Professor of Political Science, Sciences Po Grenoble–UGA Director
Sciences Po Grenoble
Simon Persico
Simon Persico is a Professor of Political Science and Director of Sciences Po Grenoble–UGA, affiliated with the Pacte laboratory. He co-founded the Master's Program in Ecological Transitions. His research focuses on the transformation of party systems in Western Europe, the impact of parties on public policies, the fulfillment of electoral promises, and the evolution of political ecology in party competition, public opinion, and social movements.
Caroline Schlenker is in charge of the involvement of migrant inhabitants in the participatory democracy work at Grenoble Alpes Métropole for the Citizen Participation department. This includes the coordination and facilitation of the AGORA, which is a participatory panel of refugees and newly arrived migrants, and the implementation of policy labs in order to co design local integration strategies. With a PhD in Theater and English Studies and a background in translating, conference interpretation and teaching communication techniques through acting at the university, Caroline Schlenker is passionate about experimenting methods to enhance communication and opening up new spaces for inhabitants’ engagement and agency to help further vitalize our democracies.
Julie is an intern at Grenoble Alpes Métropole's Citizen Participation Department for a few months. She is helping to organise the logistics of the Climate Democracy Lab. She is also helping the Conseil de Développement (Development citizen Council), a long-term public participation body, with its work. Julie is in her final year of a Masters in Ecological Transition at the Institute of Political Studies in Grenoble and is passionate about both climate change and democracy.
After studying at Sciences Po Paris, Delphine worked for 20 years within NGOs, both in international solidarity (with Colombia) and at Monde Pluriel, an association she co-founded in 2006. The association has raised awareness among thousands of young people across Europe on climate issues and organized several European youth meetings in Brussels and Lisbon on ecological transition.
In 2022, she joined the Grenoble European Green Capital team within the City of Grenoble as Project Manager for Youth and Ecological Transition. She then organized several meetings between high school students and Indigenous leaders from Latin American communities.
In 2025, she founded the association NaturaMundis to "explore our connections to the living world" and work, both locally and internationally, on the voices and paths of nature.
Alisa is a seasoned expert in participatory democracy, citizen engagement, and strategic governance, with over a decade of experience in supporting cities across Europe in enhancing democratic processes. As a validated URBACT lead expert and trainer for the Council of Europe’s Leadership Academy Programme, she has guided municipalities in designing Integrated Action Plans, multi-stakeholder engagement strategies, and participatory budgeting initiatives. With a background in public administration and project management, Alisa brings a hands-on approach to fostering inclusive decision-making.
Currently managing capacity-building activities for the Nets4Dem project at Coglobal and People Powered, she is dedicated to strengthening democratic innovation across Europe.
Myriam Ouddou supports public and non-profit organizations in the co-design and implementation of transformation projects through participatory and democratic approaches. She intervenes at all stages of the process, from diagnosing needs and identifying the root causes of issues to developing strategies and innovative projects, all the way to their experimentation and implementation in the field. To this end, she designs tailored workshops that foster stakeholder collaboration in the search for concrete and transformative solutions. Since 2021, she has been exploring practical and sensitive methods to integrate the needs and interests of non-human living beings into public policies and organizations. She co-founded the association Le Lichen and co-designed the "Concertation with the Living" method. Myriam is also a member of the cooperative Oxalis.
Sahib is a researcher and practitioner focused on just democratic futures, global governance, and systemic approaches to democratic innovation. With a background in international law and political economy, he has worked on issues of structural injustice through advocacy, practice, teaching, and writing. Before joining Demos Helsinki, he taught and conducted research at the Universities of Cambridge, Helsinki, and Tilburg and worked on international human rights cases, advising UN entities and representing states before international tribunals.
At Demos Helsinki, Sahib leads work on democratic futures, drawing on radical egalitarianism and structural transformation. Passionate about fostering critical and strategic thinking in governance, he explores new modes of alliance-building for a more just world.
Zoë leads the participatory climate democracy work at People Powered, a global hub for participatory democracy. This includes the Climate Democracy Accelerator, which supports civil society and government to design together plans for climate action. Her background is in participatory policy research and co-design on climate initiatives both in the UK and internationally working with a range of public bodies on programmes from multi-stakeholder engagement on policy design to climate assemblies. Zoë is excited to share the tools of participatory democracy to increase accessibility of decision-making on how we navigate the climate emergency.
