Chaire UX for Smart Life : Home & Mobility - IMREDD

What Chaire UX for Smart Life : Home & Mobility - IMREDD does

The Chaire UX for Smart Life: Home & Mobility is an academic research chair hosted by IMREDD at Université Côte d'Azur in Nice, France, founded in 2021 and carried by the Fondation Université Côte d'Azur. It functions as a collaborative research platform that unites industrial mécènes, academic laboratories, and healthcare institutions around the design of user-centered innovations for tomorrow's habitat. Its core offering is the Living Lab "Lab Smart Life: Home & Mobility," an open digital architecture that interconnects three domains — smart home, vehicles, and infrastructure — and is supported by a 1,400 m² facility equipped with approximately 100 items spanning additive manufacturing, 3D digitization, energy solutions, electric and autonomous mobility, and numerical simulation.

Around this Living Lab, the chair sustains approximately 20 active R&D projects organized along five research axes — Adaptable, Durable, Vigilant, Aimable (acceptable), and Assistant. Project areas include indoor air quality control, energy communities, 3D food printing for people with dysphagia, smart home interfaces, adaptive housing for remote work, autonomous delivery for elderly populations, and AI-based health-risk behavior detection. Technology integration is enabled through partner platforms, including a software composition and adaptation platform from the i3S SPARKS team for ambient intelligent services and BOWL no-code UI software from Epicnpoc for mobility and cockpit interface prototyping.

The organization operates as a non-commercial academic structure with a seven-person core team. Revenue mechanics rely on recurring patron/membership contributions from industrial partners (Leroy Merlin, Steelcase, Epicnpoc, Videtics, Ludotic, Ellipse) complemented by academic funding through Université Côte d'Azur and CNRS-associated laboratories. The chair does not publish pricing or revenue figures, and its geographic focus remains the Côte d'Azur region, with international outreach signaled through a July 2024 workshop that drew 32 participants from across Europe.

Name

Chaire UX for Smart Life : Home & Mobility - IMREDD

Legal name

Chaire UX for Smart Life: Home & Mobility

Website

https://chaire-ux.imredd.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Academic research chair at Université Côte d'Azur operating a 1,400 m² Living Lab that brings together industrial patrons and academic labs to co-develop user-centered smart home, mobility, and infrastructure innovations through approximately 20 active R&D projects.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Research and Living Lab Services

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Learning Experience Design (LXD) & UX for Learning (EDAGAKAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Technology Assistance & Digital Support for Seniors (HSABAAAH)

Keywords

• User experience research
• Smart home innovation
• Living lab services
• Mobility research
• Human factors evaluation

Headquarters

HQ city

Nice

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Patron/Membership Fees: Private companies participate as patron members providing financial support and resources to advance research projects. The Chaire is hosted by Fondation Université Côte d'Azur.
2. Research Grants and Funding: Academic funding through Université Côte d'Azur and associated research laboratories (CNRS, etc.) supporting R&D activities

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

The Chaire UX for Smart Life is an academic research chair that operates a 1,400 m² Living Lab ("Lab Smart Life: Home & Mobility") at IMREDD in Nice, delivering user-experience and human-factors research on smart home, ambient living, and mobility topics. It offers industrial partners co-funded access to three integrated labs (a technological sensor/IoT platform, a UX/observation lab, and an ideation lab) and runs roughly 20 research projects in collaboration with patron members such as Leroy Merlin, Steelcase, Epicnpoc, Malongo, and Smart Esaco.

Product overview

Chaire UX for Smart Life is an academic research chair that operates as a platform-plus-projects structure. Its core offering is the Living Lab 'Lab Smart Life: Home & Mobility', an open digital architecture connecting smart home, vehicles, and infrastructure domains. Around this platform, the chair supports approximately 20 active research and development projects spanning adaptable housing, energy management, indoor air quality, AI-powered health monitoring, autonomous mobility, and smart interfaces. The individual research projects (HabitatAdaptable, Habitat du Futur, GestionIntelligente, Communautés d'Energie, etc.) are the modules that populate and extend the Living Lab platform's capabilities for demonstrating and testing user-centered innovations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Lab Smart Life: Home & Mobility (Living Lab) A 1,400 m² Living Lab operated by the Chaire UX for Smart Life at IMREDD, combining a technological platform (sensors, IoT, connected devices), a UX/observation lab with psychophysiological measurement tools, and an ideation lab. It is offered to industrial patron members and academic collaborators to prototype, instrument, and user-test smart-home, ambient-living, and mobility solutions in a realistic setting.
• Patron-Member Industrial Partnership Programme An annual patron-membership programme through which industrial companies (e.g., Leroy Merlin, Steelcase, Epicnpoc, Malongo, Smart Esaco, ADT, INCO, ESG) co-fund and co-steer collaborative UX research projects with the chair and gain privileged access to the Living Lab.
• Collaborative UX Research Projects on Smart Life, Home & Mobility User-experience and human-factors research projects carried out with patron members and academic partners (approximately 20 projects to date) covering smart home, ambient living, mobility, and inclusive design topics, delivered through the Living Lab.

