The research Chair

Created in June 2021, the “Disability, Employment and Health at work” Research Chair, supported by the UPEC Partnership Foundation and the Créteil Faculty of Health, offers an ambitious multidisciplinary scientific program and training courses that meet accessibility requirements in order to design and implement new solutions for the socio-professional integration of people with disabilities and for the professionalization of stakeholders.

chaire handicap emploi et santé au travail

THE RESEARCH CHAIR

Created in June 2021, the “Disability, Employment and Health at work” Research Chair, supported by the UPEC Partnership Foundation and the Créteil Faculty of Health, offers an ambitious multidisciplinary scientific program and training courses that meet accessibility requirements in order to design and implement new solutions for the socio-professional integration of people with disabilities and for the professionalization of stakeholders.

CONTEXT

Low level of qualification and employment rate, professional disintegration, managerial difficulties… Situations of disability in the workplace are major issues that concern us all.

Although many measures have already been put in place by legislation, it is urgent, in a multidisciplinary approach that takes into account the overall life project of people, to conduct a prospective reflection, to identify effective principles of action and to deploy new methods and tools in favor of the socio-professional integration of people with disabilities.

By bringing together socially responsible companies, actors specialized in disability and employment, associations of people with disabilities, institutional actors and teacher-researchers (in human and social sciences, health, rehabilitation sciences, law, management, economics, digital technology and artificial intelligence, etc.), we are creating a synergy of actions and unprecedented knowledge.

OUR OBJECTIVES

  • Designing and deploying new training programs for people with disabilities and the work group (disability advisors, recruiters, managers, health services, etc.)
  • To provide new insights to companies and public organizations committed to corporate social responsibility, inclusion and accessibility requirements
  • Determine effective methodologies for integration, maintaining employment and securing career paths and create tools for monitoring and anticipating situations of professional disintegration based on resolutely multidisciplinary research and actively involving people with disabilities
  • Give new impulse to research based on the practical knowledge of people with disabilities in order to improve the quality of life at work and health at work for all
  • To promote dialogue between academic knowledge and the experiential knowledge of people with disabilities in order to be a force for strategic proposals and recommendations in the current context of increasing organizational complexity

Organization of the research Chair

In order to co-construct its program of activities, the Research Chair federates a panel of partners and actors involved in the socio-professional integration of people with disabilities.

OUR STRENGTHS

  • The Research Chair is supported by the proven expertise of UPEC in the field of disability within its components (Faculty of Health, INSPE, Institute of Occupational Therapy, IUT of Créteil-Vitry, IUT of Fontainebleau-Sénart, University Institute of Kinesitherapy… ), its laboratories (IMRB-U955 Inserm-UPEC, BIOTN-EA7377, LISSI-EA3956, LIS-EA4395, LIRTES-EA7313, LIPHA-EA7373) and its training and research centers on occupational health and vulnerabilities (University Research School on Trajectories and Vulnerabilities in Health – EUR LIVE, Campus des Métiers et Qualifications – Santé, Autonomie, Bien vieillir, Institut Santé TravaiL Paris-Est) built on transdisciplinary approaches.
  • The Research Chair also draws on the experience of its multi-professional network of disability and employment experts, which is unique in France. Gathered since 2009 by Karine Gros, this network has already contributed to the training of more than 600 professionals, in particular in the framework of the DU “Référent handicap, secteur privé, fonctions publiques, secteur associatif” and is strongly involved in several operational research projects.

Our ambitions

  • Develop innovative methodologies and tools for companies to improve performance and integration
  • To undertake, to innovate, to share, to co-construct, thanks to our research-action projects, an ever more inclusive and socially responsible society
  • By 2025, more than 1,000 professionals (disability advisors, managers, health services, etc.) will be trained to support people with disabilities
  • Each year, 100 to 200 Disability Advisors are trained

Karine Gros

Research Chairholder, Senior Lecturer