Interfaces
What is the exposome?
The exposome refers to the sum of an individual’s lifetime exposures to environmental and social factors that influence an individual’s health, as well as the onset, progression, and severity of infectious and noncommunicable diseases in humans. In this sense, the exposome is the environmental counterpart to the genome.
Thus, research on the exposome can just as easily focus on environmental pollution, water, air, or soil quality, vector-borne diseases, access to healthcare, patterns of settlement, health inequalities, public health policies, and so on.
Introduction to the Interfaces Research Area and the Team
The Interfaces program at the ExposUM Institute aims to foster a culture of promoting research outcomes at the intersection of science and society.
Thus, at the academic level, the Interfaces research area aims to strengthen a broad interdisciplinary approach centered on the exposome by fostering opportunities for dialogue between the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, geography, etc.), medical and environmental sciences, engineering sciences, and so on.
In addition, the Interfaces initiative aims to strengthen collaboration between researchers in the academic community in Occitanie, civil society (associations, NGOs, producer groups, patient associations, SCOOP) and public stakeholders (ARS, elected officials and staff of the metropolitan area, the Occitanie region, and local authorities) through transdisciplinary initiatives, by identifying and supporting synergies with other health/environment initiatives involving academic, public, and civil society actors.
The Interfaces research group grounds its work in regional approaches, fostering new collaborations between public and academic stakeholders while engaging civil society—for example, by creating new platforms for interaction between science and policy-making and by translating societal demands into research priorities.
The Interfaces research group is based at the Maison des Sciences des Humanités SUD (MSH SUD, CNRS-UM-UPVM Research and Support Unit 2035) and draws on its resources, including general services and administration, the Image Center, the Science and Society Platform, and others.
The activities carried out under the Interfaces research area are conducted in close collaboration with stakeholders involved in the Occitanie Region’s RIVOC Key Challenge, particularly through the V2MOC project, which aims to better understand vector-borne infectious risks in the context of urban greening in the metropolitan areas of Montpellier and Toulouse, in collaboration with the Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions (MAK’IT) at the University of Montpellier and with the Impact of Research in the South (ImpresS) team at CIRAD, as well as other research teams.
The team
The Interfaces research area is overseen by Aurélie Binot *, science-society liaison at CIRAD and a member of the ExposUM Executive Committee.
Tiphaine Lefebvre, Project Assistant for the Exposum Interface Pillar, was hired by the DPS and has been based at MSH SUD since September 2023.
Mariline Poupaud, Scientific Support Officer, was hired by the DPS and has been based at MSH SUD since January 2024.
Finally, to support the team in its efforts to mentor and facilitate the cohort of winning ExposUM project leaders, Alexandre Guichardaz, a consultant in collaborative engagement, works with the team for 20% of his working hours. Gilles Sarter, an independent sociologist, assists the team with sociological research.
* Aurélie Binot, who has joined MSH SUD as deputy director, is responsible for coordinating Research Area 2, “Science-Society Interfaces,” at the ExposUM Institute and serves on the ExposUM Executive Committee; she has been appointed to these roles in her capacity as a CIRAD researcher recognized in this field. Within the framework of this research area 2, the UM can draw on the action research programs of MSH SUD and the staff assigned to them, allowing this UAR to carry out initiatives on behalf of the ExposUM Institute.
Activities conducted under the "Interfaces" research area
The activities of the Interfaces research area can be organized into four main areas:
- Support for the cohort of project leaders funded by the ExposUM Institute
- Promotion of interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary initiatives arising from projects related to the exposome
- Facilitating an ongoing seminar to foster interdisciplinary discussion on the exposome
- Support for interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary regional initiatives in the Occitanie region
1. Support for the ExposUM project leaders cohort
The Interfaces initiative supports teams working on projects funded by ExposUM to promote—if deemed appropriate by the project leaders—interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary processes within the projects, as well as to foster collaboration among project teams. This support is offered to all successful teams that wish to participate. In 2023, this represents 14 potential teams (7 research projects, 5 doctoral nexuses, 2 fellowships), to which will be added the winning teams from subsequent years.
