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Véhicule Innovants d'Avenir

Final Report Summary - VIA (Vehicule Innovants d'Avenir)

The objective of the VIA project as aimed by Vidéoscop Université Nancy 2 and the SAM Université Paul Verlaine was to produce and to promote a documentary fiction broadcast of 52 minutes entitled for the moment 'Move along, there is everything to see', which presented the European science towards young audience through the involvement of European laboratories working in concrete and innovative projects around the issue of new modes of transport in the cities in the future with future vehicles. With the project VIA, Vidéoscop and SAM show the human adventure of a science working in the middle of the society, listening to the concerns of the citizens, but before all a science which dreams and makes us dreaming.

The VIA project allows:
- to present crucial stakes of the society of the future and to intensify the dialogue science / society;
- to answer concrete questions: energy, town planning, safety, demographic growth, sustainable urban development, health, human / machine interface, speed;
- to put the young people in situation of research starting from an attractive topic;
- to set out the European cooperation via laboratories working together as a network.

The objective of this production was to make a film that reconciles science and society on the one hand and that the film was not shown on major public media on the other. This film asks a question today which is not brought to the screen but for many professionals: what is the share of utopia in our lives, our work projects and more in research?

The VIA project has allowed the production of a documentary entitled 'And if our cities could fly…'. According to the initial project the film is a science documentary of 52 minutes broadcasted on a terrestrial channel.

Actually, there are three versions:
- a documentary of 52' entitled 'Et si nos villes avaient des ailes ?', French version;
- a documentary of 52' entitled 'If our cities could fly… ', English version;
- an international version.

The production of the film leans on five main steps:
- the management
- the development
- the production and postproduction
- the dissemination and the distribution.
Each phase was associated with one or more partners in the field.

Overall responsibility has been defined as the following description:
- general management: Vidéoscop Université Nancy 2;
- associate producer: Ere Production;
- synopsis: SAM Université Paul Verlaine and the director Jean-Baptiste Mathieu;
- scientific advisor: Michel Parent - INRIA;
- distribution: ICTV;
- dissemination by Internet: ATIT.

in order to give to the film a life after the TV broadcast and in conformity with the initial project it was chosen with ATIT to broadcast of both films on the Internet via dedicated websites. This technical possibility was not planned in the original draft but given the evolution of Internet practices it seemed essential to use the media to enable effective dissemination and pedagogical use.

The websites that contain the films are found at http://www.si-nos-villes-avaient-des-ailes.com and http://www.if.our.cities.could.fly.com online.

VIA is expected to help improve science education, to encourage the scientific careers and to reconcile science and society in the future by:
- presenting a science at work at the heart of the company, mindful of concerns and interests of citizens, listening to social change, a research service of human beings;
- fostering awareness of the diversity of jobs and careers in science ranging from the researcher to the engineer through the technician;
- fostering to the scientific approach which is based on hypotheses and on field experiences, on the desire and the pleasure of finding: a utopian science which is dreaming and makes dreams;
- presenting science as a human adventure made of doubts, dreams, discoveries and exchanges with civil society, policymakers, the business world, collaboration with other researchers to end the image of the lone researcher in his laboratory.