Our strategy for future generations
"Engaging for the benefit of future generations. The mission we fulfil every day."
As a business school, EDHEC considers that it has an essential responsibility towards its graduates. This mission is even more meaningful and necessary at a time when the world is increasingly affected by climatic, social and geopolitical transformations. It requires the school to make a daily commitment, together with its entire community, to making business the essential lever for the transition to a more diverse and inclusive society focused on the common good.
Generations 2050, EDHEC's 2024-2028 strategic plan
In June 2024, EDHEC presented its 2024-28 strategic plan a year ahead of schedule. Entitled ‘Generations 2050’, this plan takes a deliberately optimistic long-term view. It takes into account the major upheavals - health, economic, environmental and geopolitical - that have occurred in the world since 2020 and projects the school's missions to 2050. 2050, because the next few decades are going to be decisive throughout the world. It is also a symbolic time horizon for the school, since the human beings who will be born during the strategic plan will be the young graduates of EDHEC in 2050.
Acting to transform business
Faced with all these challenges, EDHEC Business School is choosing the legacy it intends to pass on to future generations and is committed to participating in the gradual reinvention of business and companies in favour of the common good. The school is committed to accelerating the emergence of climate finance and to putting all its academic and teaching resources into this process.
EDHEC's impact research, its teaching excellence and the commitment of its graduates are all geared towards accelerating these changes.
Emmanuel Métais, Dean of EDHEC, explains the broad outlines of the 2024-28 strategic plan.
The 3 priorities of Generations 2050
Priority 1: Advance Net Positive Business
The challenge: to go beyond the notions of CSR and CSR to support companies in the creation of ‘net positive’ business, based on research and innovative educational experiments and partnerships.
Projects:
- The acceleration of the ‘Responsible entrepreneurship by design’ approach created within the Centre for Responsible entrepreneurship, and participation in the creation of a European model for the creation of more responsible start-ups, thanks to tools, methods, research work and the creation of new partnerships. The Responsible entrepreneurship by design (RED) method, created in 2023, is intended to be used systematically in all incubation and pre-incubation programmes, as well as being made available as an open source for all entrepreneurs.
- The creation of a Centre for Net Positive Business, based on the expertise and work of the Foresight, Innovation and Transformation (FIT) Chair and the Unesco Chair at EDHEC, to contribute to the radical transformation of business models and provide a benchmark for measuring this positive impact.
- The EDHEC Vox Dialogues, regular forums for discussion and debate on the renewal of business models, to engage the business world and society in the Net Positive approach.
Priority 2: Empower to transform
The challenge: to develop the skills of students and graduates to initiate deep transformations in the companies. The EDHEC Impact Skills Model, a set of skills developed by the New Gen Talent Centre, is used throughout the student, academic, associative and professional experience at EDHEC.
Projects:
- Transformative journey: the competencies of the Impact Skills Model will be integrated into the entire educational pathway of EDHEC students: fundamental courses, inclusion in the ECTS of the core curriculum (minimum 20%), practical workshops and event days for all programmes.
- Citizen associations: community life is at the heart of the EDHEC experience. Student associations will be supported in their transformation as citizens according to a standard built on a set of rigorous criteria (ethics and governance, social impact, environmental impact). The aim is to make EDHEC the benchmark for civic engagement among the younger generation, with 100% of associations committed to the approach by 2028.
Priority 3: Accelerate climate finance
The challenge: to build on the pioneering initiatives and research already carried out by the entire EDHEC ecosystem to promote investment models that are committed to climate issues and to train all students in new practices.
Projects:
- The creation of a ‘Climate Finance School’, led by the EDHEC Risk Climate Impact Institute (ERCII), an expert research centre, to pool expertise and disseminate knowledge and best practices in climate finance to all EDHEC students (awareness-raising in the core curriculum, acquisition of basic skills in finance programmes, and in-depth training in specialisations in sustainable finance) and more broadly to all the school's stakeholders.
- The development of a new research-based fintech, Scientific Portfolio. This start-up, that has emerged from EDHEC Business School's applied research ecosystem, illustrates EDHEC's approach to impact research. Its mission is to help investors independently analyse and construct equity portfolios, based on scientific work focusing on climate finance and ESG.
These three priorities will be pursued by naturally drawing on academic excellence, but also on the enhanced experience offered to students.
EDHEC continues to make academic excellence an imperative. This intellectual challenge will be reflected in the recruitment of 100 professors and researchers by 2028, bringing the total number of staff to 270 by the end of the plan. It also involves the desire to combine excellence with social diversity, thereby enriching the experience of all our students.
Projects such as Ascension EDHEC, launched in April 2024 in partnership with Empower College, should contribute to this, as should the resources allocated to the development of scholarships, estimated at 75 million euros by 2028. Lastly, it means pursuing partnerships of excellence with leading schools and universities throughout the world.
Firmly committed to projects linked to the rise of artificial intelligence and its use in education and business, the school is launching the EDHEC IA cross-disciplinary initiative to structure and accelerate all its projects, programmes and research work linked to artificial intelligence and the promises of data. 20 million is being invested in the implementation of new teaching approaches piloted by the PILab and in the development of EDHEC Online and its personalised student pathways.
Particular attention will be paid to the campuses, so that they remain exceptional places for all students, conducive to optimal learning conditions but also to great experiences, encounters and commitment, in a collaborative and inclusive environment. Investments totalling €112 million will be made in this direction on the EDHEC Share&Care campuses in Lille and Nice, reintegrating its heritage, both built and landscaped, into the heart of exceptional cities.
All these projects are made possible by the ongoing work of the EDHEC Foundation, which is developing philanthropy in the service of a development that is both ambitious and independent, reflecting the status and positioning of the school.
The strategic plan will be supported over the next 4 years by an investment of around €270 million, including €112 million of investment in the campuses. This investment is made possible by the school's unique financial model, supported by its rigorous day-to-day management, its impact-driven research, and by philanthropy, thanks to the EDHEC Foundation.
Key figures
including 100 professors and researchers