Learn more about community engagement…
A variety of workshops and meetings are offered on a range of topics:
- Theme 1: Building Community
- Theme 2: Sharing research methodologies and approaches in Global Health, One Health, and Environmental Health
- Theme 3: Developing Skills in Interdisciplinary Practice
- Theme 4: Strengthening the science-policy-society nexus within projects
Various types of presentations are available:
2. Support for interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary initiatives
Call for Expressions of Interest – 2026 Sessions
To promote transdisciplinary projects with a local impact and foster networking among researchers and civil society actors, the ExposUM Institute is offering a new support program for research teams within the I-Site community and their partner organizations, designed to highlight their research on topics related to the exposome, environmental health, or global health as they pertain to regional issues at the science-society interface.
Events must include at least oneoutreach activity(such as a lecture, event, or screening of a film or documentary) to highlight the initiative at the science-society interface and facilitate thesharing oftransdisciplinaryexperiencesacross the I-SITE.
This call for expressions of interest, titled “Science/Society Interactions,” supports action research initiatives that strengthen collaborations between I-SITE members and civil society (local and regional authorities, associations and cooperatives, citizen groups, and government agencies such as the ARS, etc.). This support is intended to bolster and promote transdisciplinary action research initiatives in the design phase (funding exploratory activities to enable a future action research project), in progress (funding for internships, surveys, and dissemination events), or completed (promotion of the initiative).
The supported events will include at least one outreach activity to highlight the transdisciplinary initiative and a session to share experiences regarding the drivers and barriers to transdisciplinarity at the I-SITE level.
After clicking on the link, click on the drop-down banner titled “Call for Expressions of Interest – 2026 Campaign: ‘Science-Society Interactions’”
3. Ongoing Seminar
The overall goal of the ongoing seminar is to foster the emergence of new research questions at the intersection of health and the environment, by providing tools for approaching interdisciplinarity and reflecting on the links between research and society. Through monthly sessions featuring researchers from diverse backgrounds, the aim is to bring together a research community focused on the concept of the exposome and health-environment issues, and to stimulate reflection on the practice of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.
The presentations scheduled for this seminar will help stimulate participants’ thinking along three main lines:
- TheConcept of Environment: These sessions will focus in particular on the contrast between a “pathogenic” view of the environment as a reservoir of pathogens and a “salutogenic” view, in which the environment is understood in terms of socio-ecological functions that help regulate the emergence of pathogens.
- TheLimits of the Ambition for Integration: These sessions will examine the proposed approaches to interdisciplinarity that integrate biological, social, and environmental factors, as well as ways of reconciling different epistemological and methodological frameworks
- Interaction between research, policy, and social actors: These sessions will explore the potential impacts of exposome research on civil society actors and the possibilities for incorporating their requests and proposals into a process of mutual translation between non-academic and academic actors.
Upcoming sessions of the ongoing seminar
If you would like to be notified of upcoming sessions of the ongoing seminar, please send an email toMariline PoupaudorTiphaine Lefebvreto be added to ourmailing list.
Past sessions of the ongoing seminar
Previous sessions were recorded and areavailable on this page
4. Local Initiatives: Public Policies and Stakeholders
Connection to the Montpellier Metropolitan Area
The Interfaces team participates in the “Health Ecology” working group of the Montpellier Observatory on Health Ecology and Evolution, an initiative launched by the Montpellier Metropolitan Area and the City of Montpellier. This working group also brings together numerous research institutes, a hospital, and public agencies. The Interfaces team is particularly involved in Working Group No. 3, which focuses on monitoring and evaluating the impacts (using the “impact pathways” methodology) of new forms of governance and collaboration between scientists and the public sector on health-environment issues.
Link to the PRSE4
The Interfaces division works closely with the leaders oftheOccitanieRegional Health and Environment Plan 4(led by the Occitanie Regional Health Agency (ARS) and the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning, and Housing (DREAL)) to ensure synergy in our efforts.
