The RefLab – Refuge Sentinelle program aims to develop an experimental system of observation of changes in high mountains based on the refuge as a place of measurement, observation, work and exchange between the natural and social sciences. Interdisciplinary, the system studies geophysical, climatic and biological processes, as well as tourism and sports practices.
Reflab aims to develop over time a collective intelligence approach between researchers and professionals, thanks to the participation of stakeholders in a partnership involving operators and actors of the high mountain, who together consult, all together, the research questions of the system.
Mountain professionals and refuge users are also involved in this program thanks to their participatory dimension during data collection. In the summer of 2019, the first scientific stays in mountain refuges, accompanied by a mountain professional, will be organized in order to meet the researchers and the guardians of the partner refuges.
The Refuge Sentinelle Project (Sentinelle Refuges) has been co-managed since 2016 by the Laboratoire d’excellence Innovation & Territoires de Montagne (LabEx ITEM) and the Parc national des Écrins, in partnership with the CDP Trajectories-UGA and the Agence Française de la Biodiversité in the framework of the Sentinelles des Alpes program.

• Laboratoire d’excellence Innovation & Territoires de Montagne (LabEx ITEM)
• Parc national des Écrins.