Introducing the GAEL Lab

GAEL's research focuses on sustainable innovation and consumption, particularly in the energy and agro-industrial sectors. The laboratory's key methodologies are micro-economic modeling (industrial economics, behavioral economics), experimental economics, econometrics, modeling applied to certain sectors such as energy, and qualitative analysis based on case studies.

Research is organized along three lines:

• Consumption: using experimental analysis in particular, the aim is to analyze the determinants of consumption behavior and the ability of different public policies to modify this behavior.

• Energy: the aim here is to understand and model economic equilibria in energy sectors and markets, understand international institutional developments and assess the impact of energy and climate policies in order to meet the challenges of sustainable development.

• Innovation: research aims to understand and model the strategies of players in different innovative industries, and to analyze and assess the impact of different innovation policies at regional, national and European levels.

The GAEL unit was created in 2003 on the basis of a merger between an INRA research laboratory and a university experimental economics team. In 2016, the EDDEN research team (CNRS-University) joined the laboratory, leading to the expansion of its research into energy economics. Grenoble INP, which has long been associated with these research teams, became the laboratory's supervisory body in 2016, alongside CNRS, INRA and UGA. GAEL has a staff of 70, including 40 researchers, teacher-researchers and engineers, 10 research support staff and 20 PhD students and contract researchers.

GAEL's research is funded mainly by the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, the French National Research Agency and the European Union. Much of this research is multi-disciplinary, involving researchers in the engineering sciences (electrical systems, materials, etc.), nutritionists, agronomists, geneticists and ecologists.