The IMU project was born of a two-part observation.

• Firstly that the Lyon Saint-Etienne metropolis represents a hub of research on urban issues which is unmatched on a national and European level. Several hundred researchers in disciplines concerning the science of man and society, engineering and and environmental science, work to produce knowledge of the city. They take part in developing tools and systems to manage the city today and to prefigure the city of tomorrow.
• Secondly, the Lyon Saint-Etienne metropolis (LES) presents an exceptional concentration of urban situations, contexts and territorial and ecological contrasts which are characteristic of contemporary urbanisation and metropolisation dynamics. It is thus an exceptional laboratory for investigation and experimentation.

 The IMU community is made up of 24 research partners, more than 350 permanent teacher-researchers and researchers with a rich and complementary range of disciplines. This scientific plurality is reinforced by the presence of the actors who contribute to the production and management of urban worlds (actors who make up the community of “practitioners”.

In this context, LIRIS brings its expertise on the Topics

• « engineering, knowledge, creation »: Digital systems and the new services they offer are a promise of individuation, autonomy, freedom of action, renewed social interactions. A vector of information retention, production, manipulation, processing and circulation, digitising appears as the main socio-techical factor of contemporary urban transformation. The challenge for this IMU topic is dual : on one hand to explore the effects of the diffusion of digital techniques and their structuring effects in the individual, social and political field in order to identify the possible different worlds opened up by these technologies and to anticipate the interests and possible dangers ; on the other hand , to design digital models and to implement digital services entirely based on usage, social demand, interaction modes, social links and the aspirations of the citizen users within the framework of an urban space saturated in digital artifacts.

• « environment, nature, ecotechnologies »: The strong rise in ecological awareness has brought about a techological revolution in cities preserving their environment. Green developments and “intelligent” buildings are developing around this new or renewed technology. This eco-technology implies new relations with objects and technical devices and offers new challenges which can only be taken up by crossing knowledge and competence in social science, information and communication sciences and engineering.  This IMU Topic is particularly interested in: control of urban risks, restoring natural conditions to cities, instrumentation of the city, relations between technical and spatial systems and between individual and collective behaviour.