On 17 June 2026, Université de Nîmes hosts the first study day devoted to francophone design research, organised by the PROJEKT laboratory around the launch of the platform theses-design.unimes.fr. Copryce supports this initiative and welcomes it — not as a posture but because it aligns with a founding conviction: design cannot claim its value without building the knowledge that demonstrates it.

When research meets the field

The day brings together academics, institutions, doctoral students and practitioners from France, Canada, Tunisia, Switzerland and West Africa. This broader francophone geography says something important: design thinking in French is neither provincial nor marginal. It constitutes a living intellectual space capable of producing original knowledge about design practice, economics and ethics — and from several continents at once. This is precisely the space Copryce inhabits. Born in France, conceived for Europe, the Copryce platform addresses designers who share the same ambition regardless of their working language: to be recognised at the level of their expertise. Francophone design is not an identity-driven retreat — it is a network of know-how and a promise of professional solidarity that this study day helps make visible.

Turning research into tools

Two Copryce founders participate in the day: François Caspar, former president of Alliance France Design, and Brigitte Borja de Mozota, professor emerita in management sciences and author of Design Management. Their presence reflects a deeper continuity: research on the value of design only makes sense if it leads to concrete uses accessible to practitioners. That is the role Copryce has taken on: bridging knowledge and practice. Copryce Lab follows and documents the academic work that sheds light on the value of design — its economic, social, environmental and legal dimensions. This work feeds directly into the development of Copryce B2B, the digital tool designers use to build their fee proposals, apply their rights and negotiate with confidence. Research asks the questions; Copryce turns them into operational levers.

Supporting a sector that is taking shape

The creation of a francophone platform for design theses is a strong signal: the discipline is equipping itself with a collective memory and a durable knowledge infrastructure. The work produced in Québec on co-design practices, Tunisian research on African design schools, Swiss reflection on research through design, alongside the Belgian and Luxembourgish schools that make francophone design a recognised actor at the heart of Europe — all of this forms a living body of work that practitioners need to establish their legitimacy with clients and commissioners, in Montréal as in Tunis, in Brussels as in Luxembourg, in Geneva as in Nantes. Copryce is part of this dynamic with a straightforward conviction: making the value of design visible first requires that this value be thought through, named and shared. Francophone research contributes to that. Copryce turns it into tools.