In addition, the ExposUM Institute participates in meetings organized by the regional One Health network, led by the Occitanie Regional Health Agency and the Occitanie Regional Biodiversity Agency
5. Local Initiatives: SCHOOLS-REGION
2026
In 2026, the ExposUM Institute will partner with the One Health Regional School, which will be organized by the University of Liège in Liège from June 1 to 6, 2026
2025
The ExposUM Institute, in collaboration with the Center for Land Policy, organized the fifth edition of the experimental educational program “Campus Anthropocène/Spring School:Healthy Territories”from March 31 to April 4, 2025.
About 60 researchers and representatives of civil society (elected officials, technical staff, students, organizations, and artists) worked together in the Montpellier area to examine the livability of the region. How can people live healthy lives in this region given the challenges of urban expansion and environmental preservation in the context of climate change and pressure on local resources (water, air, soil)?
As part of this program, we explored the question: How can we live healthy lives in the Anthropocene in the Montpellier area?
And, more specifically, to focus on issues related to:
- water and rivers(water resources, water quality),
- nature-based solutions to address climate change and related vector-borne risks(greening to combat urban heat islands, tiger mosquitoes, and infectious diseases, etc.)
- relationships between humans and non-humans(wild animals and invasive alien species, and associated health risks) within a One Health framework.
Click here to learn more about this school district
Download the full report on the Montpellier 2025 Regional Development Plan
6. Regional Initiatives: Support for Science-Society Projects
Support for two regional initiatives in 2024
Mobi’Tiques Action Research Project on the Prevention of Tick-Borne Diseases
ExposUM supports the Mobitique project. The Interfaces team organized, hosted, and facilitated five 3-hour workshops bringing together researchers in tick ecology (Vectopôle Sud), researchers in the humanities and social sciences (education, social psychology), representatives from the ARS (vector control), associations (CTIQUE, Graine Occitanie), and a representative of livestock farmers (director of the Groupement de Défense Sanitaire Occitanie). This pilot project is designed in line with the objectives of Occitanie’s Regional Health and Environment Plan 4.
This incubation process led to an action plan for 2025, spearheaded by the environmental education association Le Graine. This project aims to develop and implement educational initiatives designed to increase citizen engagement regarding tick-related risks in their local communities, as well as to test one or more scientific research questions in the field of sociology. The goal is to foster growing citizen engagement while scientifically measuring and evaluating the impact of public awareness campaigns on behavioral changes through a dedicated research protocol.
The initiative on citizen-led pollution awareness institutes: support for the Aude Institute
The Eco-Citizen Institute for Pollution Monitoring in the Aude received support from ExposUM in 2024. This institute was inspired by the Ecocitoyen Institute for Pollution Research in Fos-sur-Mer, which, since the 2010s, has brought together academics and local residents working together to conduct research addressing questions about the long-term consequences of rapid industrialization that began in the late 1960s and has been regularly revived. These institutes promote the integration of knowledge, particularly in the field of environmental health, and serve as regional initiatives capable of fostering the implementation of preventive measures in environmental health, within the framework of transforming regional dynamics.
Social science training courses have been offered to volunteers in the Aude department. The courses areavailable online.
A festival was held in November 2024 to help residents of the Aude region learn about the critical environmental health issues in the area in a fun and engaging way. The festival brought together experts, activists, scientists, and artists to offer a rich and informative experience.
Support for two regional initiatives for the year 2025
Two projects have received funding from ExposUM for the year 2025
The Rivière project, titled “Infectious Risks in Urban Areas: Applied Health Ecology of Interactions Between Nutrias and Humans,” studies human-nutria interactions in the Lez River basin and focuses on the health risks associated with leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease transmitted by these rodents. The project employs an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to assess these risks.
The Vaxinter projectexplores how to integrate different disciplines to address the questions raised by vaccination at the intersection of science and society. This project involves two researchers in the humanities and social sciences to foster dialogue between the biomedical sciences and the humanities and social sciences. A study will be conducted in experimental economics to explore the impact of media coverage and vaccination on healthcare workers. Research will be carried out in communication sciences to strengthen the ties between science and the public.
7. Mediation Efforts
The Interfaces team participates in and organizes public events such as the Science Festival, the Nature Festival, and science outreach festivals.
