Call for proposals: Eco-design

Deadline for applications: 5 May 2026 at 12:00 noon

Following on from the forward-looking Ecodesign symposium held on 20 and 21 January 2026, the CNRS is launching a call for projects on the theme of ecodesign, jointly supported by the Mission for Cross-disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Initiatives (MITI) and the Directorate for Relations with Businesses (DRE), in order to foster new research dynamics within the CNRS scientific communities, in collaboration with industry, eco-organisations, public institutions and local stakeholders.

The MITI aims to promote, facilitate and coordinate interdisciplinarity at the CNRS, in particular interaction between its ten institutes. The DRE aims to develop and strengthen research collaborations between players in industrial and economic sectors and laboratories under the supervision of the CNRS.

Expected projects

This call for proposals seeks innovative research projects that address eco-design from the perspective of new scientific, legal, and economic tools, methods, protocols, models, resources, or concepts. These projects must be interdisciplinary and create or strengthen collaborations between different disciplines, between research laboratories, or between research laboratories and economic actors.

Projects may, for example, focus on:

• approaches incorporating life cycle assessment (LCA) and its limitations, taking into account the various risks, toxicity, health sustainability, recyclability,
• and social or geopolitical dimensions associated with resources, their extraction, processing, and recycling.

These projects are intended to explore disruptive avenues, particularly in terms of processes (circularity), materials, bio-inspiration, nature-based solutions, reuse of critical resources, design of algorithms, digital architectures and infrastructures, mathematical and digital models, usage models, or design approaches. Solutions that are “Safe and Sustainable by Design,” consistent with regulatory developments and societal expectations, are fully within the scope of this call. Projects are encouraged to consider the total impact of their environmental footprint.

Submitting applications

To submit an application, please log in to the NOA application: https://noa.cnrs.fr/. You will be asked to log in via the RENATER “identity federation” (JANUS codes for CNRS unit staff) and you will be able to select the “Ecoconception2026” call from the list of calls. If you are a CNRS unit staff member, please use your institutional email address linked to JANUS so that certain fields (information about you or your laboratory and those of your partners). If you are not a CNRS unit agent, you can register via your institution’s identity federation with RENATER. If this is not possible, we invite you to open a local account.

Contact: raphael.thon@cnrs.fr