, anthropology, psychology, education sciences, law, political science — as well as cognitive and computer sciences, at the national university scene that has considerably transformed over the course of years and  on a site involved with a strong dynamic of co-operation, Université Lumière Lyon 2 has bet on innovation, interdisciplinarity, partnership and internationalization, to develop vast fields of social sciences and to therein engage senior and novice researchers, to bring social sciences in interaction with pure sciences and health sciences, and place them in the heart of contemporary scientific and societal challenges.

Four unifying axes

As a response to these demands, the university has organized its research policy for the four-year contract 2011—2015 around four unifying axes:

• Health and Society: interdisciplinary approach to health and social sciences
• Territories, city, production and exchanges
• Digitization, simulation and complexity modelling
• Images, texts, discourse, creation, diffusion

Superior projects

Université Lumière Lyon 2 and its partners support advanced research laboratories, interdisciplinary and structuring projects: International House of Languages and Cultures (MILC), Superior Institute of Religion and Laïcité Studies (ISERL), Science and Society Study Centre (CESS), research platform in Mental Health with Vinatier hospital.
It is also the driving force behind projects chosen as Upcoming Investments: LABEX (LABoratoires d'EX-cellence), ASLAN (Language Sciences), IMU (Institute of the Urban World), COMOD (History of ideas and modernity), CORTEX (Brain, Neurosciences and Cognition), as well as behind structur(ing) projects of equipment and platforms for social sciences and their interface with exact sciences and biosciences.

The Laboratories - Research and Education Centres

The laboratories are sites of collective research, supported by a scientific project validated by the Ministry of Superior Education and Research (MESR) that gathers research professors and Ph.D students. The latter, particularly, can benefit from research training programmes, supervisors, collective work and scientific and administrative support in these laboratories. The laboratories are organized according to disciplinary fields, research thematics, cultural zones, and socioeconomic domains. The university supports these research centres by providing resources and personnel — research professors and administrative workers.

On-site policy

Most of the research centres of Université Lumière Lyon 2 associated with the CNRS (UMR: Mixed Research Unit) or not (EA: Home Unit), have developed an on-site partnership policy and are organized under co-tutelage with other establishments: Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, ENS Lyon (Ecole Normale Supérior de Lyon), and IFE (Institut Français de l'Education), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSA Lyon (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées), ENTPE (Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat).