City Case Description: Saint-Étienne, Deep Tech and Artistic Creation
Bringing artists and deep-tech innovators together opens new opportunities to shape the future of innovation. In Saint-Étienne, stakeholders explored how to build stronger connections between artistic creation and emerging technologies, from creating shared spaces and opportunities for collaboration to improving access to funding, fostering a common language, and ensuring that creative and scientific talent can thrive together.
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Author
- ekip (2026)
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How does “prototyping” work?
This City Case Description is the outcome of a policy prototyping exercise within a city ecosystem.
Once the ekip research team has explored a policy area and its connection to cultural and creative
industries (CCIs) and innovation, we ask: what would this mean in a local city context?
Together with local stakeholders, we test how a draft policy recommendation might stimulate innovation. Using Portfolio Sensemaking, stakeholders simulate an innovation portfolio, analyse the strengths and gaps of the local support system, and identify what resources are needed to realise the portfolio.
Saint-Étienne Context & Area of Focus
Rooted in a strong industrial heritage, Saint-Étienne has gradually reinvented itself and, since 2010, has been recognised as a UNESCO Creative City. This distinction has stimulated the growth of the cultural and creative industries in the region, supported by a network of performance venues historically linked to the working class and its popular entertainment culture.
At the same time, the city seeks to highlight its strengths in emerging technologies thanks to the presence of higher-education institutions and an ecosystem of innovative companies. Today, Saint- Étienne aims to build bridges between these two forces: artistic creativity and technological innovation. The ambition is to evolve cultural practices, enhance the city’s attractiveness, remain competitive in an international context, and explore new forms of artistic expression and mediation.