Head of the Citizen Participation Department, Facilitator
Grenoble Alpes Metropole
Céline Bernigaud
I coordinate the citizen democracy team in Grenoble Alpes Metropole. Our team of 10 colleagues works on creating good conditions for a dialogue between citizens and our institution, to build efficient, fair and transparent policies. Before that, I worked 15 years for a french NGO on development issues and unformal education. Climate justice if for me the main issue of climate democracy : I believe in dialogue and networks to build solutions !
Fiona Ottaviani is Associate Professor in Economics. She has completed a double curriculum in Economics and Philosophy at the University of Grenoble Alpes. Her research focuses on the conception and implementation of indicators, on the assessment (social impact/utility) and on the very goals of development (wellbeing, sustainability, common good, economic peace). She has been involved in the IBEST project (“indicateurs de bien-être soutenable” in French), which focuses on the construction of sustainable territorial social indicators in the Grenoble urban area. Her research contributes to the fields of ecological economics, regional sciences, epistemological foundations of economics, and sustainability.
Mariam serves as the Project Manager for Climaborough. Before joining Grenoble Alpes Metropole, she held diverse project management positions in developing countries. She conducted Cost-Benefit Analyses (CBA) for the United Nations in Nepal and assisted a microfinance institute in expanding its operations in rural Ghana. Most recently, she has been involved in overseeing renovation and auto consumption projects at Lancey Energy Storage, a startup specializing in the field of energy transition.
Annabelle is a policy evaluation officer at the Grenoble Alpes Métropole. She has held this position for 11 years. This year she is working on the evaluation of several subjects related to urban planning, in particular, the evaluation of the local inter-communal urban plan and the evaluation of several projects for the renovation of the heart of cities and villages. She also have experience in the facilitation of a participatory body. She also has experience in the animation of participatory bodies. When she arrived at the Metropole she was in the citizen participation team and she was in charge of leading user committees of various public services (water, waste, energy, etc.).
My job consists of organizing reporting instances at the executive management level (called management dialogues) to account for the achievement of the objectives set by the organization: both those specific to individual departments and those collectively carried by all departments. This work requires supporting departments in the preparation of activity reports (particularly regarding indicators) and prioritization, as well as implementing management tools such as the SID portal (Decision Support System) or risk mapping. My job also involves facilitating groups of stakeholders to bring to life the orientations issued from these instances (in connection with auditing, evaluation, etc.). I've worked with the climate democracy convention in Grenoble Alpes Métropole (CCC) to help citizens to organize their reporting method and instances with the executive and political management level.
Marine Fabre works in the citizen participation department on climate issues in Grenoble Alpes Métropole. She worked on the citizen convention for the climate and now on implementing the proposals and monitoring the commitments. She is also working on a follow-up to one of the convention's actions, namely leading debates for the climate. The first was on food and this year's second will focus on adaptation issues.
My job is to involve citizens in Grenoble Alpes Métropole's urban projects. I'm convinced that to build a great project, you need a whole range of expertise: that of scientists, technicians and local users. It's this expertise that we're seeking to highlight through our systems.
Graduate of the Institute of Urban Planning and Alpine Geography of Grenoble, Maud Schoendoerffer is member of the "city-making" team in the participation department. She is specialize in the design, organization, and facilitation of programs that involve residents and stakeholders in the development of urban planning, public space, and urban planning projects.
From Saint-Etienne to Grenoble by Brussels, Mathilde has always been striving to bring the voices of the inhabitants and users of public spaces to the attention of the institutions that make the decisions.
She’s been working in a non-profit organization for several years and joined the city and now metropolitan institution 4 years ago.Now, she specializes in engaging the inhabitants of disadvantaged neighbourhoods in helping design future urban plans.
Ylva Bråsjö, working for the Climate Department of Grenoble Alpes Metropole on the European project "100 climate neutral and smart cities". Mountain lover with a background in urban and territorial planning and experience from multiple European city administrations.
Cléa Loiseau, working for the Climate department of Grenoble Alpes Métropole, dedicated to mobilizing community climate ambassadors. Passionate about mobilizing collective intelligence and diverse perspectives to drive sustainable change.
Graduate of the Institute of Political Studies in Grenoble, Bastien DALMASSO leads the "city-making" team in the participation department. He is specialize in the design, organization, and facilitation of programs that involve residents and stakeholders in the development of urban planning, public space, and urban planning projects. He also lead several participatory experiments (participatory artistic approaches, temporary or transitional occupation projects, etc.)
Clément Frossard is in charge of prospective at Grenoble-Alpes Métropole. He leads prospective studies and coordinates research programs and projects in which the Metropole is involved. These projects address issues such as climate and social change, water resources and urban development.