University of Clermont Auvergne (UCA) is a multidisciplinary public university in Clermont-Ferrant, France, instituted in 2017 out of the former Blaise Pascal University and University of Auvergne.

On 1 January 2021 the university acquired Public Experimental Institution (EPE) status. An EPE is a public institution of a scientific, cultural and professional nature – specifically, a consolidation of public and private higher education and research institutions contributing to public service. The “experiment” is conducted for up to ten years, and evaluated regularly on such indicators as efficacy, added value and quality of operation.

UCA’s aims in becoming an EPE included: to extend the international reach of the Clermont Auvergne higher education and research site, and promote cross-disciplinary collaboration in four key areas:

• Sustainable agroecosystems in a context of global change.
• Catastrophic natural hazards and socio-economic vulnerability.
• Innovative transport and production systems and services.
• Personalised mobility as a key health factor.

UCA has initiated the relevant projects, under the Global Development and Governance Initiative (IDGM), which is supported by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Laboratory of Excellence (LabEx) program. LabEx provides funding under the French government’s Investments in the Future initiative. IDGN focuses on three themes: sustainable development; economic development and development policies; global regulation and governance.

These cross-border, cross-disciplinary sustainability projects include the following:

CAP 20-25 – a sustainable agroecosystems research project, encompassing mobility and engineering, with the general theme of “sustainable life and production models”.

LabEx IMobS³ – described as “Innovative Mobility: Smart and Sustainable Solutions”.

LabEx ClerVolc – the Clermont-Ferrand Centre for Volcano Research offers research, innovation and training in the fields of volcanic processes, hazards and risk.

Statutes:

The creation of the public experimental institution “University Clermont Auvergne” responds to the desire, shared by all the actors of higher education and research of the Clermont Auvergne site, to create a large university of training and research with an international dimension, strongly connected to its territorial environment and the socio-economic world.

This ambition and objectives require a profound institutional transformation that takes advantage of the Ordinance of 12 December 2018 to:

• To ensure the highest level of quality the major public service missions of higher education and research (initial and continuing education; scientific and technological research; dissemination and enhancement of scientific research and culture; orientation, success and professional integration of students).
• To give the Clermont Auvergne higher education and research site a strong international dimension, through the influence of its activities, the attractiveness of its training and research centres, the mobility of students and researchers and the identification of a number of centres of excellence visible on a global scale.
• To promote the contribution of the academic world to the social, economic and cultural development of the territories on which it radiates and to strengthen the interface between the university and the socio-economic world in its diversity.

University of Clermont Auvergne is a public university of France. It has initiated sustainability research projects under the Global Development and Governance Initiative (IDGM), which is supported by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Laboratory of Excellence (LabEx) program. LabEx provides funding under the French government’s Investments in the Future initiative. More information