Information Systems for Society
The Information Systems for Society (ISS) research group studies information systems to foster and contribute to individuals in their everyday lives.
Updated on 09/10/2026
Information Systems for Society
The ISS team – Information Systems for Society – structures its research around three main areas:
- The digital transformation of organisations;
- The adoption and acceptance ofe merging technologies by individuals;
- Human–computer interaction.
Its goal is to support all stakeholders in the digital ecosystem in the responsible and effective design, deployment, and use of digital technologies. Artificial intelligence plays an important role across all three research areas, although it is not their sole focus.
Mission
The Information Systems for Society (ISS) team aims to develop knowledge and practices relating to the strategic and ethical use of information systems. It takes technology itself as a starting point for understanding organisations and society, treating it as an object of study rather than merely as contextual background. The team examines how digital tools, particularly artificial intelligence, are designed, adopted, and used at both collective and individual levels. Through close engagement with real-world contexts, it generates knowledge to support the responsible and effective development and use of digital technologies.
Objectives
The ISS team aims to:
- Conduct innovative research on emerging technologies, including AI, and their role in society.
- Support organisations in their digital transformation.
- Promote the responsible and effective design and use of these technologies.
- Develop educational and practical resources for training and learning.
The ISS Team's Research Areas
ISS research can be understood at three levels: the organisation as a whole, the individual interacting with a tool, and the specific moments when humans and machines act together. These three levels are interconnected. The introduction of an AI assistant into a company affects all of them: management must decide what role it will play in the organisation’s activities; each employee must consider whether they can trust it and how it may affect their job; and, task by task, the division of work between humans and machines is renegotiated. This is why the team investigates all three levels simultaneously. Each of the themes presented below corresponds to one of these levels.
Successful digital transformation means knowing how to create and orchestrate resources (such as data, platforms, and AI) to generate value. The team studies how organisations achieve this and how they adapt their strategies, business functions, and business models in the process.
Technology is never neutral: it shapes our practices and our understanding of the world. The team studies how ethical considerations emerge in practice, influence technology adoption strategies, and shape the responsibilities of different stakeholders in relation to AI.
What should we delegate to AI, and what should we keep for ourselves? The team explores how humans and machines collaborate: which tasks to delegate and which to retain, how to work with conversational assistants in everyday settings, and how AI is changing the way we learn.
Course Content and Links to GEM Programs
Teaching and Programme Management Responsibilities:
Current Research Projects and Partnerships
HarmonIA Lab is where the ISS team co-develops and disseminates its research in collaboration with private and public organisations, such as Caterpillar and the Federation of Public Housing Offices. Some partners provide researchers with access to real-world settings for their studies, while others seek to raise their employees’ awareness of digital technology and AI-related issues, notably through serious games and case studies developed from the team’s research.
Nanoelec contributes to the competitiveness of the microelectronics industry, particularly in France and Europe. It is based in Grenoble, a world-leading hub for research, innovation, and manufacturing in this sector.
Nanoelec’s R&D programmes are jointly developed by academic and industrial partners. They focus on the design and development of new processes, systems, and components in the following areas:
Imaging: next-generation displays and image sensors;
Digital trust and energy efficiency: connected devices and embedded AI;
High-performance computing: through photonics and quantum computing;
Component and system characterisation and radiation hardening: using large-scale research facilities.
The Nanoelec Technological Research Institute (IRT) also runs training engineering and technology transfer programmes for SMEs and start-ups. Coordinated closely with the Minalogic competitiveness cluster, its technology transfer programme combines open innovation approaches with more conventional technology development methods.
Digi-Me is part of a European project aimed at preparing future business leaders for a world in which artificial intelligence is reshaping every aspect of business. Integrated into selected master’s programmes, Digi-Me equips graduates with the skills to understand, manage, and lead in environments shaped by AI and emerging technologies.
UPRAISE – Compétences numériques & Mondes virtuels
A European project dedicated to developing the skills needed for the virtual worlds economy. Its ambition is to support the transformation of jobs and organisations through education and training programmes that enable current and future professionals to develop expertise in digital technologies and virtual environments.
This project addresses an issue that is likely to become increasingly significant in the coming years, as AI-powered conversational agents are adopted more widely for learning and leisure activities. It focuses on schoolchildren aged 11 to 13 in Liechtenstein, Germany, and France.
At this age, children begin to develop their capacity for abstract reasoning (Jean Piaget’s stages of concrete and formal operational thought). They also strengthen their sense of self-efficacy—their belief in their ability to accomplish tasks—while developing their identity in relation to others and their social environment (stages 4 and 5 of Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development).
EpilepsyPOWER (Epilepsy People inclusion Overcoming Workplaces European marginalization)
is a European initiative co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme (KA220-ADU action in adult education).
Main objectives
– Employment inclusion: Improve access to employment and job retention for people living with epilepsy (PwE).
– Combating stigma: Reduce workplace marginalisation and raise awareness among employers, recruiters, and higher education institutions.
– Corporate social responsibility: Encourage companies to adopt practices and create working environments that support employees with epilepsy.
PeerPower is a European project implementing key initiatives focused on researchers’ mental health and well-being.
PeerPower’s main objectives
The project addresses the social isolation, high levels of stress, and burnout frequently experienced by early-career researchers (ECRs).
– Building communities: Train more than 50 ambassadors to establish at least 50 sustainable peer-support communities.
– Large-scale support: Provide support to more than 1,000 researchers across Europe.
– Digital tools: Develop at least 10 open-access courses enhanced by artificial intelligence through the eDoer learning platform.
– Institutional integration: Encourage at least 10 European universities to adopt this peer-support framework.
Smart Tools for Railway work safEty and performAnce iMprovement _ STREAM
HarmonIA Lab is where the ISS team co-develops and disseminates its research in collaboration with private and public organisations, such as Caterpillar and the Federation of Public Housing Offices.
The project “Digital Technology in Healthcare/Le numérique dans la santé ” examines how digital health technologies reshape healthcare professionals’ work and influence patients’ experiences. Healthcare software, appointment-booking platforms, teleconsultation services, digital medical records, and artificial intelligence tools are profoundly transforming organisational routines, workloads, interprofessional coordination, and trust-based relationships. In France’s highly decentralised healthcare system, these tools now play a structuring role in healthcare professionals’ daily work, interprofessional collaboration, and the coordination and regulation of patient care pathways.
In an environment characterised by healthcare staff shortages, evolving health conditions, regulatory pressures, and demands for modernisation, these innovations raise questions about the place of human interaction in an increasingly digitalised healthcare system. Drawing on management science, organisational routines theory, the sociology of technology use, and research on trust and digital ethics, the project aims to understand how these technologies shape professional practices and how software vendors are becoming central players in the healthcare ecosystem.
Grounded in a commitment to the public interest and sustainability, this research at GEM seeks to objectively assess the effects of digital technologies on healthcare ecosystems and to shed light on how technology providers can act as responsible stakeholders, supporting the quality of healthcare, the well-being of professionals, and societal expectations regarding ethics, trust, and sustainability.
The project has two main objectives:
- To shed light on the mechanisms through which digital technologies influence the quality of care.
- To propose responsible frameworks for action that strengthen sustainability, trust, and quality of working life within the healthcare system.
Coordination
The ISS team is led by Stéphanie Gauttier, Associate Professor at GEM. Her research focuses on the acceptability and diffusion of human-augmentation technologies. She is also the scientific lead of the HarmonIA Lab which aims to foster responsible human–AI interactions.