The SHAPE ENERGY Summer School - interdisciplinary debates with PhD researchers

The European Union (EU) funded Horizon 2020 ‘Social sciences and Humanities for Advancing Policy in European ENERGY’ (SHAPE ENERGY) project organised an international summer school for Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) working within energy-social sciences and humanities (energy-SSH). This multidisciplinary summer school – entitled ‘Advancing Energy Policy Summer School’ – focused on how energy-SSH research can contribute to tackling the many energy-related challenges in Europe. Key energy topics were discussed with an emphasis on interdisciplinarity and on the translation of academic research into policy and practice, including: • Global energy dilemmas; • Energy transition; • Public engagement and energy citizenship; • Consumption and social practices; • Energy poverty. Advanced researchers and practitioners involved in leading European energy projects were presenting their expertise and the role of energy-SSH research for policy and practice while the summer school was also an opportunity to meet and collaborate with other ESRs from a range of disciplines. Analysing the outputs of the summer school allowed us to draw attention to four recommendations, which could serve as points of reflection during the organisation of any future ESR and/or interdisciplinary SHAPE ENERGY activities: • Make more explicit/visible the ‘implicits’ of the various disciplines and, while proposing a workshop, consider more carefully the time needed by each discipline to produce a ‘rigorous’ outcome/output. • Pay attention to the fact that mainstream economic thinking innervates all disciplines. This element should be taken into greater consideration in prospective research as it influences the way the future is envisioned and closes alternative paths that could have been taken. • Better consider the cultural background of the participants when asking them to work together, or at least make more explicit not only the rules of the exercise but also the cultural implicit behind it. • Be sensitive to the gender and age of the participants, as these obviously play a role in how individuals express and put themselves forward. As it is crucial to devote time and resources, and to employ experts when implementing gender perspectives in research programmes and policy-making; more attention should be paid to this point as well as to how older researchers might influence the youngest

SHAPE ENERGY Reflexive Review of Interdisciplinary Working

This report presents these outcomes with regard to three overarching methodologies applied in SHAPEENERGY: (i) an academic literature review; (ii) a set of ethnographic observations of interdisciplinaryinteractions, and (iii) the method of ‘reference problems’ which brings together scholars around commonlyshared scientific problems. With the help of these methods, in this report we show that:1. Literature around collaborative research strategies in energy- and sustainability-related SSH(section 2) relates primarily to four types: (a) Multidisciplinarity research is characterised by gatheringknowledge from various disciplines; (b) Interdisciplinarity research contains a certain level of disciplinaryintegration which requires more extensive cooperation; (c) Transdisciplinary research seeks to abandondisciplinary thinking and create boundary-crossing theories; (d) Transformative science takes an activerole in initiating scientific change processes, focusing on joint learning of scientists and laypersons.What is missing is literature on how to translate these research varieties into academic practice, andthe relevance of collaboration practices in relation to expected outcomes. We recommend carefulconsideration of the specific research question(s) being considered to assess which integrativemeasure(s) may be appropriate.2. Ethnographic observation of participant interaction (section 3) took place during the SHAPE ENERGYsummer school, and 17 multi-stakeholder workshops. Analysis of this data leads us to severalconclusions regarding interdisciplinary working: (a) Working across disciplines requires clearobjectives on all sides, which also includes allowing sufficient time for each discipline to produce a‘rigorous’ and meaningful output; (b) Interdisciplinarity is paradoxical: it requires working to achievean efficient integration of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries, yet also maintaining disciplinarydepth of each individual contributor; (c) Inclusivity in interdisciplinary activities can be achievedthrough careful facilitation and design; (d) Interdisciplinary encounters in SHAPE ENERGY revealedthat cultural assumptions underpinning interdisciplinary exercises often remain unconsidered. Instead,these should be explicated.3. One way of pursuing interdisciplinary research is the application of ‘reference problems’ (section 4),such as in the SHAPE ENERGY Research Design Challenge (RDC) and the Think Piece Collection (TPC),which invited European scholars to work together on interdisciplinary essays. Reference problemsallowed authors writing on numerous energy SSH themes to come together around three scientificproblems, which we explicitly link to control, change and capacity-building in energy systems. Authorsacross the TPC and RDC addressed similar energy-related topics, although they partially related todifferent reference problems. Topics included: renewable energy development in local communitiesand society, reducing the social costs of the energy transition, and energy behaviour and decision-making.Researchers developed their collaborative designs through focusing on the underlying referenceproblem, and not their personal academic background. Based on these experiences, we recommend thesystematic use of this approach in the European SSH and STEM communities, as our evaluation showsit to promote problem-driven interdisciplinary research, prioritising the scientific problems behind theenergy transition instead of disciplinary preoccupations

Study of Optimized Coupling Based on Micro-lensed Fibers for Fibers and Photonic Integrated Circuits in the Framework of Telecommunications and Sensing Applications

International audienceWe demonstrate the interest of expanded beam microlenses (around 55 µm of mode field diameter) to relax positioning tolerances and to decrease reflectance in single mode fiber to fiber interconnections . We also point out the interest of micro-lenses of very small mode field diameter (around 2 µm) to improve coupling efficiency in specialty fibers and integrated waveguides for non linear effects based functions and for sensors applications at a wavelength of 1.55 µm

Micro-lensed fibers for coupling optimization in optical fibers and photonic integrated circuits

International audienceWe demonstrate the interest of expanded beam microlenses (around 55µm of mode field diameter) to relax positioning tolerances and to decrease reflectance in single mode fiber to fiber interconnexions. We also point out the interest of micro-lenses of very small mode field diameter (around 2 µm) to improve coupling efficiency in specialty fibers and integrated waveguides for non linear effects based functions and for sensors applications at a wavelength of 1.55 µm

A Novel 8-Predictors Signature to Predict Complicated Disease Course in Pediatric-onset Crohn’s Disease: A Population-based Study

International audienceBackground The identification of patients at high risk of a disabling disease course would be invaluable in guiding initial therapy in Crohn’s disease (CD). Our objective was to evaluate a combination of clinical, serological, and genetic factors to predict complicated disease course in pediatric-onset CD. Methods Data for pediatric-onset CD patients, diagnosed before 17 years of age between 1988 and 2004 and followed more than 5 years, were extracted from the population-based EPIMAD registry. The main outcome was defined by the occurrence of complicated behavior (stricturing or penetrating) and/or intestinal resection within the 5 years following diagnosis. Lasso logistic regression models were used to build a predictive model based on clinical data at diagnosis, serological data (ASCA, pANCA, anti-OmpC, anti-Cbir1, anti-Fla2, anti-Flax), and 369 candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms. Results In total, 156 children with an inflammatory (B1) disease at diagnosis were included. Among them, 35% (n = 54) progressed to a complicated behavior or an intestinal resection within the 5 years following diagnosis. The best predictive model (PREDICT-EPIMAD) included the location at diagnosis, pANCA, and 6 single nucleotide polymorphisms. This model showed good discrimination and good calibration, with an area under the curve of 0.80 after correction for optimism bias (sensitivity, 79%, specificity, 74%, positive predictive value, 61%, negative predictive value, 87%). Decision curve analysis confirmed the clinical utility of the model. Conclusions A combination of clinical, serotypic, and genotypic variables can predict disease progression in this population-based pediatric-onset CD cohort. Independent validation is needed before it can be used in clinical practice