Learn flow analysis

Two families of training that do not overlap. The open-enrolment group course teaches the method: what a material flow analysis is, how to run one on a territory or a value chain, what it can tell you. The in-house advanced days come next: for those who have taken the group course and want to go further with MFASankey, at your place and on your own data.

Which one?

Open enrolment: learn the method

The group course Material and energy flow analysis: open to all, three days in Grenoble or six half-days online, with Julien Alapetite (TerriFlux), Jean-Yves Courtonne (Inria) and Aristide Athanassiadis (Metabolism of Cities). Theory, hands-on cases, a first pass in the free tool.

€1,500 excl. VAT per person · no prerequisites · dates set from requests

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In-house: the advanced days, to go further with the tool

The follow-up to the group course, in-house and on your data, taught by TerriFlux: one Dataviz day (producing diagrams in series with MFASankey) and one Réconciliation day (the reconciliation engine taken all the way on your files). For those who have taken the group course or already practise MFA.

in-house, at your organisation · €1,200 excl. VAT per day, up to 6 people · on request · prerequisite: the group course

See the advanced days

Open enrolment: material and energy flow analysis

Our reference course, taught by Julien Alapetite (TerriFlux), Jean-Yves Courtonne (Inria) and Aristide Athanassiadis (Metabolism of Cities). Three sessions since 2025 and some twenty participants: consultancies, local authorities, engineering schools, research institutes, independents. Taught in French.

Day 1: fundamentals

Planetary boundaries and biophysical accounting; social metabolism; the MFA family (EW-MFA, SFA, stocks, dynamic MFA); how it compares with LCA, carbon accounting and input-output; use in public policy. A first hands-on case and a reading of studies the trainers have carried out.

Day 2: territories

The Eurostat method for national territories (DMC, RMC, imports/exports) and its sub-national variant: local data, ratios, downscaling. Building a territorial Sankey, circularity and dependency indicators, reading the result for a local climate or regional plan.

Day 3: value chains

Structuring a flow system, qualifying sources, linking flows through ratios and bounds. Data reconciliation by hand, then in the tool: mass balance, assumptions, bounds. Common mistakes and good practice.

Formats. Three days on site (9 am – 5 pm), or six half-days online (2 pm – 5 pm). Ten participants at most. The exercises use OpenSankey, which is free.

Price. €1,500 excl. VAT per person for the three days; reduced rate for students. This course is offered outside the French continuing-education framework and cannot be funded through an OPCO or the CPF.

Venue. On-site sessions are held in Grenoble. If a large enough group (half a dozen people) wants to host the course in another city, we travel: the February 2026 session took place at Arts et Métiers in Chambéry that way.

Next session. Dates are set from the requests received below, then announced by e-mail to those who expressed interest.

Express your interest

Two minutes. No firm commitment: we come back to you with dates as soon as a group takes shape.

In-house: two advanced MFASankey days, after the group course

These days do not revisit the method: they assume it, from the group course or from practice. Each takes place at your site or online, for a group of up to six, and goes to the end of one MFASankey capability that the group course only opened. Exercises in the morning, your own files in the afternoon; the in-app tutorials stay at hand afterwards. Taught in French or English.

Advanced Dataviz: producing Sankeys in series

The group course teaches you to draw a Sankey; this day teaches you to produce fifty from one master, for an annual report, an observatory, a series of years or territories, without redrawing them every time.

First steps: nodes, flows, values, selection, alignment, image export
The Excel round trip: blank template, Nodes / Flows / Tags sheets
Tags and hierarchies: years, territories, scenarios; aggregate and disaggregate
Views: one master diagram, derived views, synchronisation
Layout and style: reusable styles, legend, paper mode, label templates
Export and publication: PNG, SVG, PDF, animation, interactive diagram

1 day · up to 6 people · €1,200 excl. VAT · prerequisite: the group course or practice of the tool

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Advanced Réconciliation: the engine on your data

The group course runs a first reconciliation on a textbook case; this day picks up where it stops and takes the engine all the way, on a real mass balance: yours.

Structure, data, coefficients: the smallest model that balances
Uncertainties, min/max bounds, linear constraints, flow ratios
Running a reconciliation and reading the result: measured, redundant, determinable, free
The classic errors and what they say about the data
Uncertainty analysis, downscaling, time series
Day 2 (optional): the same path on your data, through to a publishable diagram

1 or 2 days · up to 6 people · €1,200 excl. VAT per day · prerequisites: the group course (or MFA practice) and the advanced Dataviz day

Ask for a date

In short: the group course first, for the method; the advanced days next, for the tool. An advanced day without the method would make no sense, and the group course does not try to exhaust the tool. The two complement each other; neither replaces the other.

Afterwards

FluxService

Remote coaching in 30-minute slots, to unblock a file, review a model or prepare a presentation. €75 excl. VAT per half-hour. Thirty minutes are included with every MFASankey Réconciliation licence.

Book a slot →

Teaching and research

Do you teach flow analysis? The course exercises and the in-app tutorials can be used in class, and an academic access exists.

See the academic terms →