Four interlocking layers, one integrated framework

The apparatus that identifies the competences workers actually use — not those policy presumes. Plural lineages, one calibrated core: the Narrative Science programme (EC-funded via ERC AdG 694732 · LSE 2016–2021 · capstone Cambridge UP 2022 — Hajek, Berry, Morgan, Paskins, Crasnow, Meunier) for the HPS-calibrated narratology toolkit; the STS · philosophy-of-language · information-and-communication-sciences traditions, where narrative-as-data is long established; the PI's own programme — communicational being of machines, inchoative design, and the New Green Narratives (NGN) programme he built as Research Director at Green Forum, proving ground of the Sharing-Circle protocol (Kenya 2025); and CNAM's sociology of work and competence. The shared core: three epistemic functions (sense-making · representation · reasoning), three quality criteria (consistency · coherence · adequacy). Policy gets a defensible competence statement, not a survey aggregate.

One consortium, many disciplines. Economics + econometrics (CNAM economics chair · University of Warsaw), green economics (Green Economics Institute), history of technosciences (HTI2S), philosophy of communication + STS (PI), pedagogy + political foundations (ENOP), trade-union research (ETUI).

Why now. Worker-machine interaction is moving to natural-language agents. Competence becomes prompt-craft, output-audit, dialogue-with-agent — narrative acts. AI's own tensions — energy footprint, corpus politics, accessibility — are objects of study inside SED-PAN and OSDEM, not background.

Founded by the Convention nationale in 1794 on Abbé Grégoire's proposal, CNAM is the oldest institution in the world still teaching working adults — 230+ years of continuous lifelong learning. GreenPulse anchors in CNAM's research tradition on work, competence and the firm; in the laboratoire HTI2S — Humanités · Techniques · Innovations · Sciences et Société (formerly HT2S); and in the Musée des Arts et Métiers, two centuries of collections on industrial transition. Rīgas Stradiņš University adds the Baltic academic base (contribution brief in confirmation).

Two paired field protocols.

(a) Narrative-cascade workshops (NECx). Workplace fieldwork in two rounds — FR · SE · LV · BE (Round 1), then UA · RS · ME · KE + COPs (Round 2) — documenting competence-in-use at micro · meso · macro narrative levels, calibrated against Pillar 01. Piloted in Ukunda, Kenya (May 2025) under the PI's New Green Narratives programme — see /brief.

(b) Historical-archival fieldwork (HACx). Long-time-scale reconstruction anchored in the Musée des Arts et Métiers' two-century collections.

HACx is not a TRANSFO-02 duplicate. Last year's TRANSFO-02 cohort (PACT · HIT · MOSAIC · ST4TE) reconstructs industrial transitions as their primary object — archives in the service of historical understanding. HACx uses archives in the service of competence design under TRANSFO-07: not what happened, but what archived competence-formation patterns tell us about competence-pathway design today. Four operative differences:

• Research question — TRANSFO-02 asks how transitions unfolded; HACx asks how competence acquisition was structured inside those transitions, and what that tells current VET curriculum design. • Sectoral scope — TRANSFO-02 reconstructs transitions broadly; HACx is energy-sector-specific, anchored on Norrbotten · Grand Est. • Method pairing — TRANSFO-02 uses archives as primary evidence; HACx pairs archives with living-workplace NECx so each archival pattern is read against contemporary competence-in-use. The historical depth informs the present-day interpretation, not the other way round. • Output orientation — TRANSFO-02 outputs are historical understanding; HACx outputs are competence-pathway briefs, GreenComp cross-walks, VET curriculum updates — operational, forward-facing.

Cross-project dialogue. HACx and NECx interface with the TRANSFO-02 cohort through shared protocols, comparable competence-statement formats, and joint Multi-Stakeholders Meetings — a cumulative European evidence base on industrial-transition competence, not a parallel silo.