In the course of a review carried out in late 2012 and a meeting of the Scientific Committee, and following the organisation of LABEX’s first international conference in January 2013 and at the "LABEX WEEK 2015" and "LABEX WEEK 2015" events. LABEX WEEK 2017 " it was decided that these groups should become a key component in the governance of LABEX Urban Futures.

From the outset, they were designed as structures capable of hosting post-doctoral students recruited by LABEX and PhD students vetted in the course of processes for allocating PhD contracts, forging links with the international community, particularly by organising international bilateral seminars, etc. These initiatives make it possible to leverage research more effectively and they boost cross-fertilisation between different initiatives.

The transversal groups are also forums for accumulating scientific knowledge and they forge links between different LABEX programmes by using the different operations to delve deeper into the same scientific fields.

Fourteen transversal research groups have emerged since 2011. To find out more