The EIVP or City of Paris School for Engineers is a university for urban engineering. On 23 October 2018 ECT, the leading business in high value-added development in the regions by upcycling landfill material and excavated soil, signed a sponsorship agreement with EIVP marking an important step in their close collaboration. To last for a period of 2 years, this partnership is for the creation of a teaching and research chair dedicated to upcycling inert soil. The chair, with a multidisciplinary approach, will be for training and research into the re-use of soil from construction sites and excavation of large urban areas. This re-use can in particular take the form of development projects following the principles of ‘circular economy’ in collaboration with local authorities: Parks, walking areas, sport sites, urban farms and solar parks
Laurent MOGNO,chairman of ECT, says: « I am very happy that ECT is able to contribute to training future engineers in the re-use of excavated soil as part of an overall search for an optimised urban metabolism, given the needs of the large development projects of modern cities. »
Franck JUNG,director of the EIVP, says: « This new chair again places the EIVP’s teaching and research at the centre of the challenges for the greater Paris metropolitan area in terms of urban engineering. Working with ECT enables our university to participate in a very practical way in the innovative dynamic of the players in the Sustainable City. »
Training and innovating to add more value to the re-use of soil from urban construction sites. The shared ambition of ECT and the EIVP is to develop research, expertise and distribution of knowledge and best practice in the following fields in France and internationally: The management of excavated soil to meet the needs of environmental engineering projects, the requirement for traceability in the construction & public works sector, including the Grand Paris Express, and the design and execution of developments that bring value-added to the regions and their users.
This chair also makes it possible to create a centre of excellence in the training of engineers and researchers
Training: The chair will make it possible for ECT’s engineers and researchers, as well as international experts, to have input into the Engineering degree course as well as into EIVP’s programme of continuing professional development. The chair will also make it possible to organise a conference in spring 2019 dedicated to the international issues relating to the re-use of soil from the construction sites of cities around the world. It will be prepared by a scientific committee chaired by Antoine Grumbach and will bring together people who are well known in this field.
Innovation: The chair raises the possibility of joint tenders for innovative national and European projects. Also, in the context of postgraduate training, the range of seminars on offer will be boosted in terms of the subjects of the chair, and research allocations and CIFREs (industrial agreements for training through research) could be offered on these topics. The chair will also expand the possibilities for « Study & Research » courses and thesis work for students in the 2nd and 3rd years of the engineering course.