Quantifiable outcome

• Research supporting 20+ R&D projects addressing air quality, energy communities, health monitoring, and accessibility
• +1 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• EpicnpoccoreTechnology or IntegrationTechnology company specializing in prototyping user experiences in mobility and intelligent cockpits. Provides BOWL® no-code software for rapid UI design and testing, plus modular hardware/software kits for interactive concept development. Based in Sophia Antipolis.
• i3S UMR CNRS, Université Côte d'Azur (SPARKS Team)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch laboratory contributing three teaching-researchers specialized in software engineering and knowledge engineering for context-aware ambient systems. Provides software composition and adaptation platform enabling easier development of intelligent ambient services.
• LudoticcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUX design consultancy with 20+ years experience in user-centered product design. Expert in video games domain, maintains scientific roots in IoT, AR, and AI research. Joined Chaire UX in 2022 to contribute to user experience in innovative projects and technology acceptability.
• CHU NicecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor hospital on the French Riviera with multidisciplinary teams. Distinguished by medical research in surgical robotics, medical imaging, and personalized treatments. Focused on elderly care and geriatrics with services adapted to seniors' needs.
• Leroy MerlincoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDIY, home improvement and renovation retailer. Actively engaged in energy renovation sector with 'Responsable Rénovation Énergétique' role launched in 2022. Promotes 'Habitons demain' program for sustainable housing launched with TF1 in 2018.
• VideticssupportingTechnology or IntegrationFrench company developing AI solutions for video flow analysis. Enables real-time or deferred video processing to extract key information for security, mobility and urban infrastructure professionals.
• SteelcasesupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerGlobal leader in workspace solutions designing furniture and innovative environments. Based on extensive research on workspace needs and human requirements, creating spaces adapted to modern hybrid and flexible work.
• EllipsesupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorWorkspace design company, Steelcase dealer in France. Helps businesses optimize work environments for collaboration, productivity and team comfort. Committed to sustainability with upcycling practices.
• LAMHESSsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerInterdisciplinary laboratory studying human motricity integrating sports science, health, and social sciences approaches. Examines physiological, biomechanical, psychological and sociological determinants influencing human motricity.
• EUR TransitionSsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch unit studying modes of thinking, usage and cooperative learning around digital devices. Conducts research on social acceptability of innovations for people with disabilities, fragility and/or vulnerability.
• IMREDDcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMediterranean Institute of Innovation and Partnerships at Université Côte d'Azur. Hosts the technological platform 'Smart City Innovation Center' spanning 1,400 m2 with approximately 100 equipment items for experimentation.
• Fondation Université Côte d'AzurcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFoundation bridging society needs and market expectations, putting university knowledge, innovation and research at service of the Azurian territory. Innovation and impact driver supporting philanthropic engagement.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• INRIA (Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique): French national research institute in digital science conducting research on ambient intelligence, smart environments, and human-computer interaction. Shares the same French academic-research ecosystem as Chaire UX and overlaps on UX/ambient-systems topics via partner teams such as i3S.
• Fraunhofer IAO: German applied-research institute focused on living and working environments of the future, operating living-lab style facilities and partnering with industry on smart home, mobility, and work innovations. Comparable in mission and industry-academic hybrid funding model, though at much larger scale.
• MIT Media Lab (MIT): Interdisciplinary academic research lab at MIT partnering with industry sponsors to prototype future-living, smart-city, mobility, and accessibility innovations. Comparable in the industry-funded, multi-disciplinary, prototype-driven research model, though at a much larger scale and with deeper commercial output.
• CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives): Major French public research organization with applied-research labs working on digital systems, energy, and smart environments. Comparable as a French public-private research counterpart operating multi-disciplinary programs with industry funding.

Others

• Steelcase WorkSpace Futures Research: Industry partner of the chair and operator of an applied research function on workspace experience. Relevant because it overlaps with the chair's UX/well-being themes and is one of the chair's own mécènes, providing a real-world benchmark for an industry-side counterpart.
• LEROY MERLIN Recherche: Industry partner and sponsor of the chair; operates its own applied research on home improvement, energy renovation, and sustainable housing. Relevant as a partner-side research function in the same smart-living ecosystem.
• Université Côte d'Azur: Host institution of Chaire UX via Fondation Université Côte d'Azur and IMREDD. Included as the institutional counterpart that anchors the chair's infrastructure, governance, and academic credibility.

Direct peers

• Smart Living Lab (Eindhoven University of Technology / TU/e): University-based open research facility at TU/e co-locating academic and industry partners to test smart home, smart work, and intelligent environment innovations. Highly analogous to Chaire UX's Living Lab model integrating home, mobility, and infrastructure domains.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@chaireUX
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/chaire-ux-for-smart-life

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

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