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. NMS (Narodni Muzej Slovenije) adds the Velenje regional anchor and a Central-European heritage venue; Rīgas Stradiņš University the Baltic academic base (contribution brief in confirmation).

Two paired field protocols.

(a) Narrative-cascade workshops (NECx). Workplace fieldwork in two rounds — FR · SE · SI · 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. NMS contributes Velenje community access and heritage hosting; whether its collections feed the archival corpus is a WP-design scoping question.

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 · Velenje. • 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.