Research and impact

• In January 2020, Dr G. Bagnarosa was invited by the Economic Affairs Commission of the French Senate as an expert in the context of the study “Crop Insurance and Agricultural Disasters”. The Senator Laurent Duplomb integrated 4 specific points of his contribution (§4 and 6 of the press release) in the final version of the reform which was adopted in 2022 (Law n° 2022-298, 2 March 2022 published in the JO n° 52, 3 march 2022).
• Dr Y Loheac from the Agribusiness research center is a member of the experts committees of the National Food and Nutrition Program jointly set up by the French Ministry of Health and the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and of the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety.
• The Agribusiness center is member of the FIR (Forum for Responsible Investment) which is a French think tank gathering banks and insurance companies about climate change mitigation and adaptation. As a member of the FIR research committee, the Center is participating to the think tank reflection regarding the Agribusiness transition towards more sustainable models. The FIR is member of the Plateforme RSE created by the French Prime Minister in 2013.
• Two Faculty members from the FMCO research center represent France in the Steering Committee of the project COST Action CA19130 from the EU (Horizon 2020). They were appointed by the French government Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation as the French leaders for an EU COST Action on FinTech and AI in May 2020.
• Professor C. Azémar made a contribution to the tax policy debate in the USA over the adoption of the pro-growth tax plan “Tax Cuts and Job Acts”. She was as well a visiting researcher at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF, the Asian Development Bank, and a consultant for the UN and the European Tax Policy Forum
• Dr. C. Alexakis is a member of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group which provides advice to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) since 2016 and was the Representative of the Governor of the Central Bank of Greece in the Selection Panel of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund between 2017 and 2020.
• Dr. Y. Duzert’s research with Dr. F. Zerunyan (Professor of Practice/Director of Executive Education at University of Southern California) led to the publication of a book, Newgotiation for Public Administration Professionals. It raised the attention of Raquel Dodge, Brazil’s Attorney General, to train Brazil’s prosecutors and judges negotiating collaborative governance for the worst environmental and social crisis in Brazil history (the Dam Disasters of Brumadinho and Mariana). The success of this initiative led to an invitation by the President of Brazil’s Supreme Court and from the National Council of Justice to develop capacity building in Goias related to water management (cf. Goias Court of Justice and Goias School of Prosecutors). The Laboratory of Innovation and Intelligence of the National Council of Justice invited Dr Duzert to publish a book with a counselor Maria Tereza Uille and to hold an online webinar open to the 200,000 civil workers of the Ministry of Justice of Brazil on June 2, 2020.

• Rennes SB researchers present their research and discuss in round tables with companies at the annual Brittany Economic Forum organized in Saint Malo every year and gathering all the economic stakeholders of the region.
• They participate as well in various professional organisations: Bretagne Supply Chain (local Cluster for Supply Chain stakeholders), the Poool (French Tech), ABEA (Agribusiness stakeholders’ professional association) and Bretagne Development Innovation. They are members of competitive clusters (Valorial, ID4Mobility, Images & Réseaux) linking academia to companies and decision makers.
• The Agribusiness center is member of competitive clusters with whom it designed Executive education certificates such as the Certificate on the Management of the Food Transition, with the Agro-Institute (one of the main French universities in agricultural science) and Valorial (320 members, one of the largest agri-food competitiveness cluster in Europe and leading food-processing competitive cluster in France, with a community of more than 4,000 innovators focusing on smarter food); and the Certificate on the Risk Management in Agri-business, with the ESA (Agricultural sciences school of Angers) and ABEA (about 200 members, most important cluster for food-processing in Brittany).
• Linconiaa (“restore the link between consumers and agribusiness companies”) is a 3-year research project developed with an agri-food start up and a major agribusiness company in Brittany; it received a 100,000 € grant from the Brittany Region in September 2021.
• The Agribusiness center received 5 CIFRE contracts since 2020. The CIFRE is a contract that allows a student to pursue a PhD within a specific company, supported by the ANRT; they contributed to the development of new business models with the region’s multinational food groups (Eureden, Avril, Saipol, NORAC and FIT).
• Dr. G Bagnarosa worked with four of his Master students through several internships in the group Roullier. They have implemented a risk management tool to measure the group exposure to the climate uncertainty.
• Dr G. Bagnarosa was also invited by TVR (the Brittany TV) to talk about the risk management in agribusiness for a documentary on the SPACE (one of the largest international exhibitions for agriculture professionals).
• Dr. Sheila Matson’s research was featured in news articles in professional magazines that are widely read by hotel and restaurant managers in France. The articles provided guidelines for professionals in ensuring a more meaningful experience in restaurants for tourists, particularly international tourists. An article in Ouest-France provided insights into new food consumption trends. As Ouest-France is the most widely read newspapers in France, it is likely that this will provide insights that will inform practices of local food providers.
• The G3D research center developed training program for companies:

– contract with the company bioMérieux (global leader in in vitro diagnostics) for training sessions on production planning for four different groups of managers); and
– contract with Ferrero, to training sessions for their cadres on supply chain management and analytics in 2021.

• The RTO research center organized and delivered (jointly with Imperial College London and Stockholm School of Economics) an Executive Development Workshop, “Leading a Data-Driven Sports World” in 2020 in Stockholm that was organized jointly with the Center for Sports & Business. The workshop was attended by 25+ executives from Swedish Elite Football (the Swedish football league) and five Swedish major league football teams.
• The AI business driven research center established its Regional Observatory for AI and Data Science as our industry-centric observatory, where the focus is on contact with industry and building industry-relevant research. The goal of the AI Observatory is to develop research in collaboration with industry and governmental bodies with a focus on industry development.
• A major agreement of the AI Observatory was signed with Bretagne Développement et Innovation for three years to conduct regional surveys of AI capabilities of Brittany firms: the first survey was organized in 2020 toward regional enterprises on the AI adoption enablers and obstacles; its final report was issued in 2021 supporting a matching tool between suppliers and users of AI solutions in Brittany.

The Research Department is targeting a wide range of audiences (academics, students, alumni, corporations), via multiple channels, for the dissemination of its research output:

• Rennes SB is posting eligible publications of its Faculty on CCSD – HAL which is the platform for scientific documentation created by the CNRS and freely accessible by all.
• In 2021 Rennes SB launched a series of public conferences open to the general public as an essential component of the CUT in order to raise local visibility and disseminate knowledge in the city and neighbourhoods. They are typically organised outside the RSB and partners’ campuses. In 2022-2023, 2 were organised in Rennes and 1 in Paris with 3 or 4 speakers bringing together an average of 50 participants on a variety of subjects (inflation, China, mobility, energy).
• During the Rennes SB summit of October 2023, 2 public conferences were organised, the first one on Sustainability in Brittany and the second one on Global warming and sustainable agriculture.
• The Research Centres members publish as well professional and general public articles in regional, national and international newspapers, TV or radio broadcast.

Find out more about our research, the latest publications and recent events.